Laowai

We spent the weekend at Starved Rock State Park. It's a couple hours southeast of our home. I think in the summer this park is overrun with people and that would probably be a big turn off. But there weren't too many people this time of year and I really enjoyed our weekend.

The park runs along the Illinois River. The river is much bigger than I imagined and there is a lot of history about its importance as a trade route for native Americans and European explorers that I was totally unaware of.

We stayed at the old lodge that was built by the CCC in the 1930s. I love seeing the lodge architecture and the special details that remain today.

On our first day of hiking it was cold and cloudy but that didn't slow us down. There was a nice dusting of snow from the night before that made the woods really pretty. The park is full of sandstone formations and canyons with frozen waterfalls.

On the second day I was so happy that the sun came out. We hiked to one last big canyon before we headed home.