Parfrey's Glen, Devil's Lake State Park, July 2022 Given the significant focus on Utah and the American West, narrow canyons and slots feature heavily on Live and Let Hike. But these beautiful features can be found in surprising places, such as the limestone gorges of Starved Rock State Park in northern Illinois and southwest Virginia’s …
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West Bluff Trail, Devil's Lake State Park, July 2022 It’s not too often that visitors are able to walk in a mountain range with rocky bluffs dating to 1.6 billion years ago, in addition to a rare freshwater endorheic lake—a body of water situated in a natural depression with no external drainage. And yet one …
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Silver Creek Pathway, Pere Marquette State Forest, June 2022 The 54-mile Pine River, a tributary of the Big Manistee River, undulates gently through the modest hillocks of northwest Michigan, making for a popular floating destination—but also a few decent hikes. The Silver Creek Pathway—a nearly four-mile loop that is a short drive from Cadillac, Michigan—is …
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Empire Bluff Trail, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, June 2022 What happens when a combination of glacial recession, wind, and erosion produces a perched dune atop a glacial moraine atop geological debris from the most recent Ice Age? The result, in Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, is the Empire Bluffs, a 400-foot headland overlooking …
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Dune Climb, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, June 2022 Spanning 65 miles of the eastern shoreline of Lake Michigan, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is easily the most interesting National Park Service unit on Michigan’s lower peninsula. Once buried under the Continental Ice Sheet during the most recent Ice Age, the retreating glaciers left behind …
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Bailly/Chellberg Trail, Indiana Dunes National Park, June 2022 A prominent French Canadian fur trader, Joseph Bailly settled in the Indiana Dunes area in the early 19th century, establishing a trading post in 1822 near present-day Porter, Indiana. Decades later, Swedish immigrants Anders and Johanna Kjellberg purchased 80 acres of land on the other side of …
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Dune Succession Trail, Indiana Dunes National Park, June 2022 Arguably the most impressive sight in Indiana Dunes National Park, the moderately tall sand dunes at West Beach can be explored on this short, 0.9-mile loop. The Dune Succession Trail—one of three loops in the West Beach area—traverses coniferous and deciduous forests, cottonwood stands, and high …
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Dune Ridge Trail, Indiana Dunes National Park, June 2022 Wedged between a railroad, two steel mills, a power plant, and several junkyards, Indiana Dunes National Park looks and feels world’s apart from other iconic settings that also bear the national park name: the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, etc. The draw here is modest: windswept sand dunes, …
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Kaskaskia Canyon Falls, Starved Rock State Park, June 2022 Note: This is the fourth of four posts covering hikes in northern Illinois’ Starved Rock State Park, which boasts 18 sandstone canyons, dozens of waterfalls, and an impressive network of trails along the southern shores of the Illinois River. This post covers a 2.8-mile hike that …
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Owl Canyon, Starved Rock State Park, June 2022 Note: This is the third of four posts covering hikes in northern Illinois’ Starved Rock State Park, which boasts 18 sandstone canyons, dozens of waterfalls, and an impressive network of trails along the southern shores of the Illinois River. This post covers a 2.1-mile one-way section that …
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