Fall Splendor

best viewed large

Stream Leading to Giant's Bathtub
Matthiessen State Park
Near Utica, Illinois

With temperatures around 80 degrees, it was a great day to head out to Matthiessen State Park and explore the canyons. We've only been to Starved Rock but heard about the beauty at nearby Matthiessen so we decided to give it a try. Good thing we did! Not only was it less crowded than the popular Starved Rock, it's canyons and waterfalls are really beautiful.

The main canyon runs for a little over a mile and you can walk a great deal of it above as well as below along the streams. Steep cliffs carved over centuries by running water are dotted with waterfalls, formations and caves. The kids loved the little caves.

It was the perfect day to see the park - warm weather, turning leaves, running streams (in summer the streams and waterfalls sometimes dry up) but a little crowded to get photos of the waterfalls without people in them.

We will definitely head back here in the winter to see the frozen falls and snow covered canyons.

Couldn't Find the Pot of Gold

click to enlarge

Rainbow During Severe Storm
Orland Park, Illinois
October 18, 2007

A very warm, windy October day ended with severe storms in parts of the Chicagoland area. Temperatures reached 79 degrees (that's warm for October!) and an approaching cold front produced heavy winds, storms, hail and a terrific double rainbow.

Light passes into a raindrop and is refracted back to the opposite side and then again until it leaves the raindrop. The "bending" of the lightwave causes different wavelengths of light (or different colors) to exit at a slightly different angle thus producing the colors of the rainbow.

The inside of a rainbow is brighter than the outside because rainbows are actually discs of light, not narrow bands, so the interior of a rainbow is quite bright. Occasionally, a double rainbow can be seen. The outer band is called Alexander's Bow and displays the colors in the opposite direction as the primary bow. You can see a little bit of a second band in the photo here. Note the the space between the two rainbows is much darker than the inside, this is called Alexander's Dark Band.

click to enlarge


Rainbows are best spotted just after sunrise or just before sunset. The low angle of the sun produces a rainbow that "touches" the ground on both sides. Actually, a full circular rainbow can be seen from an airplane.

Every rainbow is unique to the viewer. In other words, the rainbow you see is actually completely different from the rainbow observed by the person next to you.

This is probably the last rainbow of 2007 for us in Chicago, but the way the warm weather has been sticking around, maybe we'll have one for Christmas.

Mike

click to enlarge

Mike with Acorns

Mike, Chris and Danny collected this bucket full of acorns at the lake last weekend. There were so many oak trees and acorns that it didn't take them long at all.

Next week comes the fun part, throwing them at targets in and near the lake!

Fall Still Life

click to enlarge

Acorns and Oak Leaves
October 2007

Fossil Hunt

click to enlarge

Endocerid Fossil
Sag Quarry
Lemont, Illinois

An afternoon walk through the Sag Quarries yielded a few cool fossils. The Sag Quarries are in Lemont near the intersection of Archer Road and Rt. 83. They have been abandoned and flooded for decades and are now part of the Cook County Forest Preserve District.

When walking along the shore you're walking along the edge of the old limestone quarry, so one must be careful not to fall into the deep water. Limestone is everywhere and with a little luck, you can spot fossils that are 450 million years old! The limestone in this area began to form beneath the warm, shallow sea that covered this area over 400 million years ago. Some of the creatures that lived in the sea at this time were shellfish including the Endocerid, a long conical shellfish that could reach lengths of 10 meters or more. The one preserved above was about 18 to 24 inches in length.

It died and sank to the bottom where it was covered up by sediment including sand and tiny particles of calcium from other shells. Over millions of years the sediment compacted and formed the limestone we see today.

The Sag Quarries were in operation in the early 1800's, and during the time of the construction of the I&M Canal. The limestone from these quarries was used to build the Chicago Watertower, Holy Name Cathedral, St. James of the Sag Church (monk's castle) and numerous local buildings.

Reflection

click to enlarge

Geese Wading
Sag Quarries
Lemont, Illinois

The long abandoned limestone quarries in Lemont, Illinois are now filled with water and an abundance of wildlife. An easy, rather interesting walk around the quarries will reveal some things from the past. You'll see a lot of limestone blocks cut by the former workers at the quarry - just left where they were cut on the last day of operation - way too big to move. You'll also see the occasional fossil. This layer of limestone was formed over 400 million years ago when this part of the earth was covered in a warm, shallow sea. Evidence of fish and other sea creatures is rather easy to find while walking along the quarries.

Stocked with fish, these lakes are also popular haunts for local fishermen.

Terror Hill!

click to enlarge

Swallow Cliffs Toboggan Run
Palos Hills, Illinois

One of the two remaining toboggan runs in the Chicago area, Swallow Cliffs is over 90 feet high and toboggans can reach speeds of 50 miles per hour as they slide 900 feet. Last used in 2003, Swallow Cliffs was also known as Terror Hill by local residents.

The last ice age created the "cliff" that the toboggan run is built upon. Glaciers formed moraines at this point in the country and glacial meltwater created the predecessor to Lake Michigan called Lake Chicago. Over time, the waters began to erode the moraines that were keeping the water in place. Over a period of about 3000 years, this meltwater drained Lake Chicago into the Mississippi River with a flow greater than today's Amazon River. The meltwater carved out the depressions known as the Sag that runs through this area. This cliff was actually the shore of Lake Chicago - you'll note in the photo that the land is flat once you get down from the top of Swallow Cliff. If there was a rise in the distance, that evidence would have proven this had been an ancient riverbed, but the land remains flat showing it was once a large body of water.

