Matthiessen State Park

Nov 06 (Fri) Matthiessen State Park, IL

We are having fantastic weather in early November in Illinois so, Kathryn decided to take the day off work and we headed about 1 1/2 hours south to Matthiessen State Park taking Cutter with us. Since it was a weekday, and not a well known park, it was not very crowded at all.

Weather was a perfect sunny 70 degrees with a light breeze. The park has two main areas. The first is some hiking in a bluff area that skirts the bank of small Matthiessen lake. The second has some hiking near the Vermillion River. We hiked both areas.

As you can see from the pictures, it was very late for good fall colors but, the crunch of all the leaves and the late fall smells were really nice.

Bluff Trail Hike

The first hike we did was on the Bluff Trail. Still some late fall color and the bluff and shallow river bed were pretty scenic. A 3.2 mile very nice hike.

After the hike we found a picnic table and had a nice lunch.

Red River Trail Hike

We then headed to the other section for the park that skirts the Vermillions river. The scenery wasn't as nice as the bluff area but, the weather was perfect. Very hilly hike but nice. Cutter (now 12 years old) did amazing the whole day. Tons of energy and handled all the steps with ease.

All in all a very nice early November day trip.