Hi everyone! I hope you all had an amazing Memorial Day Weekend and got to relax and spend some time outdoors with the ones you love! It was so so beautiful out- like perfect temperature, sunny, and there was even a little breeze. Greg and I could not wait to just be outside all weekend.
On Sunday we decided we wanted to do something a little different. We went to breakfast and researched some state parks in Illinois. We were pretty open and looking for a new place to fish or even just to take a hike. Greg found this place called Buffalo Rock State Park. Apparently, they have 2 bison there that roam free, and the park pays tribute to Native Americans with little stories along the trails and statues. I was so excited about the bison and the fact that we would be experiencing some Native American history (that’s my favorite type of history- I took like 3 Native American history classes in college). So, as soon as we finished breakfast we made the trip to Ottawa, IL, but when we pulled up the park was closed!!
Luckily, Starved Rock State Park is really close in Ogelsby, IL; so we headed there… but there was another road block lol! The park was so crowded that they had closed it temporarily. Greg did save the day, though. He knew of this parking lot that was off the beaten path and had trails that led into Starved Rock. We decided to park there and sneak in to eat lunch at the Starved Rock Lodge. We hike 4.5 muddy, muddy miles into the park, did some rock climbing, and made it to have cheeseburgers! Greg kept saying it was the longest hike for a cheeseburger ever lol!
We also hiked 4.5 miles back to the car for a grand total hike of 9 miles, and it was exhilarating! We even beat our time on the way back. 🙂
Hope you all have a great week- ooh and we vlogged the whole hike so stay tuned for that, too! I’m going to try and get it up as quickly as possible!
dreamofadventures says
Starved rock is so beautiful! I was there with a group of friends in the fall =o) I can’t believe how crowded it must have been! It’s great that you guys figured a way in and now have a fun story to share =o)
https://dreamofadventures.com/
Cassie Nugent says
Aw Starved Rock is so beautiful in the fall, too! 🙂 Lol and yes it was such a great day!
Cassie McCandless says
Thank you so much!! That is such a great compliment, and I agree 🙂