A private company wishes to create a winter park out of the old Swallow Cliffs Toboggan site. So perhaps once again in the winter, children and adults will experience "Terror Hill."

Firetruck

click to enlarge

View from cherry picker on a firetruck
Orland Park, Illinois

Sunday we visited the firehouse for an open house and got to take a trip up the 55 foot high cherry picker on the fire truck.

The view would have been nice if we were somewhere interesting, pretty much all we saw were the roofs of shops and stores.

We still had fun.

October Rainbow

click to enlarge

Rainbow over Naperville, Illinois
October 5, 2007

A brief rain shower this morning caused a large, but faint rainbow in the northwestern sky. I happened to have the camera in hand (as usual) and snapped a picture before it disappeared a few moments later.

Temperatures are in the mid to upper 80's today - that's hot for October in Chicago!
Hope it lasts all winter!
Hurray for global warming!

Soft Sand

click to enlarge

Sand and Sea Grass
Mount Baldy
Michigan City Indiana

Lake Michigan

click to enlarge

View of Lake Michigan from Mt. Baldy
Michigan City, Indiana

With fall here, I'm still thinking about hot weather and sand. Here's a photo from a visit to Mount Baldy. This 125 foot tall sand dune is right on the edge of Michigan City, Indiana and part of the National Lakeshore.

It's hard to imagine this place will be frozen in about two months....
I've got to get there one more time before it gets too cold.

Fall Has Arrived

click to enlarge

View of Turtlehead Lake
Cook County, Illinios

Even though it was the first day of fall, the leaves have already begun to change in southern Cook County. Soon this lake will begin to freeze over and take on an entirely different look.

Not looking forward to the rain, wind and cold, but the colors are spectacular in the Fall.

Afraid of Nothing

click to enlarge

Baby turtle
Northwest Indiana

Here's a little guy Danny found right by the lake shore. It looks to me like he's really young. He's not even in his shell - I guess he's not afraid of anything! I certainly hope he makes it through the winter.

I used to see many more turtles around the lake, but in recent years, I've been lucky to see one or two a year. Let's hope this is the start of something good and these little guys stick around for a while.

Solitude

click to enlarge

Waiting for my Return
Treasure Island, Florida

This poor bench is waiting all alone for me to return to the beach next summer. It's funny how people don't get to the beach early in the morning, it's a picturesque time on the west coast of Florida. Of course you're going to say that a sunset is the perfect thing to see at the beach, but you'll notice how vibrant the sky and water are when the sun is at an extreme angle behind you.

The fish, birds and other wildlife are awake and busy looking for food, fresh and well rested from the night before. Often, you'll see sea turtle tracks in the sand leading from the Gulf to a freshly excavated nest.

Morning is a great time to experience the beach.

Sun's Rays

click to enlarge

Sun peeking out from behind a cloud
Treasure Island, Florida
June 2007

Empty Beach

click to enlarge

Beach Chairs and "Umbrellas"
Treasure Island, Florida

An early morning walk found most beach chairs unoccupied along the white sands of Treasure Island, Florida.

A long, wide beach, Treasure Island can be loaded with visitors but still have an open feel, and appear to be empty.

Remember Those We Lost

Remember those who lost their lives and loved ones on September 11, 2001

New Roof for the Old Barn

click to enlarge

Workers Replacing the Roof
Door Prairie Barn
LaPorte, Indiana

A crew of roofers spent a few days installing a new cedar shake roof on the 1860 Door Prairie barn in LaPorte. This barn looks fairly small from the road, but if you enlarge the photo you can see just how large the barn really is.

It's nice to see this barn getting some care before it's too late.

Orange Sky

click to enlarge

Sunset over the Gulf of Mexico

June 2007
Clearwater Beach, Florida

Sparkling Clearwater Beach

click to enlarge

Garbage Cans on Clearwater Beach

Sparkling......at least that's what it used to be called. Now it looks more like an advertisement for Waste Management.

The little motels that created the atmosphere of Clearwater Beach have mostly disappeared over the last five years. A few still remain, but for how long? High priced condos are going up everywhere, the beach walk is construction is underway, and almost everything that defined Clearwater Beach is gone (I'm surprised they aren't building a new pier - one they can charge $40 to walk out on).

I hope the number of garbage cans on the beach is only temporary until the beach walk is complete. Perhaps they moved the cans from the parking lots onto the beach until things are done. It sure looks bad with a can every 25 feet along the beach. Who took over the management of this little island? If the idea of change is to attract higher class, higher paying tourists to the area, they're in for a surprise. These high class people must really be slobs if they need to have so many trash cans on the beach. Were they littering too much? Was there really so much trash on the beach that someone figured they would put a can every 25 feet so people won't miss the cans?

I can hear it now, a little boy visits the beach for the first time. Instead of gazing in amazement at the Gulf of Mexico, or the sugar white sand, he says, "Look mommy, lots of garbage cans!" Certainly not what I want to see on a beach that was once rated a Top 10 city beach.

And don't get me started on the fact that the sand is getting compressed by the stupid motor vehicles used by the city and the umbrella rental company. The sand used to be soft, now it's turning into a hard packed beach similar to Daytona.

So sad....