Road to Meteor Crater, just outside of Flagstaff, Az

Photos by D. Bowden 1998

There are lots of lonely roads like this out west. This one leads to Meteor Crater: the best preserved meteorite impact site on Earth.
50,000 years old
4100 feet across
Over 3 miles in circumference
570 feet deep

Look closely and you will see the little camp at the bottom of the crater.

Abandoned mine at Death Valley

photo by D. Bowden, 2001

14 Miles to Death Valley

photo by D. Bowden - 2001

Pickle eyes

My 26-year-old son Jeff still likes to play with his food.

Daffodils

watercolor by D. Bowden

Sunset Fishing

Local men fish from a jetty at sunset from the Black Sea's coast on the Russian southern resort city of Sochi.
(AFP/Denis Sinyakov)

Jeans Art

An art installation, made of thousands of pairs of jeans, is displayed in Shanghai May 24, 2006. The installation has a diameter of about 5 m (16 feet).
Picture taken May 24, 2006. CHINA OUT REUTERS/China Daily

Harold Washington Library - Chicago

In 1993, seven ornaments were added to the roof. They are placed on each of the four corners, as well as in the centers of the State, Congress, and Van Buren sides. The State Street ornament is a sculpture of an owl, and the Congress and Van Buren ornaments incorporate seed pods, which are symbolic of the natural bounty of the Midwest. The ornamentation at each of the four corners includes a small owl perched in the foliage.

Joys of my life

This photo was taken in 2000. Though they live in different places in the US now, they are still very close. I must have done something right to have them love each other so much and that makes me happy to know they are good to each other and very close in heart. It's all the Mother's Day gift I need.

My favorite place in Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago at night. I could go here every day and never tire of it. I am in awe of the works contained here, the works of the masters.

Bottlenose dolphins

Two dolphins swim in Europe's L'Oceanografic aquarium in Valencia Spain in 2003. Bottlenose dolphins are the only animals besides humans that use sounds to recognize members of their group. (AFP/EFE/File/JJ Cardenas)

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower shows blue lighting to mark Europe's Day early Tuesday, May 9, 2006, in Paris. May 9 marks the anniversary of the speech made by French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman in 1950 which led to post World War II Europe creating a pan-european organisation which has grown into the present day E.U. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

German Willi Chevalier, world champion freestyle chin beard 2005

German Willi Chevalier, world champion freestyle chin beard 2005, poses during the International German Beard and Moustache Championships in Hesel, northern Germany, on Saturday, April 29, 2006. Some 100 participants from eight nations compete to become world champion in one of 16 beard and moustache categories. (AP Photo/Kai-Uwe Knoth)

A Canada goose sits with her new babies

AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Travis Heying

Starved Rock and the Great Illinois River

I used to come here a lot with my family when I was a child. Much has changed about Starved Rock State Park. When we were kids there was no wooden decking with railings. My mother would warn us not to go too close to the edge or we would suffer the same fate that many boy scouts and other people had when falling to their deaths into the shallow banks of the Illinois River.

Starved Rock State Park is located 1 mile south of Utica on the Illinois River. This 2,630 acre park receives more than two million visitors each year and it's no wonder why when you see the bounty of beautiful sites the park has to offer. Starved Rock itself is a sandstone butte that towers 125 feet above the river. There are six spectacular overlooks within the park for viewing the fascinating rock formations and wildlife. The park is home to 18 stream-fed canyons that sprout waterfalls in spring months. There are 16 miles of marked hiking trails that cover the park and offer scenic views of bluffs, canyons, and the river. Other activities available at Starved Rock include fishing, boating, camping, and picnicking.

The Starved Rock Lock and Dam is located at the Illinois Waterway Visitor Center, approximately two miles east of Route 178 in Ottawa, Illinois.The Starved Rock lock and dam is one of eight between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. The Illinois Waterway, as it is called, was finished in 1933 to make the shallow Illinois River usable for commercial traffic

Established in 1911, Starved Rock State Park is Illinois' second oldest state park, but the majority of Starved Rock's history occurred centuries before the park's existence. There is evidence of archaic Indians having lived in the park area as far back as 8000 B.C. From the 16th century through the 17th century, five to ten thousand Illiniwek Indians were thought to have inhabited the area.

The first Europeans to enter this area were Louis Joliet, Father Jacques Marquette and five companions while exploring the Illinois River in August 1673. In the 1680's, after Robert LaSalle claimed the Mississippi River Valley for France, a chain of forts was established to protect France's new territory. Fort St. Louis was built in 1682 on Starved Rock. It was abandoned in 1702 and completely destroyed by a fire in 1720.

So where does the name Starved Rock come from? A Native American legend tells of a band of Illiniwek Indians who sought refuge on the butte. They were surrounded by a group of Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians, their enemies. Unable to come down alive, they eventually starved to death on the butte.

HAPPY 26TH BIRTHDAY, JEFF!