Forty five Starved Rock Walkers (0 dogs) left the Lodge lobby and drove to Buffalo Rock State Park to hike the Effigy Tumuli and River Trails there. A sunny, windy March day for a walk!

 The bison Pebbles came out to see us off.

 Tailgates open and gearing up for the hike.

 We took the accessible trail (sidewalk) from the parking lot to the first overlook platform. In summer this is one of the nicest wheelchair walks in the county.

 The Effigy Tumuli Trail winds through five different effigies constructed from old strip mine piles that used to be here.

 Edna agreed to lead most of the group to the summit of the catfish.

 This is the summit team descending the head of the catfish.

 This is truly one of the best strip mine reclamations you will ever see.

 Leaving the frog effigy I noticed one walker thought today is the perfect day to wear his bison hat!

 Some of us also chose to summit the snake effigy.

 Signs seen from atop the snake encouraged us to turn around so we did.

 This was our first traction-free walk of 2020. No one missed the ice & snow!

 The River Trail funnels walkers into single file along the edge of Buffalo Rock. 

 Walkers on the stairs down to the river overlook.

 A downriver view from the overlook at the wind driven rollers and whitecaps moving up river.

 Only the geologist was impressed by the limestone stairs at the end of the River Trail.

 The right half of the "wedding oak" in the Park's picnic area went down in the 28 February 2017 tornado. The left half is still doing fine. No, you cannot call it the "divorce oak"!

Cocoa, right, joined Pebbles to watch us leave.

As we "Think Spring", a quote from George Santayanya reminds us,

"To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring."