Starved Rock

This past weekend we took our second family camping trip, this time to Starved Rock State Park, which is a little less than 2 hours west of Chicago.  We all enjoyed it, but I'm nearly certain that Jesse had the most fun of all of us.  He seemed to have some recollection of the tent from last time, and with his current fascination with all things nature (rocks, sticks, bushes, leaves, berries, etc.), the camping experience was heaven for him.

We arrived at the campsite early Friday afternoon, and just like last time, Jesse made a beeline for the woods.  This time he had a much better understanding that he was not allowed to go into the woods and that he needed to stay at the campsite (last time it was quite a chore keeping him at the site).  While James set up our tent, Jesse occupied himself by picking leaves (against park policy, I know, but I'm pretty sure no one will be able to tell that a few leaves are missing) and making piles of rocks, leaves and acorns.

At one point we turned around and Jesse had gotten himself on top of the car like this.  Just kidding.  James put him there and was standing right beside him.

We realized on the second day that we had quite a bit of poison ivy near our campsite, so Jesse was no longer allowed to play in the trees and bushes.  He occupied himself with rock collecting instead.

He also had his first s'more.  He mainly just liked the chocolate.

On Saturday morning we got up and did some hiking along the Illinois River and into some canyons along the river.  This is not the type of scenery I associate with Illinois.  I mostly think of flat cornfields.  This park was beautiful, though, and reminded me a lot of Arkansas.  We will have to return in the winter when the snow creates ice falls in the canyons (or in the spring when there are waterfalls from all the snow melt).  Unfortunately there were no waterfalls in the canyons on this trip, due to the lack of rain we've had.

On Saturday afternoon we just hung out around the campsite.  James got some wood ready to make a fire, and Jesse "helped" by making piles of sticks.

Jesse also did some looking at the trail map to figure out which trails we should hike on Sunday morning.

Of course, a "good book" (that's what Jesse calls every book) is an essential part of every camp-out.  Especially books about squirrels.

The only downside to our camping trip was the cold temperatures at night and in the mornings.  Jesse seemed to stay plenty warm in his fleece sleeper and under several blankets in the pack 'n play, but of course he wanted out of bed between 6 and 7 each morning and once he was out of bed he was miserable because it was so cold (we were not thinking and did not pack heavy coats for any of us).  We would have been happy to stay in our warm sleeping bags a little longer, but Jesse was ready to get out of the tent and start exploring.  To warm up, we turned on the car and listened to some music.  Jesse told me he was driving us to Arkansas.