The Thing About Waterfalls

Okay, so it's finally summer.  We've had more than our fair share of rain so far.  It has hampered a few plans and even a little swimming, although my kids will swim even if it's cold or rainy.  My only rule is no swimming if there's thunder or lightning.  Still, it would be nice if the water was warmer and the sky sunnier.  It's been bumming everybody out around the area.


But here's the thing I'm remembering today: no rain=no waterfalls. 


On our first trip to the wine trail in Southern Illinois (read about that HERE), we did a few smaller hiking trails in Ferne Clyffe State Park.  We went there because:


A) The trails were easy and we had no real "hiking" gear and...
2) It was close to where we were staying and...
Third) I saw a little video on You Tube of the waterfall at the end of one of these trails. That did it.  I was sold.


The weather was absolutely beautiful for that trip last summer.  Sunny and not too hot.  But that meant no waterfalls.  We got to where the waterfall was supposed to be, but - you guessed it - no rain = no waterfall.

Fast forward to my Spring Break eight months later.  We went back down south.  I was hoping for good weather, since it was Spring Break after all.  It wasn't like we were going to make it to Florida or anywhere else sunny that week.  My kids still had school, even though the school where I teach had Spring Break.  We decided to go back down simply because we had the opportunity.  My parents kept the kids for the night, and we were off. We had dinner with my brother and headed back to our bed & breakfast.  But this time it stormed like a beast the night we were there.  We listened to the rain pounding on the roof all night.  It hit me the next morning that since we had no particular plans, it would be the PERFECT time to go back to Ferne Clyffe.


I can't tell you how uplifting this little hike was!  Once again, we did not have any serious hiking gear (as evidenced by my shoes here).

It gave us such an emotional boost to see this.

            Waterfall selfie!

So here's the thing about waterfalls.  You have to endure some rain first.  I'll let you draw the conclusion there.

Kim