Ottawa Weeks 3 & 4 / Kaskaskia Canyon
Weeks 3 & 4 in Ottawa, IL | Downtown Ottawa | Hiking Kaskaskia Canyon in Starved Rock State Park | February 2023
At the start of week 3 in Ottawa, we thought that this was going to be our last full week here. We were satisfied with all we had managed to do during our time here, so we took it easy this week and only did one more hike in Starved Rock State Park. We returned to the park late one afternoon to hike Kaskaskia Canyon, another trail on the East side of the park closer to Ottawa. Like nearby Illinois Canyon, the trail and parking lot here were muddy and less maintained than the main part of the park, but this one at least had a bridge over the stream. We enjoyed the canyon walls as we hiked back once again, and the waterfall at the end was different than the others we had seen — much shorter, but still beautiful, tucked away in the narrow canyon. After hiking to the waterfall, we tried to take another trail to a viewpoint on the bluff, but ran out of time thanks to our pokey little puppy. Oh well, at least we’ll still have new trails to hike if/when we ever return! Another thing we thought would be fun but didn’t get around to doing was kayaking the stretch of the Illinois River that goes by Starved Rock State Park. That would have been a good way to avoid the muddy trails!
Aside from that hike, we spent most of our limited free time walking around downtown Ottawa. The town’s claim to fame is that it was the location of the first Lincoln/Douglas Senatorial Debate. There are several signs about that in Washington Square Park, as well as statues of the two men in the center fountain. Aside from that, the town is small and cute and very walkable, and has a lot of colorful murals. We wished there was a dog friendly hotel here because we would’ve loved to stay in this area!
Since our hotel didn’t have a kitchenette, we ended up eating out more than we normally would. Some of our favorite restaurants in Ottawa were BASH Sushi & Burger House, the Thai Cafe, Rosati’s for pizza, and Tangled Roots Brewery.
Our last day was supposed to be February 28, so on the 27th we drove to Peru to return Curtis’ rental car. Once that was complete, we walked another section of the I&M Canal Trail starting at the trailhead in La Salle near where it ends at the Illinois River. After that, we returned to the hotel to start packing before Curtis’ last night of work. But right before he walked out the door, he got a text saying that his next assignment was delaying his start time by a week because the project here in Ottawa wasn’t finished. He was able to work it out so that we could stay another 4 days in the hotel here before taking the weekend to travel to the next plant. Thankfully the hotel still had availability, and we’re pretty good at changing plans at the last minute and going with the flow, so this wasn’t really an inconvenience. Over our last 4 days here we kept up our routine of going for walks downtown in the late afternoon before Curtis had to go to work and enjoyed all our favorite things from this assignment — especially the hotel breakfasts!
Overall, we really enjoyed our time in Ottawa. We found plenty of things to do to keep us occupied, and enjoyed the small town feel of the area. We’d be happy to return someday if Curtis got assigned to the plant again! We’re thankful for a great official start to his new career!
