We arrived at Hickory Hollow Campground, Utica, Illinois, early afternoon. Hickory Hollow is located just north of I80 about 2 miles from Starved Rock State Park. This is not our real destination; but, it is the closest good campground we could find near our real destination. More on that later. It was a nice campground with 50 amp service so we were very comfortable during our stay.
Here's our site at Hickory Hollow
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Since we are this close to Starved Rock State Park, we decided to visit the park and hike a couple of trails before it got too hot. We chose a couple of short trails because our time here was limited. We had to get ready in the early afternoon for the real reason we are in the area .
The first trail we hiked was to the top of starved rock. It's only .3mile from the visitor center and has lots of steps to climb. Starved Rock is 125 foot sandstone butte overlooking the Illinois River. It derives its name from a Native American legend dating back to the 1760's when the Potawatomi Indians chased the Illiniweck Indians up to the top of this 125 foot butte. Eventually, the Potawatomi kept them trapped atop the butte until the Illiniweck ran out of food and starved to death. Hence, the name Starved Rock.
After some huffing and puffing (from Kallie, not me!) we made it to the top of the Rock. When I was here years ago, there was no observation deck like there is now. It seemed like somebody was falling off the Rock every year.
Here we are at the overlook on top of Starved Rock.
We had time for one more trail. So, we walked the French Canyon which is slightly longer than the first trail. Some of the rock surfaces had a little sand on them making them rather slippery. We had to watch our footing and actually slid in a few places. This makes for an interesting walk with Kitty. There were several other dogs on the trail that held Kallie's interest and made for some interesting close encounters during our walk.
Kitty and Kallie in French Canyon
Now, the real reason we are here is to attend a surprise birthday party for my friend and college room mate, Doug Baker. His girl friend, Pam, organized the surprise at Doug's house and several college friends attended. It was really good to see some old friends and have some quality time to chat. It was equally good to see the look on Doug's face as folks started strolling into the party. You only turn 65 once!
We leave Utica, Illinois, Monday and will head to Effingham, Illinois, to hook up with some friends and family. That's coming up next.
No comments:
Post a Comment