Bunny and her family love going to
Starved Rock State Park. She has mentioned it in her blog a few times. Mama and Dad visited there after their boat trip on the canal. Mama said the place is HUGE! She said it reminds her of Yellowstone with the visitor center, cafes, restaurants, lodge, etc. It seems more like a national park than a state park. She said it is definitely not a place for Scout, so that means it is not a place for me. They went on one trail and it had a lot of steps. Mama said there is no way that Scout would have walked those steps.
The folks were shocked at how crowded the parking lot was. It is a large parking lot and it was almost full. There is a restaurant there and the website said reservations were recommended. Dad didn't think it was necessary, but when they arrived at the park, Mama decided to see if they could get reservations. She called and made reservations for 5 p.m. which is when the restaurant opened for dinner. While they waited for 5 p.m. to arrive, they visited the visitor's center and the gift shop. They purchased two sweatshirts for $30. Mama said that was a good deal. They then walked on a trail and took some photos.
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| A turkey crossed in front of them. |
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| The canyons are pretty but hard to see in these photos. |
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| This would be fun to see in the fall or winter. |
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| Carved eagle and her babies - babies have white heads here which is not accurate - just saying. LOL |
The lodge and cabins were built from 1933 to 1939 by the Depression-Era Civilian Conservation Corps.
The lodge and cabins originally cost between $200,000 and $300,000 to build. Dad said he read that the original furniture is still in the lodge.
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| Fireplace in lodge |
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| Furniture in lodge |
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| Fireplace in the restaurant. |
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| Restaurant |
Mama decided to splurge and ordered a ribeye. She says splurge because it was a little pricey to her. It didn't come with a salad and she refused to pay $2.95 for a salad when spending so much on a meal. She said it was very good. She is glad that she ordered it.
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| Ribeye with baked potato and veggies-$22.95 |
Dad ordered Forest Mushroom Farfalle with Smoked Pheasant. It is Portobello, Shiitake, and porcini mushrooms, yellow peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, Asiago cheese, smoked pheasant and farfalle pasta in a rich cream sauce. He said he couldn't really taste the pheasant but loved the Asaigo cheese. He did order a side salad.
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| Forest Mushroom Farfalle with Smoked Pheasant - $22.95 |
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| Inside the hotel lobby. |
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| Another view of the hotel lobby. |
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This park is so big and has so many things to see. The folks barely scratched the surface. They would love to camp in this area for a week or two because there are three state parks that are close to each other.
Joey,
The Greyhound Who Wishes His Sister Would Learn To Go Up Steps
That looks like a wonderful place. I bet you could spend a whole week there and still not see it all. Loved all the pictures.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Goose
This looks like a wonderful place to visit.
ReplyDeleteJoey, trust me, there are trails there that don't have steps! It's embarrassing to admit this, but Mom and Dad carried me on one of the trails because they'd just installed metal steps that hadn't been there before, but we didn't know. If you go to the trails on the outlying canyons you can see waterfalls sometimes and there aren't steps! But if you really don't want steps, Kuster and I hiked at Rock Cut, too, and didn't see any steps, but it's not nearly as fancy as Starved Rock.
ReplyDeleteOh, and don't count Buffalo Rock as a state park. Mom says it was really cool when she was little, but now the state isn't taking care of it and pretty much all the trails are closed down because of a rock slide. The buffalo look pretty sad in their little pen, too. There are just much prettier and more exciting things to see if you want a day out.
Bunny