Bob and I arrived at Starved Rock State Park near Utica, IL, late yesterday afternoon after spending a few hours with my mom in Janesville, Wisconsin. Bob and I had visited the park on a day trip from Rockford, IL, with my sister a few years ago. We enjoyed the trip and had poked around the lodge at that time and thought it would be fun to stay there.
This is that time, although we had little hope for hikes or anything outdoorsy during our stay as rain and storms were forecast for most of our time here. However, we had very little rain on our drive down and none so far today.
We saw this last night, as we were checking out more of the lodge.
This morning we had coffee and breakfast in the room and then headed to the Visitors Center before hiking. Rain was still in the forecast, so we had rain gear with us. It was a muggy 80+ F.
This was carved by Peter Toth in 1989
to commemorate all Native Americans.
The park is a series of overlooks of the Illinois River on the top of rocks and canyons surrounded by rocks, so we had a lot of up and down.
We returned to the room near midday and then headed to the nearby town of La Salle to visit their Illinois and Michigan Canal Visitor Center. The Visitor Center is located at Lock 16 of the I &M Canal, the western terminus. Sadly, that is about all we know, as the Visitor Center is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We took the opportunity to walk the few blocks of the small downtown.
We tried again and headed to the Starved Rock Country Welcome Center in nearby Utica, Illinois. It was acute stop, lengthened by a friendly but overly “helpful” clerk at the Visitors Center who opted to give us lots of information and historical bits and pieces of sites that we told her we had no time to visit. Having said that, she was friendlier than most of the staff we have had interactions with at the park.
We’re chilling in our room now until dinner, which we have reservations for in the lodge dining room. Tomorrow we drive to Broad Ripple, Indiana, for an overnight in a hotel before starting our next housesit on Thursday.
Peckish Travels 