Matthiessen State Park in Illinois

July 18, 2023

We decided to go see the waterfall at Matthiessen State Park on July 8 (Saturday). It turns out that going to the state park on a Saturday was not our best idea. The parking by the visitor center was full. There was a significant walk from parking in a field to the visitor center.

We decided to try the overflow parking down the road. We thought it might provide another way to get to the visitor center.

There was plenty of parking in the overflow parking area. We parked near the playground and picnic area. There was pit toilets and Bruce made a stop. He came out with a disgusted face, as the pit was full.

I walked Nox around while Bruce was making his stop.

After walking Nox around, she had enough of a walk. Bruce put Nox’s backpack on and I put Nox into the backpack. We were ready to explore!

We found a trail next to the woods along the bluff over the Vermilion River. We thought this trail would lead us to the visitor center and then the waterfall. There were some flowers alongside the trail.

The trail led us a field of sunflowers near the model airplane field. Fields of sunflowers are common in Colorado and Kansas, but it was unexpected to turn the corner and see the field of sunflowers here.

We got close to the end of the trail and meet a family coming back. They warned us the trail was closed a short distance up ahead, so we turned around.

We went to Starved Rock State Park in the area. We then came back and went to the waterfall, the back way into the park (by the archery range).

It was well worth going out of our way to see the waterfall. It was a climb down wet slippery stairs to get to the bottom of the falls.

We enjoyed the coolness of the canyon and the beautiful waterfall.

I will post about our visits to the other two state parks and the lock visitor center.