Hungry Rocks? No Starved!

We realised that we didn't really do much last year in terms of going out, having fun, exploring our local environment, getting into the city, etc; and so we resolved to get back to that this year. Our first trip was to Starved Rock State Park, a couple of hours South and West of us in Olgesby, near Utica, along the Illinois river. It was recommended by a good friend of ours who had been there over twenty years ago.

The weather was gorgeous, in the 50s, and we got ourselves all set up with cameras, back pack baby carrier, hiking boots, etc. We had actually wanted to go about a month ago when all the snow was melting as we thought the waterfalls would be more impressive, but the weather didn't play ball that weekend. There was still some water in the falls, although I think later in the year, they all but dry up.

The park has 18 canyons and over 13 miles of trails, although we probably only walked about 5 or 6 miles of them, and it was more of a wander than a hike, as we took over 5 hours just wandering, stopping, photographing, exploring and teaching AJ about the various things we saw.

The canyons were formed by glacial meltwater and stream erosion, creating some outstanding rock formations primarily from sandstone from 425 million years ago. We saw at least three different very distinct colours, although of course there were several strata as you can see from the pictures.

Click here to read more about the history of the place if you are interested.

Unfortunately, despite the propensity of Bald Eagles in the park, in the winter, we were likely too late to see them, certainly in the abundance that apparently can occur. Due to the dam on the river, Bald Eagles migrate down from Wisconsin and other Northern states to be able to fish on the river, where it doesn't freeze. We did see one significantly large bird of prey, but I cannot guarantee if it was an Eagle or not, it was however very cool. We will likely try to go back next year earlier in the year and see if we can see more. In the meantime, here are the pictures we took.

I did learn something very cool. Bald Eagles once an endangered species and on the Federally protected list, are now no longer endangered. This is largely due to the Federal scheme and the removal of DDT from the environment. A great success story (I didn't take this picture BTW :-)

Native American Indians (credit for the picture above) is child friendly site about American and Canadian Indians. 1400+ legends, 400+ agreements and treaties, 10,000+ pictures, free clipart, Pueblo pottery, American Indian jewelry, Native American Flutes and more.