A Piece Of The Rock

A few weeks ago, we made a two-hour drive to Castle Rock State Park in Illinois, only to find out that it was closed! There was, however, a sliver of the park, between Route 2 and the Rock River, that was accessible, so the trip wasn’t a total loss. In fact, this may well have been the most scenic part of the entire park.

The Rock. a tributary of the Mississippi River, is the river that runs through Rockford, as mentioned in the previous post. I was also interested to learn that the Sauk and Fox Indians used to call it the Sinnissippi River, which accounts for the park of that name in Rockford.

A little further down the road, we came upon a promising sign and upon investigation it yielded another nice view of the river at ground level and, after much stair climbing, an excellent view of the surrounding countryside.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – A River Runs Through It.

This week, Amy is asking us to find a place where a river runs through it for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. We always seem to be drawn to water on our travels and, very often, rivers feature quite a bit on these trips.  There’s something fascinating about a river as it makes it’s way through so many different kinds of surroundings, from the quiet countryside to the bustle of a big city. The first two shots of the Bad River and its tributary,Tyler Forks, were captured at Copper Falls State Park in Wisconsin.

 

The next three images are of the Eau Claire River at the Dells of Eau Claire in Wisconsin.

The next two places are a little closer to home. The first is the Des Plaines River as it flows placidly through Joliet, Illinois. The next is the Fox River tumbling over the dam at St. Charles.

Normally, the Chicago River would just be gearing up for a busy season of river traffic but who knows what things will be like for the next few months. I’ll miss these familiar sights. I’ll be staying put for the foreseeable future, but these rivers will keep flowing on.  Stay safe, everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

A Photo A Week Challenge – Water

Nancy Merrill is looking for water for her Photo A Week Challenge and luckily my trip to Elgin on Saturday morning resulted in some pictures of the Fox River. Who would think that this……….

could so quickly turn into this.  The river by the Veterans Memorial Park and flowing over the dam by the Kimball street bridge.

For more on Nancy’s A Photo A Week Challenge go to Water.

Dells

Not to be confused with the Wisconsin Dells which are 100 miles south of Plover, the Dells of the Eau Claire County Park in Marathon County, Wisconsin, are spectacular. Divided in two by the Eau Claire River, the Dells offer an abundance of beautiful scenic views and plenty of opportunities for nature photography.

We spent the day wandering along woodland trails and clambering over rocks some of which have been dated at about 1.8 billion years old.

Our granddaughter likes to help find things for me to photograph and did an excellent job of spotting several interesting fungi, a toad and a caterpillar.  In fact she had me taking pictures of practically every leaf, mushroom, acorn and pinecone that we came across. Thank goodness for digital photography!  I don’t know how many rolls of film I would have used, otherwise.

 

 

There are several spots along the river where, if you are agile enough, you can climb onto the rocks that jut out into the water.  It’s amazing what you can do if you want to get a picture badly enough!

I can highly recommend a visit to this park if you are ever in the Plover area of Wisconsin.  I think you’ll find it well worthwhile.

Starved Rock – From The Other Side

Starved Rock which, according to legend, was where, in about 1769, the Ottawa and Potawatomi chased the Illiniwek and held them under siege until they starved to death, is the busiest of the Illinois State Parks. Ask anyone who has grown up in Illinois and they will almost certainly tell you that they have visited Starved Rock at one time or another, either with family or as a school field trip.

We have been to the park on numerous occasions, mostly when our girls were growing up, and thought nothing of climbing all the steps that were required to reach the summit of the Rock and look out over the Illinois River. These days we are not quite so adventurous and decided to take this trip, sans children, at a slightly more leisurely pace.

This was probably the first time that we had actually seen Starved Rock from the other side of the river. After visiting Utah last year, the bluffs didn’t appear quite so awe-inspiring this time, but the history attached to the place still makes them an interesting feature of the landscape.

The timing of our visit to the Illinois Waterway Visitor Center, just across the river, was perfect as it gave us the opportunity to watch a barge going through the lock.

We were also treated to a fly-past by a couple of the pelicans that gather at the foot of the dam in order to catch fish.

We did eventually cross over the Illinois River just to pay a brief visit to the Park for old time’s sake. They’ve built a new visitor’s center since we were there last, but those steps looked just as daunting as ever and, with advancing years and gimpy knees, we decided not to try to make it all the way to the top.

Conserving our energy, we moved on to neighboring Matthiessen State Park. The terrain there is similar to that of Starved Rock; lots of steps, leafy dells with little pools and high rocky walls. I took mostly close-up shots as the patches of bright light and deep shade made it difficult to get a good picture of the overall landscape.

Returning to the north side of the river we stopped off at Buffalo Rock State Park and caught a glimpse of one of the buffalo enjoying a dust bath which made us feel like it was time to get back to the B&B to enjoy the sunset and recuperate after an exhausting day.