Starved Rock State Park 9/9/2018

Places visited: Starved Rock State Park
Date: 9/9/2018
Time: 11:30 AM to 7:30 PM
Persons: Harshal, Juilee, Radhika

It was September and the fall was about to start. My friend Mahesh Masurkar just visitedQuad Cities. He had updated his whatsapp status with some really stunning photo with the waterfall background. When I asked about it, he told me that it was taken very near to my home which is Starved Rock State Park. Due to those picturesque location I decided to visit it before the winter starts. It is on I80 towards Chicago. It is 1 hour 30 minutes away from Quad Cities. You can combine it with Aurora/BAPS Hindu Temple. There are no entry fees and no parking fees in the park.




We started from home on Sunday morning. Juilee drove till the park. There is good parking space, but

it was almost full due to Sunday. There are picnic areas with benches and huts near the parking space, where you can eat your food. The path from parking to the visitor center is paved, so stroller and wheel chairs can be used. But after the visitor center, none of the trails was stroller/wheel-chair accessible. We did not know this, so we had to carry the stroller in hand as we wandered and hiked in the park. Thankfully, it was fold-able stroller.

From the visitors center, we took a trail from left hand side. At the beginning, a person was showing a falcon bird. We saw it and then went ahead. For quarter of a mile, it was a plain walk. After that there were stairs. We walked for

almost 10 minutes on stairs, in the hope that we could find some seating/picnic area to have lunch, as it was 12:30 PM. But there were no seating areas. Suddenly we found some benches in a open spot. So we sat there and ate Chavli chi Usal with Poli. We should have done lunch in the parking space itself. People were watching us as they were passing by, but we did not care, as we were very hungry. Some people also bought there dogs with them.

After good lunch, we started the hike again. After some time, the stairs were gone and it was just a hill climb. But it was easy for kids as well. After the hill ended, we came to a view-point above French Canyon. It was the same water fall canyon which Mahesh showed me, but due to the end of summer, it was all dried, still it was beautiful.

We sat there for a while and then we started on a descend to go to the bottom of the (dried) waterfall. It was 10 minutes of walk on the slope. We were not at all tired. The weather was excellent - not much heat, not much cold. We came at the base of the waterfall. There was just a small pond there. I think in the months of April and May, the waterfall is active and you can get nice photos at that time.



The fall looks like this in April (This is not photographed by me)

New visitors to Starved Rock State Park are continually surprised and awed at the spectacular natural

features found here. Surrounded by the flat, seemingly endless fields of Illinois farm country, a totally different topography is found within the park. Starved Rock was formed thousands of years ago by the melting of glaciers releasing torrents of water. As the water rushed downstream it eroded and stripped away everything in its path except the resistant St. Peter sandstone. It is that sandstone that formed the steep rock walls and the cool dark valleys of the eighteen canyons. When conditions are right cascades of falling water spill down into these gorges, creating the waterfalls so many come here to enjoy.

We sat there on the bark of a fallen tree for sometime.

Then we started to go back on the hill and took another trail which lead us to a nice view of the

Illinois river. On the way we saw some big spiders, pine cones, acorn nuts as well. We came down to the river just to feel the water. After another 10 minutes of brisk walk, we came back to visitors center. Here we bought some fudge which was really very soft and smooth.

We returned home till 7:00 PM.

Details:
https://www.starvedrockstatepark.org/