The second day of our Labor Day weekend trip had us going to Argyle Lake State Park in Colchester, IL. This park is about 4 and a half hours west of Chicago, or an hour and 45 minutes south of the Quad Cities. The park used to be known as Argyle Hollow, and was part... Continue Reading →
Our annual Labor Day weekend trip of 2025 took us to the western border of Illinois, about an hour and a half south of the Quad Cities. We planned for 5 parks over the course of 4 days, and we decided to tackle the two smallest parks on day one. Delabar State Park is in... Continue Reading →
For Memorial Day Weekend 2025, we visited Galesburg for a quick overnight trip, visiting the two closest parks: Rock Island State Trail and Snakeden Hollow State Fish and Wildlife Area. Rock Island ST is a 26 mile long trail spanning several towns, but starts in Alta, IL (just north of Peoria) and goes north to... Continue Reading →
We continued our park journey on a late September morning, visiting Mautino State Fish and Wildlife Area and Johnson-Sauk Trail State Recreation Area. Mautino is located in Buda, IL, about 2 hours and 15 minutes west of Chicago, while Johnson-Sauk is 10 minutes further west in Kewanee, IL. Both parks are also quite close to... Continue Reading →
For our next hiking day, we decided to head back out on I-80 for two parks past the Starved Rock Area: Donnelley/Depue SFWAs and Hennepin Canal State Trail. As the parks get further and further away, the planning required is getting more and more intense, even for day trips like this. Visiting multiple parks in... Continue Reading →
After a very good start to the year with Kickapoo SRA, we weren’t able to go out hiking again until 4th of July weekend, due to the combination of unexpectedly busy schedules and the cicadas being out in full force. So to get back into it, we decided to finish up the parks around Peoria.... Continue Reading →
Our 51st park visited was Franklin Creek State Natural Area. This park is in Franklin Grove, IL, about an hour and 45 minutes away from Chicago. This was the last one we visited in 2023, catching some fantastic fall colors in late October, and we were so glad to finish up the season with such... Continue Reading →
For our next park, we finally got out to Castle Rock State Park in Oregon, IL. This is part of a 4-park cluster in Ogle County near the Rock River. Castle Rock has been one of the most requested parks for this project, and is probably the most well known park for this area, and... Continue Reading →
After a string of cold and rainy weekends in March and April, we finally decided to risk bad weather and head back out to the Starved Rock area to get the two parks in the area that did not have hiking: Marseilles State Fish and Wildlife Area and LaSalle Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area.... Continue Reading →
Happy Fourth of July weekend! We wanted to celebrate both the achievement of having exactly 100 state parks to go, and the holiday, by finally discussing the most popular park in Illinois: Starved Rock State Park. We have been to this park many times, both for the project and just for fun, and we agree... Continue Reading →
Fresh Air Friendship 