When planning girls weekend, I really wanted to go to Starved Rock State Park in Central Illinois. I know it is something the hubby won't enjoy and it was on the original bucket list. Since Stacy wanted to go to Rockford, it was an easy trek to Oglesby to cross of Starved Rock.
Starved Rock State Park is located near Oglesby, IL which isn't too far off I39. It is open year round and can get busy during certain times of the year. The trails are open 7 am to Sunset and the visitor center is open 9-4 daily with the exception of federal holidays. There is no admission fee to visit Starved Rock or any of the Illinois State Parks.
Advice I got from Facebook was to get there early as the parking lot fills up quick. There is on main lot by visitor center and a couple other smaller out lots. We got there by 10 and had no issue finding a parking spot.
Our first stop was the visitor center. I ended up getting another passport which can be used at State or National Parks. We also figured out what trails we wanted to hike. With a 6 year old in tow, we had to keep it fairly simple. They do not have paper maps. You can take a picture of the map or scan a QR code to get the map. I just used the one from the website.
Our first hike took us to Starved Rock Overlook. There were hills and stairs. Foolishly I thought the hubby could have handled this trail the other year when we were coming back from St. Louis. He does not do well with stairs. The views were pretty spectacular. We did not see the eagles nest but did learn about some buffalo at another near by state park. This trail is about .6 round trip. Despite the stairs it is a fairly easy trail.
From there, I wanted I to see water falls and we decided to head to French Canyon. I actually really liked this trail. It was a more hiking than walking. There were a few stairs and you had to let people pass coming from the other direction before you could go. Unfortunately due to the dry summer we had, there was no water falls. You could easily tell where it would be though. It was fun scrambling along the rocky trail.
We tried to head to another waterfall but after climbing 100+ steps and walking past the (very nice) lodge, we found the waterfall area but like French Canyon it was also dry.
From there we decided we had enough hiking and we need more on the agenda. So we headed back to the car. Going down was a lot easier than up all those stairs. The trail we took back to the car was very diverse. At one point we crossed a grassy field and hoped we were on the path. We were and ended in the parking lot.
We both enjoyed Starved Rock but there isn't much else to do in the area. We could see a day trip but unless we wanted to hike a lot of the same trails, it is not worth it for the weekend. I am glad we were close enough to go chasing waterfalls and did not plan an entire weekend in the La Salle area. It is still worth checking out if you are in the area even if the waterfalls are dry.
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