The club is hosting a fall color tour weekend trip to Starved Rock State Park in Central Illinois.   We have blocked out 5 rooms with 2 queen size beds at the La Quinta Hotel in Peru, Illinois.   The cost of the trip is $209.92 for the two night stay per room.   This price includes breakfast and all taxes. The check-in date is  Oct 18, 2019 and check-out is Oct 20, 2019.  We are looking to car pool to the hotel.  The drive time is approx 3.5 hours.

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Please contact Joe Dill at 269-806-8322 or email at joedill2004@ameritech.net for additional reservation information.

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A little history of the area.

 

Starved Rock State park is located near Utica, Illinois near the intersection of Interstate 80 and Interstate 39.  Parking and admission to the park are free and so are many activities offered by the park and Starved Rock Lodge, the only lodging facility located within the park.

The Lodge and many of the paths, shelters, bridges and stairways were built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Starved Rock is the second oldest park in the state. It’s not the largest or the most visited, but does have many unique canyons and waterfalls. There are 18 canyons and over 13 miles of trails to explore at the park, which sits upon the banks of the Illinois River.

The rich geological history began when glacial melt-water and stream erosion created deep canyons as it cut through tree-covered sandstone bluffs. The rock formations are made of St. Peter sandstone, laid down in a huge, shallow inland sea more than 425 million years ago and later brought to the surface. Today, Starved Rock itself is a sandstone butte, which rises 125 feet above the Illinois River.

The history of this part of the Illinois Valley, however, goes back thousands of years. Archeologists have found evidence proving that archaic Indians inhabited the Starved Rock area as far back as 8000 B.C.  In the past 100 years, park attendance has continually increased. Last year, park attendance totaled over 2.1 million visitors from all over the world.