We are going to head to Starved Rock State Park on March 9th, and hope to get some exciting nature photographs! We are planning an outing to Starved Rock State Park for waterfalls, bird migration, landscapes and macro photography. The proposed agenda is listed below, but please feel free to give your thoughts on any of these locations, we are flexible to the wishes of the participants. Helpful links to explore will be at the bottom. The StarvedRockHikers link is especially helpful. Reply with your thoughts after going over these links. LaSalle, St. Louis, and Ottawa all look good.
If we decide to add Mathiessen instead, it's a short drive south from Starved Rock
AGENDA:
5:30am- Leave Circle K at Cunningham and Kenyon Road, Urbana
6:16am sunrise
7:00am-Park opens
7:05am Stop at the Casey's in Tonica-Snacks, washroom, etc
7:30am: Arrive at Starved Rock Lodge parking lot south of the lodge.
Leave when we are too exhausted to continue.
5:56pm: Sunsete.
Trail hikes possible:
Starved Rock, Wildcat Canyon and French Canyon Trail. 5.0 mile loop. 534 ft elevation gain. Moderately challenging. Canyons possible are French (maybe), Pontiac, Wildwood, Basswood, Lonetree. Owl Canyon is at the end of this loop, deduct 1.7 miles if we don't do that. LaSalle canon is accessible if we do the Owl Canyon part.
St. Louis Canyon Trail. 2.1 miles. 232 ft elevation gain. Easy. St Louis Canyon is on this trail.
If we relocate to Parking lot 23 (off of Il-71) we can do the following:
LaSalle Canyon Trail. 2.3 miles. 209 ft elevation gain. Moderately challenging.
If we relocate to Parking lot 25 (off IL-71) we can do the Hennepin Canyon. Roughly 1.5 miles.
If we relocate to Parking lot 27 (off IL-71, we can do Council overhang, Ottawa Canyon, Kaskaskia canyon. I see varying mileage, but could as much as 4 miles.
The last parking lot to the east, Parking lot # 28 will get us the Illinois Canyon trail. About 1 mile total. Fairly flat.
LINKS:
DNR information for the park
Alltrails to research the trails.
“StarvedRockHikers” is another great resource to look at potential hikes.