Ottawa 2026 Week 1
Week 1 in Ottawa, IL | Hiking in Starved Rock State Park | North Utica & Marseilles, IL | January 2026
After returning from our road trip, we spent a little time with my family in Iowa before beginning Curtis’ spring assignments. Winter weather arrived the same day we did, starting with strong wind and dropping temps, then snow throughout the weekend, followed by sub-zero temps for the rest of our time here. Thankfully our new MaxxAir fan arrived promptly, and Curtis was able to replace it before it started snowing so the inside of the van stayed dry. Curtis spent a few days in Iowa, then had to fly to New York for a week of work — since it was only one week and he had a quick turnaround to the next job in Illinois, I was fine sitting that trip out. He was under a winter weather warning the entire time, with plenty of snow and blizzard conditions, but thankfully none of that affected his work or travels and he made it back safely. I enjoyed spending my week with family, and appreciated that everything lined up so that I didn’t have to be alone in the van for a week during our time out West.
Curtis made it back to Iowa, then we had a couple days before we needed to be in Illinois. After one last visit to see our niece and nephew, we got on the road, going into our 4th spring outage season! We were starting it off at one of our favorite plants located near Ottawa, IL. Since our drive wasn’t too long, we made a stop at Herbert Hoover NHS in West Branch to get park stamps and walk through the museum. I had just retired my logbook after 10 years, and found it almost embarrassing to walk in with a blank book. My solution to this has been to turn it into a junk journal of sorts, so along with park stamps, I’m adding stickers, ticket stubs, receipts, or anything else I find at the places we go to make it more like a little scrapbook. It’s helping to scratch my creative itch that I’ve had for a while, since art and scrapbooking has been a challenge in the van and while always on the move. These are the days I want to remember and scrapbook about, after all!
We entered Illinois, picked up a car in Peru, and settled into our hotel for the next 4-ish weeks. I had been looking forward to returning to this familiar place, but this year had a bit of hesitancy doing so without Charlotte. The past 3 years, we had spent each February here together as a family. We had our routines that were so easy to fall into, everyone there loved her, and we loved walking around the downtown area and state parks together. I was almost glad when there weren’t as many familiar faces at the hotel as years past, so we weren’t asked right away if Charlotte was still with us. I knew right away that I would have to work hard to stay busy during my days alone so I wouldn’t start spiraling.
Curtis’ first few days were pretty light, and before we knew it we had a full weekend ahead of us to do what we wanted. Naturally, what we wanted to do was return to Starved Rock State Park to see it all in its winter glory. We had already noticed that Ottawa had a lot more snow than we were used to seeing, and it was definitely cold enough for the waterfalls to be frozen, so we made our way in that direction. We started today’s visit at the visitor center, which I had actually never been inside before. We got stamps and walked through the small museum before studying the map and picking out which trails to hike. As much as we’d like to say we’ve hiked every single trail in the park after 3 years, there were still several that we hadn’t hiked, and we wouldn’t even be able to finish them all this year because of ongoing trail closures. I guess we’ll have something to look forward to if we return for a fifth year!
Today, we chose to hike to Eagle View point, then follow the river trail to Wildcat and La Salle Canyons. At Eagle View, we saw 3 eagles and plenty of geese and seagulls, as well as a heron. We continued on the trail, heading down to the river’s edge, finding the Illinois River to be completely frozen. We stopped to see Wildcat Canyon first, finding it a little less impressive than the first time we saw it. It still had plenty of icicles hanging from the rocks, but nothing continuous, and there definitely wasn’t any water flowing as the highs were only in the teens after a week of single-digits. We still took our time walking on the ice and admiring it before continuing on.
Next, we continued heading East on the river trail towards La Salle Canyon. This was one we hiked last year, starting from a different trailhead though so the approach was technically a new trail to us. Most of the trail was cleared from snow and was quite sandy; the slickest part of our entire hike was the stone bridge before the trail junction for La Salle Canyon. Last year when we hiked this trail, we had it all to ourselves and we found the end to be magical, and declared it our favorite waterfall and trail in the park. However, today there was hardly any icicles hanging on, making it a little anticlimactic. There were also a lot more people hiking here. We sat down on the rocks at the back of the canyon for a few minutes before continuing on. I couldn’t help but think about how the world was just more magical when Charlotte was with us.
Wildcat & La Salle Canyons with Charlotte, 2023 and 2025
We retraced our steps back to Wildcat Canyon, then took the steps up to the side so that we could see it from above, then continued on that trail back to the visitor center. We think the reason why the falls weren’t as impressive despite all the snow was because it was just too cold, and had been too cold for too long? Oh well, we knew we still had several weeks to return, and we looked forward to seeing how the views transformed over the weeks to come. Because you never really know what you’ll get out here, each year has been so different!
Now that it was approaching lunchtime, we started looking for a local place to dine. We realized we had never done anything in North Utica before, so we picked out a coffee shop and deli in town to check out. That place was Bruce and Ollie’s, and we were very impressed with the food and drinks. We split a soup and sandwich and each got a drink, and found it to be very filling and delicious. They also have ice cream, which we didn’t try today, but I imagine that would be amazing after hiking at Starved Rock in the summer!
Next, we continued our exploring by walking through the La Salle County Historical Society museum. We had heard about some passport challenges here in La Salle County and decided to make a goal of visiting as many locations as we could. Curtis downloaded the app on his phone and checked in, and for another one we picked up brochures to start collecting stamps. The ‘Flock to the Rock’ challenge was our main focus, but why not try as many as we could whenever we had the time? We found the small museum to be interesting, with some historic artifacts and plenty of reading material. It was a great way to pass the time exploring while keeping us out of the cold! We took note of where the I&M Canal trail passed through, which we had walked parts of over the years between Ottawa, La Salle, Joliet, and Minooka, and Curtis expressed his interest in completing it, as well as the Hennepin Canal Trail, which were both part of the American Discovery Trail. We agreed that hiking the sections between La Salle and Ottawa would be a good goal while we were here, but not today, because it was just too cold.
The next day, we drove in the opposite direction to Marseilles for another little adventure in a town we hadn’t spent much time in. We had lunch and drinks at River’s Edge Restaurant, then went for a short walk to the river and on the I&M Canal Trail. Once again, it was just a little too cold to enjoy, and this stretch of trail wasn’t the most scenic as it mostly paralleled the road. Before leaving, we crossed the river to check out Illini State Park, which has a few trails in the woods but seems to mostly be designed as a launching point for watercraft and a campground, though both were not open and functioning during this season. Still, this allowed us to check it off our lists and passport challenge. While this first week back in Ottawa hadn’t been ideal weather wise, we were already reminded of why it remains one of our favorites, and showed us that we still have plenty to explore here!
