Lowden State Park 10-31-10

Lowden is a state park along the Rock River near Oregon, IL. It's claim to fame is the statue of Blackhawk on the side of a mountain. This is Blackhawk as seen from the other side of the river.

The signs at the park entrance.

We parked near the statue and took a few pictures of the statue and some of the signs in the area first.

The view of the Rock River from beneath the statue.

The roof of the outhouse by the statue was damaged in a storm 3 months ago and not repaired yet. Maybe a victim of the current financial disaster the state is in. I emailed the park superintendant and asked about it and he replied they are hoping to have it repaired by this spring. My wife said the women's side (under the damage) is locked, so women have to use the men's side.

We started out by going down the hill to the river level. There are two ways to get there. A trail made mostly of old railroad ties, or a staircase.

I chose the trail. It's not the greatest trail, and is pretty steep and somewhat overgrown, but it is passable.

This tree has fallen across the trail but it is possible to walk around it on the left hand side.

The trail becomes nice and level along the river headed south.

The sign where the Heckman and Blackhawk trails cross.

It's only maybe 100 yards down the Heckman trail to the river so we headed that way. Someone had a fire there not too long ago.

We continued along the Blackhawk trail to the road that bisects the park (north/south) and continued to the east side of the park on Pine Trail. We saw this deer carcass just inside the shrubs along the road at the entrance of Pine Trail. I emailed the park superintendent about it the next day and he said he would alert the DOT. You can't see it from the road, and it looked like it might have been there a few days.

Pine Trail starts out as a nice grassy and level lane along the edge of the pine woods. There are farm fields about 20 feet to the right and pine trees to the left.

The trail goes into the forest and becomes a kind of typical forest trail.

It starts to go uphill. There is perhaps a 200 yard stretch of it that is relatively difficult with switchbacks and pretty steep climbing. Glad for my stick. I did not take pictures of the worst of it as I was too busy trying to keep my self going up the hill. This picture is of a relatively easy part of the hill.

The worst of it did not last long and we came out into the primitive camping area. A black lab and his human came up from behind us. They were RUNNING on the trail. Wilma got a drink from a hydrant in the area.

I did something as well. I did not need to heed this particular sign, but having spent some time in Mexico a few years back, I can understand the need for it.

Wilma and I went went down the road toward the entrance on River Road and then came back to catch the trail again.

This is pretty typical of the route coming back on this side of the trail. It's not real steep, but there is quite a bit of grade change. The drop off to the left is maybe 75 feet. But it is a pretty wide trail, perhaps 10 feet or more.

We finish hiking Pine Trail and go across River Road again and head up Heckman Trail. Up is the operative word. It's 0.3 miles long according to a sign I saw, and it's up the whole way - 10-30 degree slopes. It's a gravel trail so it is not real hard to walk on or anything, but it is still up hill.

The top of Heckman Trail is near the other campground. Only a few campers. Wilma went to get some more water and then we walked back to the statue.

A nice hike. Right at 2 hours. I would guess a little over 3 miles. The park brochure says there are almost 4 miles of trails and we hiked most of them.