Fall colors at Starved Rock State Park

I drove to Starved Rock State Park in Utica, Illinois today. I was not the only person who thought that today would be the perfect day to view the beautiful fall colors.  The trails that are usually empty were filled with fellow photographers.  Even with a lack of water at several waterfalls, walking through the trails did not disappoint me.

Linking with: Our World Tuesday
                    A Southern Daydreamer
                    Rurality

Oak Leaves

Most of the leaves are off the trees now, but I was able to capture yellow oak leaves before they all fell........

Matthiessen State Park, Utica Illinois

Matthiessen State Park is about 90 miles southwest of Chicago. I have not been to Matthiessen for close to 10 years and was really looking forward to photographing the fall colors. Since it was a nice warmer day for a fall, I was expecting a crowd of hikers and day visitors. Fortunately for me, because of the rain we have had in last several days, some of the trails were not accessible, and that kept people from venturing in further into the Dells. After scaling down steps after steps of stairs I made it to the bridge I had to walk across so that I can walk down more stairs to the dells. I hiked very narrow, slippery trails and at times had to walk on a very narrow logs across a creek, and some areas I had to guess which rocks in the creek were safe to walk across. To tell you the truth at times I thought for sure I would fall into the creek, and I had this image of me dripping wet, driving back to Chicago with all of my gears ruined.