Part Two: Starved Rock State Park: An Illinois TREASURE!

This summer, when I am not...
~ on the road
~ catching up with friends
~ cleaning up my newsfeed on the one "personal" social media account I have
~ unsubscribing from junk emails
~ working on the house
~ updating lesson plans
~ working on setting up BJJTV (www.bluejayjournal.com) for success next year
~ and more...

I am working on catching up on my MOUNTAIN of digital files from travels, photo hunts, and more from August 2014 to NOW.

Consider this blog entry a part of that process. 

This is a "Part Two" to this blog entry: http://mkdesignsphoto.blogspot.com/2015/04/starved-rock-state-park-illinois.html about a fall trek to Illinois. I landed for a brief time at Starved Rock State Park   (http://www.starvedrockstatepark.org). It is my goal to land there again, soon. 

If you love the outdoors and amazing land formations, this place is for you. Enjoy this visual treat. As always contact me via the MK Designs facebook page or the contact section of http://mkdesignsphoto.weebly.com if you want to book a photo session or order any images you see here. 

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. ~e.e. cummings

The poetry of the earth is never dead. ~John Keats

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. ~George Washington Carver

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. ~John Muir 

Starved Rock State Park: An Illinois TREASURE!

This past fall (2014), I did a bit of a "road trip" around Illinois. I had a 3 day weekend from school...and Karlene was with her father...so it just made sense to do a crazy jam-packed Illinois Road Trip! 

My daughter clicking pics of Christie at her wedding in 2012.

I had a mission to go see one of my favorite (yes, I have a few faves! lol) former students who is now an anchor in Rockford, Illinois... and her adoreable new baby Jack. 

Me and Christie in 2014 at a Frank Lloyd Wright chapel in Rockford.

Jack. I could have snuggled with this sweetie all day! As an only child, I don't have nieces and nephews to spoil...

I also planned to do a family photo shoot for Annette in the Grafton area and see a cool old school house (I plan to do a whole entry about that amazing piece of history later). The family photos came out awesome, by the way. Annette, her husband, and her son were all fun to work with. 

This kid was a a hoot! I hope Annette lets me take photos of him (and their family) again one day. He cracked me up. 

However, there was a moment that I plotted out for the trip that blew away all expectations of what I viewed as a "typical" northern Illinois landscape.  

As a AAA member, I had read about Starved Rock State Park and thought it'd be nice to squeeze in a couple of hours there the night before I met Christie in Rockford. A couple of hours were not nearly enough.

Starved Rock State Park is full of canyons and waterfalls. It is breathtaking. 

It is my MISSION to go back to this special place and spend a few days exploring with my daughter this summer. 

Critters were ALL over at Starved Rock State Park. Very photogenic, too! 

My images I captured as the light was fading do not even come close to doing Starved Rock State Park justice. Beyond the images I post here, I recommend you visit this website: http://www.starvedrockstatepark.org 

I stayed for the sunset and was not "let down" in any way! 

Also, if you're looking for a clean and affordable camping option, I stayed one night in the camper kabin at the KOA near there. Just loved it! http://koa.com/campgrounds/lasalle/

Starved Rock State Park and I will meet again! I am hoping Summer 2015 will be the time we make it happen! 

As always, thank you for supporting my photography/art. Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. And, if there's any photographs you need to decorate your home, office, etc. OR if you need portraits done, contact me. I love photo sessions, as well as nature work!

~ Michelle of MK Designs
Posted April 2015