July/August 2021 Trip – Gateway Arch, Indiana Dunes National Parks, Chicago, IL

Click on any image for a larger view

This is an escaping TX heat/visiting family, trip.  We are including visits to four National Parks and two National Lakeshores.

On the way we stop at Elephant Rock State Park in OK.  The campground itself is on Lake Murray, it’s huge, popular for fishing and playing in the water.  We are on a small arm of it, a no wake zone so canoeing, kayaking, fishing and inner tube floating goes on all around us.  We break out our ‘origami/foldable’ Oru kayaks.  While traveling, with a bit of planning and effort, we fit one in the back seat of the truck, the second inside the camper.  With the exception of a paddling class we took a month earlier this is our first opportunity getting out to paddle.

Our campsite is right on the lake.  After 20 minutes of assembling the kayaks we head off.  The water is clam, we are surrounded by cattails and trees.  Small groups of yellow flowered lily pads add color to the greens and browns.

Our kayaking adventure goes well.  Using a Garmin GPS receiver we see we did almost two miles in an hour of paddling.  It is still warm, upper 80’s, as we prepare to sleep.  No mosquitos to speak of so all is well.  No air conditioning in the camper so we use both ceiling fans to pull fresh air through the camper as we climb into  bed.  Insects serenade us as we drift off to sleep.  Sometime during the night I turn off one of the fans; it has cooled down to the point we have to pull a sheet over us.  We wake to birds singing some are calling out with their calls echoed back.  Canada Geese honk between each other conducting their own conversations.

The next evening we are treated to fireflies hovering in the shadows of low growing ferns and shrubs.  I anticipate the show will improve as the evening darkens but returning from my shower I discover the show had ended.  Tonight is cooler, a single fan and sheet make for comfortable sleeping.      

Gateway Arch National Park

Our national parks list is old, meaning a few new ones had been added we were not aware of.  Gateway Arch in St. Louis is one of them.  It is the first park we are visiting to see a man-made object.  It is in downtown St. Louis on the western bank of the Mississippi River.

Tickets to ride to the top of the Arch are limited.  While Nicida is driving I am on the phone trying to get a couple of the remaining tickets for later today, Thursday.  My hope for a Friday tour is dashed on my first look at the website handling the tickets.  After holding for some time I finally make connections to order tickets.  Just as I am about to give my final bit of information securing our transaction we drop into a valley - losing connection….  I start the process over again, after another hold I get through; fortunately they had our ticket  information on file.  A few quick questions and a credit card number; we are in business for a late afternoon Arch tour and movie describing the design and construction.

The campground is on the west side of St. Louis.  A 20 mile drive down the interstate into town with another mile in the downtown area searching for an outdoor parking lot; puts us within a 20 minute walk, with photos, of course, of the Arch.  From the outside it is impressive.  We photograph it from several angles before entering.  Inside, we go through a ‘TSA like line’, remove all items from our pockets, belts then through a metal detector.  Once through we pass by the museum describing events leading to the arch and growth of the St. Louis area.  Stopping in the gift shop we get our passport books stamped, park #27 of 63.

Looking west -
Downtown St. Louis

The Arch lift system is a series of eight approximately five foot diameter balls with five seats.  The doors automatically open then close once we are all in place.  The door has a window so we can see the inside of the Arch with the stairways and ladders for maintenance personnel to climb to the top.  We are hoping we will not have to use these stairs to get down to the bottom if there is a problem with the system.  The ‘ball’ we are in moves upward adjusting pitch as we ride to the top.  Arriving, we climb another series of steps.  Even then we have an incline to get to the very top to look out the three to four windows on each side.  A rope divides the north side from the south side of the Arch.  We can see the opposite side of the arch is a mirror image with an equally steep decline leading to the bottom.  We take many photos; to the east is the Mississippi River and Illinois; west is downtown St. Louis.

Looking east - Illinois

The movie is very educational.  It describes the competition for the design of the Arch all the way through its construction.  We are amazed at the work that needed to be done to build it.  Cranes were attached to the sides of the Arch as it grew in stature.  The cranes kept moving up the Arch as sections were added.  I got nervous watching the workers walking back and forth several hundred feet above the ground as they handled cross sections of the Arch.  Once completed they had to reverse the process taking the cranes back down then finally removing them.  Truly a spectacular piece of engineering.

