Starved Rock State Park- a short doggy vacation

I’m writing this at the end of June, 2020. Illinois has gone into Phase 3 reopening after COVID stay-at-home orders. Several events we had looked forward to had been cancelled so we seized the opening-up opportunity to stay at the Starved Rock Lodge with our daughter, Nicole and our dog, Emma. Notable differences for us due to COVID were that there were no “high-touch” items such as quilts on the beds, no coffee packets in the rooms (although we were able to request these at the front desk but they were honestly no better than weak mud) and no housekeeping. Masks had to be worn inside the lodge and food could only be ordered for takeout or eaten on the terrace.

Starved Rock State Park is located in Oglesby, Illinois approximately 90 minutes southwest of Chicago. Thirteen miles of trails and sixteen canyons cut out of the sandstone bluffs were waiting to be explored.

We arrived on a Tuesday in the middle of June and the weather turned windy, drizzly with temps in the low 60’s. This seemed like a possible bummer but brought perfect hiking benefits of little to no other people. We stayed at the Starved Rock Lodge in a Pioneer Cabin.

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The trails were nearly empty from the drizzly weather. We operated from the motto “There’s no bad weather, only bad clothes”, so we set off right away.

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Trees were dropping beautiful flowers that looked like orchids to me. The “orchids” and the waterfalls almost made me feel like I was in Hawaii! Not really, but it was cool anyway.

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The second morning we went to Matthiessen State Park which was only 2 1/2 miles away. It had a trail that circled a canyon and also had trails down into the canyon next to the water. We came upon an interesting set of concrete stepping stones that eventually we decided there was no way water-adverse Emma could be persuaded to go across. Nicole resorted to carrying her.

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Emma eventually adapted into quite the water pro and waded across streams with no problem by the end of the day.

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The Starved Rock Lodge also had a fairly decent restaurant that let us eat out on the panoramic deck called the Veranda. We especially enjoyed the Wisconsin cheese curds, the veggie burger, the ribs with sweet potato fries and the strawberry pecan salad. They also had several doggie items on their menu: chicken breast, hamburger and hot dogs. Emma was quite content to share with us so she didn’t feel slighted when we didn’t order her any doggy extras. Normally the Veranda schedules live music on the weekends in the summer which sounded really fun. Perhaps next time…

When you go:

• I recommend going very early for the least amount of people on the trails and to find a parking spot.
• If you want to take your dog, reserve very early or during the week as the dog-friendly cabins are booked early.
• The nicer the weather, the more the people.
• Matthiessen State Park was less crowded than Starved Rock.