In 2021, we visited Galena twice, first for our annual girls trip, and second for the hiking weekend visiting Apple River Canyon and Mississippi Palisades. Both times, we discussed heading to Lake Le-Aqua-Na State Recreation Area to check out the scenery, but it was not until mid-August 2022 that we finally made it out. The... Continue Reading →
The final park we visited on our long weekend in Peoria was Mackinaw River State Fish and Wildlife Area. After all of the parks from the previous two days ended with almost no hiking, the three of us were so excited to have saved the best for last. This park is about 1,448 acres, however... Continue Reading →
On day two of our long weekend, we had an extremely full day, visiting 3 parks, the zoo, a brewery, a gastropub, and finally stopping for ice cream. The plan was to start with the largest park, and then get to as many parks as we could that did not have any hiking. The first... Continue Reading →
Kicking off our summer of hiking, we spent Memorial Day weekend in Peoria to visit as many parks as possible. On day one, we briefly stopped to pick up a friend, before travelling to Woodford State Fish and Wildlife Area. This park is deceptively large, but if you are not boating and have never been... Continue Reading →
During initial planning for this project, we knew we would need to spend a lot of time just west of Rockford. Neither of us had been to that area before, and we knew very little about the terrain. We knew the rolling hills around Galena, and the many canyons of Starved Rock; but how do... Continue Reading →
With the weather finally getting nice, we decided to head out to the park that started it all, Matthiessen State Park. While Steph had visited in 2020 with another friend, the only time I had visited was that very first girl’s trip in 2019, so we were both looking forward to visiting again. Being only... Continue Reading →
For our final park-specific post of the year, we wanted to highlight what ended up being one of the most special places we’ve been, and go back in time to the other park we visited on our Galena trip. That park was Mississippi Palisades, named for the steep cliffs that border the Mississippi River. We... Continue Reading →
With the season drawing to a close and the cold weather looming, we wanted to get a couple more parks in while we still could. The ones we did that day were Illini State Park and William Stratton State Park, mostly for their small size. We started our morning by driving the hour and a... Continue Reading →
Our big plans finally started with this trip. We knew that the majority would require overnight stays, and this was the first one we planned. We decided to focus on the Galena area, because that was the town we were in when we first came up with this project. We also knew that area would... Continue Reading →
While planning the schedule for our trips, Labor Day weekend was a little hard to decide where to go. We knew that all parks would be more crowded than normal, and didn’t want to go somewhere that the amount of people would be too overwhelming. We also didn’t want to go somewhere too far, and... Continue Reading →
Fresh Air Friendship In the News 