Matthiessen's Lower Dells

 

Wintertime in Illinois' Matthiessen State Park is always interesting. From the warm canyon walls, to the frozen waterfalls, the "fire and ice" theme is well represented here. The lower dell area is an often overlooked part of the park. It's the longest hike, with the most stairs, but it can also be closed due to flooding or extremely muddy conditions. When it is accessible, it's well worth the hike.

There are a few caves along the canyon walls, very near Cascade Falls pictured here. They're large enough to walk through, but quite short. One of the reasons this park is excellent during the winter is the fact that the creek runs all winter, and does not dry out, so the waterfalls are always running, and in winter, they're frozen solid and feature-filled.

 

The sun was getting a bit low in the sky, highlighting the snow and ice, and hiding the shaded canyon walls. The frozen falls are approximately 50 feet tall to the first ledge, and probably able to be climbed by ice climbers with the proper gear. I'm glad we hiked through here before any climbers, because they can often break off large pieces of ice, and almost always break off thousands of small pieces making the falls look far from perfect. They do, however, make for excellent photographic subjects.

   

 Walking through the majestic canyon, one can often miss small things on the canyon floor, like this chunk of ice. This caught my eye after seeing the sky reflected in the ice. The colors and light are very unusual in an environment generally consisting of only white, brown, and green.