Illinois: more than Chicago

Chicagoland, Starved Rock State Park, Garden of the Gods

Sept. 2022

Chicago skyline with Buckingham Fountain in the foreground

Before we headed to the Chicago area, we stopped at the Wisconsin Dells, because when I was a kid, my family took several camping trips to that area. However, all I remember about those trips was swimming and horseback riding at the campground, and a visit to Circus World in Baraboo. This time around, we stayed at quiet Rocky Arbor State Park. It rained a lot of the time we were there, so we didn’t do much except visit the busy nearby tourist town of Wisconsin Dells , and I didn’t take pictures. Months earlier, I had tried to reserve a spot at popular Devils Lake S.P., but it was already full. We did visit there for a couple hours on the one good weather day we had and hiked a trail, but that was it.

I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, but hadn’t been back in 20 years. I’d been wanting to see the little house where my family lived. I was happy to be able to go on a tour of my high school, also, which has been beautifully updated. My visit to my hometown brought back a lot of memories!

I’d been craving the Dutch Baby at Walker Bros. Original Pancake House in Wilmette. That was a favorite place back in the day. Craig had the huge apple pancake that the restaurant is famous for and I had the Dutch Baby.

We also stopped by little Kenilworth Beach, where I spent many summer hours with friends.
The lake and beach is much cleaner than when I was a kid. I remember one summer, the beach was so covered with dead, stinky alewives (fish) because of the polluted lake water, that we could hardly find a bare spot to walk on. (Honestly, who would want to!) I also remember summer family bike rides from our house to the beach and then to Homer’s Ice Cream Parlor, which is still on Green Bay Road in Wilmette.

For obvious reasons, there are very few places to camp with an RV near Chicago. We found a nice big spot at Camp Reinberg. There are forest preserves in the suburbs, but not many campsites. Below is our campsite.

Because of the long drive and crazy highway traffic to get there, we spent only one day in downtown Chicago. We didn’t go to any of the fabulous museums this time around, unfortunately. We did go to Cloud Gate (the Bean), as we’d never been there before.

We also walked along the lakefront to see the skyline from that vantage point by the Shedd Aquarium. It was a nice walk on a beautiful day.

Before leaving Chicago, we ate deep-dish pizza at Giordano’s. I was a little disappointed—the thick crust was heavier than I remembered. We enjoyed the Detroit-style pizza we had in Michigan much more.

Our next stop was Starved Rock State Park, which was less than 2 hours away from north suburban Chicago. All those years I’d lived in northern Illinois, I’d never heard of this place, as my family always went to Wisconsin for camping trips.

We had a nice, big, wooded site, but there was a big dead tree branch hanging over our rig that needed to be trimmed off before it fell on somebody. There were some good hiking trails, though. On one trail down to a canyon, we came upon a family of wild turkeys. I didn’t have my camera with me, so I had to resort to mediocre phone pics. The rock formations at the bottom of the canyon were very cool, although at that time of year, the waterfall was just a trickle.

We also took the paved trail that starts at the visitor center to stand on Starved Rock. There’s a sad, old legend about the tribes that lived in the area regarding that rock, but there’s no evidence to support the legend. We continued on the trail to the Lover’s Leap Overlook. The photo below is the view from the overlook toward Starved Rock. We kept walking to the Eagle Cliff Overlook for a better view of the Illinois River and the dam.

From here, we zigzagged southwest for a stop in St. Louis to see good friends before heading to Arkansas to meet our son’s and daughter-in-law’s new baby. On the way south from St. Louis, we spent a couple nights at Johnson’s Shut-ins State Park. There are several really nice state parks in that area. We also revisited nearby Elephant Rocks State Park. Shut-ins are pools of water created by a stream flowing around a lot of boulders. There were lots of mini-waterfalls, too. Some people were climbing around the rocks and wading in the pools.

view looking down from the observation platform at Johnson’s Shut-ins

Elephant Rocks S.P. is a fun place.

To get to the really big rocks, we took a short walk past lichen-covered rocks in the woods.

Just a few of the many pinkish boulders. The largest one there is 27 feet tall.

We then spent a wonderful week in Arkansas with all our kids and grandkids. Our two daughters and their families flew in from out-of-state. It was a fun family reunion!

We soaked up as much grandkid time as we could in a week, but sadly, we had to say goodbye and continue on our eastward journey. We headed back to southern Illinois to Garden of the Gods. Now, we had been to the more well-known sight with the same name in Colorado Springs, but we’d never heard of the Illinois version until more recently. It was definitely worth the stop. This is an area of sandstone bluffs with great views of the Shawnee Hills. The loop trail is short and easy.

From this spot, we walked the trail to the rocks where those people are standing.

Camel Rock

Another view of Camel Rock with the expansive views beyond

The nearest good campground I could find was called Shawnee Forest Campground in Vienna. There was highway noise, but the lake view made up for that.

Some friends recommended Giant City State Park, and in particular, the fried chicken dinner at the lodge there. We first stopped at the visitor center for a map and recommendations for trails. We hiked the Giant City nature trail, which is where the interesting rock formations are nestled among the trees.

The fried chicken dinner at the lodge lived up to its reputation. Yummy! Too much food on that plate, but I did eat all the chicken!

Finally, we had to do all the (kitchy) things and stop in Metropolis to see the Superman statue. The little Superman museum did not impress us as we are not big fans, and it was just basically a whole pile of stuff someone collected.

Our 18-month journey across the U.S. was almost at an end. We had just a few more stops in Kentucky and southwestern Virginia, and then we planned to buy a house so we could be near Craig’s elderly parents. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of our traveling days—just the end of living in an RV.