It doesn’t last long enough in this area, but I love this time of year when temperatures cool off and the trees are full of color.

My first time camping in Southern Illinois. This trip included camping at South Marcum – Corp of Engineers campground at Rend Lake, a visit to the Little Grand Canyon, the Bald Knob Cross of Peace, the Stone Face trail, the Observation Trail at Garden of the gods, Cave-in-Rock park on the Ohio River and a trip to the original family homestead in Paducah.

My first time camping in Southern Illinois. This trip included camping at South Marcum – Corp of Engineers campground at Rend Lake, a visit to the Little Grand Canyon, the Bald Knob Cross of Peace, the Stone Face trail, the Observation Trail at Garden of the gods, Cave-in-Rock park on the Ohio River and a trip to the original family homestead in Paducah.

My first time camping in Southern Illinois. This trip included camping at South Marcum – Corp of Engineers campground at Rend Lake, a visit to the Little Grand Canyon, the Bald Knob Cross of Peace, the Stone Face trail, the Observation Trail at Garden of the gods, Cave-in-Rock park on the Ohio River and a trip to the original family homestead in Paducah.

We had a young buck visit the homestead around dusk. Good lookin’ boy!

“We’re about John Wayne, Johnny Cash and John Deere.”

The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot-tall (192 m) monument in St. Louis, Missouri. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world’s tallest arch and Missouri’s tallest accessible building. Some sources consider it the tallest human-made monument in the Western Hemisphere.  Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States and officially dedicated to “the American people”, the Arch, commonly referred to as “The Gateway to the West”, is a National Historic Landmark in Gateway Arch Nation Park and has become an internationally recognized symbol of St. Louis, as well as a popular tourist destination. From Wikipedia

Eads designed and built the first road and rail bridge to cross the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The Eads Bridge, constructed from 1867 through 1874, was the first bridge of a significant size with steel as its primary material, and it was the longest arch bridge in the world when completed.

Had a Sunday morning to spend at Lone Elk Park in St. Louis County. Beautiful morning to spend with the animals.

Lake 33 at Busch Wildlife Conservation Area is naturally shallow making it a great place to find shorebirds. A lack of rain in the area caused the lake to dry up on the shallow end leaving mud behind, but exposed the muscles that Limpkins like to feed on.