After I returned from my recent visit to Starved Rock State Park, I immediately planned another outing.  For my second visit, I wanted to make the most of the daylight hours and refamiliarise myself with areas within the central portion of the state park.  I essentially wanted to pick up the trail from where I previously left off and revisit Lover’s Leap Overlook, Eagle Cliff Overlook and then venture further afield to Wildcat Canyon, Lonetree Canyon, Owl Canyon and Hidden Canyon.

I am not normally a morning person, but managed to get a relatively earlier start to the day and arrived at the main parking lot at 08:00 local time, about 45 minutes after sunrise.  I hiked through the park straight to Lover’s Leap Overlook as I hoped to catch the morning light on Starved Rock itself.  With the sun already behind me, I realised that I really need to be onsite at sunrise.  From there, I leisurely hiked along the Riverwalk Trail to each of the locations I planned to visit.

About This Photograph

The above photograph was taken of the Starved Rock outcrop from Lover’s Leap Overlook.  Even though it was still early morning, the sun was behind me and the sun’s light was hitting Starved Rock almost head on.  Although there are a variety of colours in the autumn foliage on Starved Rock, the colours seem muted and lack vibrancy; and further in the background, the colours of the autumn foliage seem bland & tinted, lacking contrast, clarity & saturation.  Because the foreground foliage is essentially in shadow, this helps to frame and add a level of contrast to the remaining image.