Starved Rock State Park, Oglesby

This is a good park. However, the visitor center and trails nearby can be very busy on weekends. We had to park in overflow parking and hike in. We had much better luck heading east to the other parking lots away from the main area. Huge rock formations and tons of places to explore. My kids loved it but we saw many frustrated parents trying to us a stroller. If you have someone to lift a stroller up and down stairs, it won’t be bad but overall the park is NOT stroller friendly. Beautiful bluff and great photo ops. There are lots of little places where the trail is not clearly my defined and you can go exploring a little. The staff was great and all the facilities were clean. There is nice restaurant and lodge if you need a bite to eat or place to rest.

We visited Starved Rock December 10 2022. We stayed at Getaway which is about 20 min away for the weekend. Overall, our experience at this state park was excellent. The trails are well maintained even in the late fall. We hiked for about 4 miles seeing the river views and the canyon views over about 2.5 hours. It is difficult to navigate a stroller/wheelchair along most of the trails in this state park so I recommend getting information ahead of time if you need accessibility. The features and varied topography were amazing; we will definitely return here again. About half of the hike we took was along a wooden or paved path. There are a lot of stairs, many more than they explain. Be prepared to go up and own more than 9 flights over the course of your hike. We had mild weather at about 40 degrees overcast with little wind. Its a great time of year to hike if you don't mind cold weather!

Tremendous park and trails, amazing campground facility as well five minutes up the road. We hiked four of the trails and loved the clean landscape, variations in altitude, and river and woodland views. Staff are attentive and care greatly for the park. The campground is amazingly clean and quiet. Bathrooms are typical camp baths. A really fun weekend for the family with plenty of fresh air and exercise.

A great place to visit from chicago. It’s around 2hrs away from Chicago. Great escape from city traffic and a chance to enjoy the nature. You can hike, camp r just simply enjoy the nature. There are some great canyons and overlook. Though during this time you will not find water in the canyons. So no waterfalls during this time. But the canyons are great to watch with or without water. Must visit place.

Believe it or not, it hasn’t peaked yet. There are some areas with all the fall colors. I can’t believe this place is free. Note…(or warning) to get to the really beautiful scenery you must walk up several flights of stairs…like hundreds. Then you can also go super low into the canyons too. It’s beautiful and God’s creation. Fall is an exceptional time to visit. Dog friendly but old doggies prob can’t go far. Keep that in mind. We left our girl at home because she hurt her leg.