Base: Starved Rock Lodge, two nights. Winter trails can be icy, and some close in bad conditions: check IDNR trail closures before you go, and bring traction cleats. Park entry and the trails are free. Pace: easy: about 3 miles round trip to St. Louis Canyon after the drive.
Lunch in Utica
Where to eat: Skoog’s Pub & Grill, at 155 Mill Street in Utica, for a pub lunch after the drive; you can reserve online.
Leave Chicago mid-morning and you are in Utica by lunch, a small river village at the park gate. Burgers, wings and a warm room; the trail waits outside.
St. Louis Canyon
Crunch of cleats on packed snow, then nothing but the creak of ice. St. Louis Canyon, at the east end of the park with its own parking lot, ends in a tall sandstone amphitheatre where a waterfall pours in wet seasons, and in a hard cold snap it can freeze into a column of blue-white ice. It is never guaranteed; even without the icefall, the canyon walls hung with icicles are worth the walk. Expert tip: go in the early afternoon for the best light in the canyon, and turn back if the stairs are glazed.
The fireplace in the great hall
Check in at Starved Rock Lodge, built of logs and stone by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, and find the great hall. Its two-sided stone fireplace is said to be the largest in Illinois, and at dusk, with snow at the windows and the fire going, it is the warmest place in the county. Claim two chairs and stay a while.
Dinner at the lodge
Where to eat: the Starved Rock Lodge restaurant, which serves dinner daily from 5 to 9 p.m.
Dinner under the log beams, comfort food and a glass of something red, then back to the fire for one more round before bed.
Where to eat and stop
- Breakfast · Breakfast at home before the drive — leave Chicago mid-morning. Why here: An early start leaves the afternoon light for the canyon.
- Lunch · Skoog’s Pub & Grill — 155 Mill Street, Utica; online reservations. Why here: A warm pub lunch at the park gate after the drive.
- Dinner · Starved Rock Lodge restaurant — One Lodge Lane, Oglesby; dinner daily 5 to 9 p.m. Why here: Dinner in the 1930s log lodge built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
- Quick stop (other): St. Louis Canyon — east end of Starved Rock State Park, own parking lot; check IDNR trail closures. Why here: A tall canyon that can freeze into an icefall in hard cold.
Chicago → Utica: about 1.5–2 hours by car on I-55 and I-80. Utica → the St. Louis Canyon lot: about 10 minutes by car. The lot → the canyon: about 1.5 miles each way on foot.
Where to stay
- Starved Rock Lodge — two nights in the lodge or one of its cabins; One Lodge Lane, Oglesby.
Dinner: the lodge restaurant, 5 to 9 p.m.
Tomorrow: eagles at the lock and dam, the canyons and the river overlooks.
Bad-weather plan
Freezing rain or a closed trail? Skip the canyon, warm up in the Starved Rock Visitor Center, and spend the afternoon by the lodge fire.
Stay: lodge base · Anchor: St. Louis Canyon · check IDNR trail closures
Good to know: The canyon falls freeze only in hard cold; a mild week means a trickle and icicles, not a column of ice.
