Starved Rock trail upgrades coming late 2025, ‘26

There’s an outside chance it’ll get done this winter, but workers will make trail improvements at Starved Rock State Park in 2026.

At a Monday roundtable in Utica, where regional officials primarily discuss safety concerns, park superintendent Monty Bernardoni alerted authorities to intermittent trail closures as workers make improvements.

“We’re going to have plenty of signage out there warning people that there will be construction going on,” Bernardoni said.

State Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) launched the roundtable years ago to open lines of communication between the agencies that are affected by and directly or indirectly are responsible for the safety of the nearly 3 million visitors to Starved Rock and Matthiessen state parks.

Rezin said Monday that one of her long-standing goals is to have trails and facilities that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. She hopes to see that goal realized as acres annexed into both parks are cleared for public access.

“We have several areas that make sense,” Rezin said of the recently-acquired parcels, “but we need to have leadership that acknowledges that this is an incredibly important topic and we need to prioritize the area to be ADA-accessible.”

Natalie Phelps Finnie, director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, was in attendance Monday and said the state is seeking “universal access,” whereby people with any sort of disability would be able to access IDNR offerings.

It’s a lofty goal and Starved Rock presents challenges due to its topography, she allowed, “but Matthiessen seems to have some flatter areas” that could be rendered ADA-compliant.

Even if there are no immediate improvements under the ADA heading, Bernardoni said work is expected “soon” in Oglesby, as well. Bernardoni said one of the first phases of the multi-year expansion includes opening a parking lot and increasing river access near Jonesville.

Bernardoni and Utica Fire Chief Ben Brown acknowledged that safety hasn’t been much of an issue lately. While park staff and Utica first-responders deal with on-trail accidents (twisted ankles, for example), serious injuries and fatalities are less frequent at Starved Rock than in previous years.

Several panelists remarked that emergency response times are outstanding and have improved over time.

Oglesby Fire Chief Steve Maltas said a similar phenomenon is happening at Matthiessen, where his crews have responded once in the past year.

Maltas observed that improving safety is a byproduct of the park’s popularity. Matthiessen has toppled attendance records and the brisk crowds force visitors to keep moving and away from cliff faces, reducing the opportunities for reckless conduct.

Traffic in and out of the park has improved thanks to the roundabout that replaced the red light at U.S. 6 and Route 178. Lt. Jason Quinn of the Utica Police Department termed the roundabout “a success” and said it has alleviated backup on I-80 during peak travel times such as the Burgoo Festival.

“That’s been very, very helpful,” Quinn said,

Bernardoni said Starved Rock will undergo less visible (but no less important) improvements besides the trails. August is the target start date for repairs at the sanitary-wastewater treatment plant. Further down the road will be water improvements that include new restrooms in the campgrounds and parking lots.

It’s still “Starved Rock,” by the way.

Asked about the dormant talks of renaming the state park, Phelps Finnie reiterated the state’s position that Native Americans with ancestral ties to Starved Rock need to have a say in the park’s name.

“But again, nothing will be decided without all stakeholders at the table,” she said, “and that would be years down the road to come, but lots of discussions before them.”