I know the midwest has roughly the same reputation for landscape photography as the mid-Atlantic, but there are some real gems you can find out there. I had honestly intended to do more hiking on the first day, but I had a dinner date with a friend who lived in Cleveland, and that meant having to press on. I stopped at Cuyahoga Valley State Park to see Brandywine falls, and they were nice, but there were no decent compositions, and the weather was bland. If I’d had more time, I might’ve taken the longer trail down to the base of the falls, but (as I found out throughout this trip) everything took longer than I thought it would. No regrets though, dinner was amazing, and I got to hang out with a friend I’d known online for nearly 7 years. After dinner, I rallied some remaining energy and went to a small park on the shore of Lake Eerie.
It wasn’t the first time I’ve stood at the edge of a great lake, but it had been long enough that I’d forgotten just how much like the ocean they really are. The waves, the endless water all the way to the horizon, with only the smell of freshwater to remind you that you’re not standing on a coastline.
Day two saw me heading into Illinois and Starved Rock State Park. I took the main trail around the canyons, but it was well packed with kids on summer break, and the best canyon on the loop (French Canyon) was closed. I left the main trail area and found myself loving the peace and quiet of the smaller canyons, like St Louis and Illinois. From the surrounding landscape, you’d never guess any of this was here. I came across a lot of places like that in the midwest. Rolling hills, farmland, nothing remotely out of the ordinary… unless you knew where to look.
You can’t tell me this isn’t a faerie grotto.
On day three, I went across the street (no really) to Matthiessen State Park to walk the Dells Canyon and Bluff trail. It was still fairly early in the morning, but the temperature was already climbing into the 80s. The highlight was definitely the wide, long canyons with this impressive waterfall at one end, and the much smaller but just as charming one at the other end. I got lost several times because there were so many trails weaving their way in and out of the canyons, and without AllTrails, I wouldn’t have had any inkling of which way to go. I crossed the water on multiple occasions, walked up and down many sets of stairs, and had a very pleasant morning.
I took a quick detour to Anderson Japanese Gardens, but it was high noon by the time I got there, and the heat was relentless. The waterfall was nice, but Japanese gardens really shine in the fall, when all the leaves turn the pond reflections into rainbows. I did however have a fantastic lunch at the cafe in the gardens, and bought some Japanese snacks for the road.
Adding on to an already packed day, I squeezed in one more walk to Willow River State Park in Wisconsin to see the falls, and they did not disappoint. Dozens of families were swimming in the water, and the kids were having an absolute blast. The people in this shot really give you an idea of just how big this place was, and how cool it is that it’s a safe place to swim.
On day four, I headed into Minnesota to see Minneopa Falls, but I ran into some navigation issues. I had rather hastily set my GPS when I set out, and when I was almost there, I panicked that I hadn’t set it to the trailhead correctly. I kept seeing signs for the park with arrows pointing in a different direction. While driving, I pulled up what I thought was the right trail and reset my navigation. Paid the entrance fee at the little station, parked up, and began walking through the most lush green forest, and then ended up in open marshy fields.
The problem, however, was that I knew the trail to the falls was very short, and I had already walked further than the whole trail. With noo falls in sight, I began to suspect that I’d had it set right all along, and then picked the wrong trail in my panic. Yep. That’s exactly what happened.
I backtracked, got back into my car, set my navigation to the trailhead for the falls, and found a massive parking lot with a very obvious sign pointing to the falls. This and other ways I make my own life more difficult.
The trail down to the lower falls was closed due to it having been washed out the month prior, which was a real shame, but the view of the upper falls was still worth the drive.
I had intended to visit Jeffers Petroglyphs as well, but with the extra time spent lost in Minneopa, I was running behind, and the more I looked into it, the more it seemed like they might not be all that impressive. Instead, I drove on to Blue Mounds State Park, which was another one of those places that looked like nothing even as I was practically on top of it.
That statement held true even as I was on the trail. Most of it wasn’t much of anything, and the only real highlight was the red cliff. Having said that, the cliffs were striking and I was giddy with the use of my wide angle lens to capture the entirety of them. I walked all the way around the edge of them from one side to the other, and the views were stunning in every direction. The sky was even cooperating, adding to the drama of the landscape.
The rest of the landscape, however, looked like this. Sometimes you get lucky and get to see bison.
From here, I drove on into South Dakota to Sioux Falls, but that’s a story for another blog.