2018 Great Lakes Trip – Indiana & Illinois
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Monday June 11th – Sunday, June 17th
Brown County State Park, Nashville,
Indiana
Next we traveled north into
Indiana, taking mostly back roads through agricultural areas with huge farms.
We were heading to this state park that came highly recommended. This huge park
has over 27 miles of mountain biking trails from easy to extremely difficult,
with steep mountain slopes. This park is called the “Little Smokies” as it
reminds one of the Smoky Mountains in N. Carolina. There are also more than 18
miles of hiking trails. We planned a week there at the mountain top campground.
The weather was nice when we arrived, but it had been raining for the three previous
days. The trails were still wet and not ridable, so we decided to do some
hiking. We took the dogs on a 3 mile hike around Lake Ogle, which was easy to
strenuous.
The next day it rained some more,
so we decided to go into the nearby town of Nashville. We walked around the
cool little town and had lunch at a great Mexican restaurant. By the third day,
we tried to ride some of the easier trails, but still found them to be wet and
muddy in places. The following day the trails had begun to dry up, so we both
rode a few miles. On one trail I hit a wet rock and crashed my bike. I fell on
my right side and hurt my ribs, among other scrapes and bruises. I was okay but
very sore with a lot of pain. So the remaining days I was not able to ride any
more. We did drive around most of the park, checking out long view overlooks.
The mountains are very beautiful and did remind us of the Smokies.
Maybe one day we will return here
when the weather is better and we can really enjoy the trails. We keep hoping
that the weather will be better at our next stop.
Monday June 18th – Friday, June 22nd
Starved Rock State Park, Utica,
Illinois
Next we headed into Illinois to
this state park on the Illinois River, about 100 miles southwest of Chicago. The
park was nestled among vast farmlands in central Illinois. Well, again it was
rainy the day we arrived and continued to rain most every day. Between rain
storms we did get out to explore the park. There is a lot of history here of
the Native Americans and the pioneers that settled the area.
We discovered that nearby Matthiessen
State Park has some amazing hiking trails. Now we know what a “dell” is, you
know the old song “the farmers in the dell”? The park has a one mile long
canyon, called a dell. It’s forested with lush greenery and a stream running
through it. The geology is quite interesting, as the water has worn down the
sandstone in unusual rock formations that look like ripples. The creek was
mostly shallow and there were rock stepping stones placed across the stream to
allow crossing without wading in the water. There were stairs leading down into
and out of the canyon. This was one of the most unusual hikes we have ever
done. We took the dogs and let them run, they had so much fun playing in the
creek. We enjoyed this hike so much that we went back another day.
We did take some scenic drives
along the Illinois River up to some nearby towns. I’m not so sure how scenic
they were, but we were getting outside and out of the RV. We were all ready for
a break from the rainy weather. As we go forward to Chicago, we are really
hoping for drier, cooler weather!
