Starved Rock State Park is undoubtedly the most popular state park in Illinois - and there are no national parks in this state. The NPS has a historic site, a historical monument, and 3 historic trails, but no national parks exist in the state. Starved Rock is located on the southern shore of the Illinois River, and features some great hiking trails in and around the canyons.
The canyons are all in small tributary streams draining into the Illinois. When they are flowing well, they make some pretty nice waterfalls. The student geology club at ONU had been planning a fall hiking trip, and we had been hoping to see some nice waterfalls and fall color. At various times of the year, this area also serves as a stopover point for different migratory birds.
We hiked for several hours that day, eventually reaching about 4 miles. We spent quite a bit of time on top of Starved Rock itself, in each of the canyons we visited, and at our lunch overlook enjoying the sights. Up on Starved Rock, we could see a lone bald eagle, way across the Illinois River perched high in a tree. Even with my 250 mm lens, it was still fairly small so I wasn't able to capture any great photographs, but it was still neat seeing one in the wild. They are much more common here during the winter months.
French Canyon is the first large canyon from the visitor's center. The bedrock in the park is all St. Peter Sandstone, and its layers provide some great lines for photography. Getting into French canyon requires a short descent from the trail on a set of stairs, then up a fairly narrow, small, sloping stream and into the canyon where it opens up.
After French Canyon, we continued hiking on along the trail at the top of the bluff and saw Wildcat Canyon from the top. Wildcat Canyon is much larger than French Canyon, both in height and in width. It is an impressive site from both perspectives. We continued on and had lunch at a sandstone overlook. Unfortunately the Illinois River is so developed that it isn't the most picturesque. We intended to get to LaSalle canyon, then descend and take the riverfront trail back, stopping at Wildcat again on the way to see the interior. Unfortunately our trip was cut short, so we skipped LaSalle Canyon and headed down to the riverfront trail so we could see Wildcat from the lower level.
From the riverfront trail, the Bluff trail breaks off to take you into Wildcat. In both Wildcat and French, the waterfalls were unfortunately not running very high and were somewhat disappointing. But the canyons themselves, especially Wildcat, were really impressive sights. On the way out of the park, there was a falconer with 3 terrific birds, including this fantastic female. I didn't catch the species name, but she's a desert bird, not native to IL. He also had a male of this species and a red-tailed hawk, which is a common bird in this area. Here we commonly see red-tailed hawks or field hawks, but nothing quite like this black beauty with the brown on her wings.
I took some video clips throughout our hike as well and compiled them into a short video log, so check it out to see more of the scenery of this great spot of Illinois.