Ice at Starved Rock

We had fun hiking through the icy beauty. The park is on the shore of a large river. It is a set of small streams the cut deep canyons into the ground. The ice started forming a month or two earlier, but about a week before we arrived the weather turned warm (above freezing) and significant rain fell. This caused flooding and high water. By the time we arrived the rivers were within their banks, but high. The freezing weather returned and the snow and ice were coming back. The trails were very icy and slick. Each morning we hiked trails and found a few ice formation.

The trails were very icy so after two days we found steel cleats to help each of us with traction. Mother, Father, and I all slipped and fell, but it was not too bad. Virginia is the only person not to fall. I carried Henry while we walked. He would spend his time sleeping or looking at the world. The streams were all partially to completely frozen. Each waterfall formed huge icicles. The biggest was huge. Tonty Canyon had the prettiest formations. I did not have my camera, but father did. It was 4-5 stories tall and as big as a small car at the bottom. It was beautiful. The high water made all the small streams harder to cross. The trails were quite slick in places, so we walked gingerly and slowly.

At one stage we did turn back. We were in a canyon with a 20-30 ft drop to the side of a icy trail. We had gone a good ways up the trail. Then we reached a spot were a small flow of water trickles over the trail. The water had smoothed the stone over the centuries and now it was icy covered. It looked too slick with a big fall off and we turned back. Other than that we managed the trails that we picked, and often saw just a few people. On a couple of trails we were the first people to break through the ice layers so no one had been there in 7 to 10 days (Tonty). It was quite beautiful with snow and ice covering the ground. The shocking news was Mother was warm, and did not complain about the cold (highs ranged from ~12F to ~25F). A number of times father wanted to turn back, but we all decided to continue. Mother was often willing to go on. Ice formations are beautiful almost crystal like structures that sparkle. The final day we found a set of ice covered sticks and plants. The light shone like it was the finest crystal.

My Pictures with limited captions:


Father's pictures with more captions: