The Land of Lincoln

The first state I’ll start off with is our home state of Illinois to Matthiessen State Park. This was a more recent trip that we went on during the summer. Matthiessen State Park is right next to the more popular Starved Rock State Park. We had already gone to Starved Rock about 2 years before but didn’t stay overnight. I will talk about both since you can easily visit the two in one trip.

Starved Rock State Park is in Oglesby, Illinois. They have some pretty cool waterfalls and trails that are in a canyon. People actually have weddings at one of the waterfall locations! We hiked for about 7 miles here with the dogs but there are shorter trails and loops. The main trails go through the canyon and past the waterfalls. They are pretty modernized and have actual stairs in a lot of places instead of just pathways to walk up.

Once you get past the canyon part they have trails that go through the forest which also has some scenic overlooks. Most of these trails are pretty flat and not too strenuous. The dogs were exhausted but happy after these hikes and excited to be home in our bed that night!

Matthiessen State Park is about 10 minutes down the road. I actually found this one more exciting even though it is the less popular park of the two. We drove down late at night after Aaron got off work and napped in the car at a rest stop. It’s a little over 2 hours for us but I like to be there bright and early in the morning so I can start the day there.

In the park there are 2 different areas, the “Dells” being more popular. When we got there we were the only ones in the park, probably because it had rained A LOT the night before and the more sensible people were waiting for it to dry out a bit, but not us. We took the lower dells trail first which takes you next to (or in if you have water loving dogs) a small creek through the canyons.

There are a few small waterfalls, cool steps and logs to walk on, and a lot of water to play in. The dogs really enjoyed this park because the water was very shallow and they could splash around. After the lower dells trail we took the upper dells trail, which is a flat loop that overlooks the canyons. It’s good if you want a flat surface or something with less obstacles. You can see some of the canyon below but there's a lot of trees and foliage blocking the direct view.

After hiking we went to Illinois River Winery. We did a wine tasting, $5 for 6 wines. Most of them were delicious and we ended up getting a bottle even though I told my husband we weren’t. There happened to a cupcake shop next door so of course we had to pay them a visit. It was called Two Girls and A Cupcake and it was amazing! One of the ladies working asked us if we were sure we didn’t want a dozen because we were definitely going to be craving another later and she was right!

We went home after that and relaxed, a perfect day trip for us. I wish all of our journeys could be a 2 hour drive away!

Stay tuned for the next state… (Hint: they really like their cheese)