Second only to Big Bend National Park at the southwestern tip of Texas, we love Starved Rock State Park in Illinois for hiking. We arrived early last evening and checked into the lodge for 2 nights. After dinner we hiked out in the light of the Harvest Moon, down the 150 steps of the wooded embankment, across the bottom of the canyon floor and back up again along a steep path and up a hundred steps to the highest point in the park, Starved Rock (where, according to folklore, one band of Indians trying to escape from a larger band, held out on the rock and starved to death). What a magical place it was in the moonlight, no one anywhere around. We made the same hike again tonight, leaving a little earlier to catch the final minutes of sunset. We took our flashlight along but were able to go much of the way by moonlight only.
Today we hiked in the canyons, our favorite one being St. Louis, where John is pictured with his arms up. Another couple of pics has me climbing up in LaSalle Canyon, and John in Tonty. Still another with me hugging my favorite horse-looking natural root sculpture. The colorful glass kinetic sculpture is new this year, sure wish I had one for Carlton Gardens.