We return the next day touring the museum.  It starts with the indigenous peoples living in the area, through the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark Voyage of Discovery, through St. Louis growth to today.

Be sure to visit the Gateway Arch, a different kind of National Park.

Our trip out of St. Louis is uneventful.  Lots of traffic but that is to be expected.  Rather than make the all-day drive to Indiana Dunes National Park we stop at Comlara Park in Bloomington, IL.  It is a nice family park, lots of open, somewhat closely packed campsites.  Lots of families are enjoying each other’s company.  The kids are having a blast running around, throwing balls, squirting each other with water.  Being in central IL the temperatures are a bit cooler than the 90°+ we have enjoyed a couple days earlier.  

Indiana Dunes National Park

Lake Michigan shoreline

The drive from Bloomington to Indiana Dunes gets more intense approaching Chicago.  Growing up in Milwaukee I remember passing through Chicago every time we wanted to go east or south, almost every trip we took.  I wasn’t driving at that time but I still remember the amount of semis passing us or being passed by my dad.

Neither the traffic or the construction on the interstates has changed.

Indiana Dunes is also one of the newer national parks.  The dunes line the southeast corner of Lake Michigan, oddly enough in Indiana.  We weren’t able to see the Chicago skyline but we are within an hour’s drive of Chicago (we had light traffic on a Sunday morning when we headed into Chicago).

The visitor center is open and better yet, the display’s and the movie showing park highlights is playing.  Be sure to stop and see the movies at this and any of the other parks.  Each has been impressive, giving us more ideas for hiking and things to see and do.

The dunes are covered with grasses.  As we hike farther into the dunes, away from the lake, shrubs and trees take over with wildflowers covering the ground wherever a few square inches of sunlight shows through.  Farther from the lake a large marsh parallels the lakeshore for miles.  Our hike in the marsh is unexpectedly mosquito free.  Frogs croak out their mating songs.  Birds sing, as we approach they reveal their hiding places.  We spot two cranes standing in the marsh not more than 30’ from us.  An observation stand allows us to look across open water seeing a heron scouring the water for dinner.

We walk along the beach.  We are not alone.  There are many families along the shoreline enjoying the warm sunny day and relatively warm Lake Michigan water.  One of the rangers informs us that last year the park was packed with visitors.  All the Chicago beaches were closed so everyone came to the national park to enjoy the beach.

Chicago

One of Nicida’s friend lives in Chicago so we make a two day stop to visit her and to see a bit of Chicago.

Large cities are a challenge with the truck camper.  We need a minimum 8’6” height clearance for the camper.  You probably haven’t noticed; most underground parking lots have at most an 8’ clearance.  I did a lot of Googling to find a hotel with an outdoor parking lot and fairly close to Chicago’s ‘L’.  We ended up in Skokie.  We are able to walk the ~1 mile to the Yellow Line, then the Red Line to the downtown area.  A great deal of research went into figuring out where to catch each and where to get off then walk to our destinations.  The subway part is actually quite easy.  We catch up with Nicida’s friend at a restaurant near Lincoln park.  As we walk from the station to the restaurant I notice every square inch of parking space along the streets is claimed.  We enjoy a nice dinner outside watching all the activity.

Enjoying the pool

Hancock Building

The next day we head to downtown Chicago.  Approaching downtown the ‘L’ goes underground.  Emerging from the ‘L’ I have problems determining directions; we are surrounded by towering buildings; street signs are hiding, or are nonexistent.  After a few false starts we figure out the way to 360 Chicago; the 94^th floor of the Hancock building.  The views are good, not great – haze surrounds us from far away Canadian wildfires.  We are amazed at the number of high rises that have pools on their roofs.

We venture further downtown for lunch at a Venezuelan restaurant.  We end our trip into Chicago seeing the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit.  Returning north, the ‘L’ emerges from the underground.  The Red Line passes Wrigley Field, I get an image of the Cubs sign at the Addison street stop.  Continuing through middle class and student neighborhoods I feel like a voyeur, seeing the back doors of people’s lives living alongside the ‘L’.

Van Gogh exhibit

Next,  part two of our trip: Wisconsin, Pictured Rocks and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshores and others.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark