November 17-18, 2024 Trail of Tears State Park, Cape Girardeau, Missouri

 70 degrees and partly cloudy.

Missouri welcomes you,  we drove through Nashville, Illinois, - home of the hornets, couple signs from the campground- watch out for ticks, mosquitos and a thief, and a round root in our campsite. Fall colors near our campsite. 

The bus in Mississippi river campground in the Trail of Tears state park. A view of the Mississippi river from our campsite. 

There is a train that runs between the river and the campground, whistles blowing, red lights flashing and beeping. Hope it does not come through in the night.  Sunset.

We had dinner at the Minglewood brewery. John with his IPA. The Christmas decorations are already up in Cape Girardeau. 

73 degrees and partly sunny. John at the Bushyhead Memorial. The memorial is the grave of one of the many Indians who died on the trail of tears. View of the Mississippi from a viewpoint higher in the park. 

Lake Boutin. They really don't want dogs at the lake.

Fall colors on the drive  Mississippi River scenic overlook. We hiked on the Lake trail. Drove  by the Peewah trails that are in the Indian Creek Wild area. 

View upriver and down river of the Mississippi River from the scenic view point. We are still above where the Ohio rivers empties into the Mississippi. It gets much bigger combined with the Ohio. Puff balls, red oak leaves, burning bush, wet leaves in a stream and cool roots. 

John on the Lake Trail. Boutin Lake from the lake trail.

John on the Lake trail. The trail was hard to find with the fallen leaves all over it. The trail description says 'natural surface dirt, mud, gravel, shifting rocks, slippery surface, rocks, roots,  downed vegetation, steep grades, drop-offs. The trail goes up to ridges, then back down to steep ravines. It said it was 2.2 miles and would take 2 hours 15 minutes to hike. It was more like 3 miles and we did it in one hour and 15 minutes. Very pretty colors. 

John on the trail.  Three types of ferns, 4 types of fungus. There are tulip popular, paw paw trees, american beech, cucumber magnolia, white oaks and hickory trees here. Last light on the trees across the Mississippi river from camp. 

Sunset. 

November 13-15, 2024 Eldon Hazlet State Park, Carlyle, Illinois.

 High of 54m cloudy and rainy. 

Rained most of the day. Foggy and can't see most of the lake. 

We drove into the town of Carlyle. It is just below the dam of Carlyle Lake, that  we are camped on. The dam at Carlyle Lake. 

Back at camp it was cloudy all day. Here is sunset. The lake is smooth, but not colors. Sunny, 57 and no wind. We went kayaking on the lake. 

The white dot in the middle is a great blue heron. John on waves from a passing boat. 

The white dots are a flock of sea gulls. Cypress trees. 

John with cypress trees.   Closer to the cypress trees. 

More cypress. I really love them. John at the take out.

Sunset. Full Beaver supermoon rising in the sunset. 

The full moon is rising by the peninsula. Full Beaver supermoon. 

There were tons of sea gulls flying just above the surface of the lake. 

 

November 12, 2024 Eldon Hazlet State Park, Carlyle, Illinois

 56 and mostly cloudy.

We are at an Illinois state park. They are thankfully open. Eldon Hazlet State park. We got a nice spot on the lake. It is so nice to be in a campground again. 

Fall colors biking.

The trail goes through tall grass prairie. It is taller than I am. I scared up a white tailed deer and it bounced through the tall grass, you could see it at the top of each bounce above the tall grass. Fishing pond.

Illini trail.  Untouchables. Poison Ivy, poison sumac, nettles, bees, wasps and 4 kinds of snakes. Copper head, cotton mouth, timber rattler and eastern massasauga. Too cool for snakes now.  

 Illini trail.  The trails are closed Weds- Sun due to pheasant hunting. I took a nice ride down the trail, since it is Tues. Road to one of the boat ramps.

 I saw this deer perfectly lit, took the photo and then noticed it was not moving. I went closer and it is part of the archery ranger and cardboard. From the boat ramp. 

Cypress tree with knees. The lake from the boat ramp. 

Sail boats, dry docked for the season. Sundog. 

This deer is real. I saw about 50 deer this evening on my bike ride. Deer.

 Sunset with moon from our campsite.  Sunset with moon.