My Hike Up Salt Lick Bluff

     Hiking an 810 foot high bluff can look and sound daunting, but if you succeed the reward is priceless.  This is what I felt at the bottom of Salt Lick Bluff.  It is part of the Salt Lick Point Land and Water Reserve in Valmeyer off of Bluff Road.  Salt Lick Bluff is one of the highest points in Monroe County.  My view from the foot of the bluff was scenic, but I wanted to know what the Mississippi River Valley looked like from above.
    I decided to hike the Salt Lick Trail.  There are three cleared and marked trails on the reserve.  This one would take me up the side of the bluff and give me a great view.  Almost immediately the trail started off steep.  I had my camera around my neck, my phone in one hand, and my map in the other as I puffed up the trail.  Little saplings grew on both sides of me and tangles of small brush grew close to the ground.  A little farther up and I could start to see formations of limestone jutting out of the ground.
     I was standing on a limestone bedrock that is part of the Mississipian System bedrock.  It used to be part of an ancient seabed.  This narrow band of bluffs in Monroe County was never underneath glaciers.  Instead, during the Wisconsonian stage of Illinois' glaciation, massive amounts of windblown silt were dropped here.  These bluffs are covered in about thirty feet of glacial silt.
     My calves got a little rest as the trail evened out for a while.  I could catch little glimpses of the flat farmland down below every once in  awhile.  I was mostly enveloped in trees.  On my right, facing away from the edge of the bluff, the ground gave away quickly making a steep hill.  Tall skinny trees grew up from this ravine searching for sunight.  It was very dark underneath their canopy.
    I knew I was getting close to the summit when the trail turned steep again.  My heartbeat pulsed quickly and breathing grew ragged as I climbed even higher.  The ground became even and I could see out from a break in the trees.  Far below was the valley.  My eyes lingered on the beauty, soaking it in.

                                                                               

     I had a bird's eye view.  It was late afternoon and the sun was just beginning to head west.  It was sinking towards the Mississippi River.  The river wasn't visible from here, but the distant bluffs in this picture are in Missouri.  I rested here until I got my breath back and plenty of photographs.

     The trail began to loop back to where I started.  My trip back down was a lot easier than up, but I had to stop once again to look at the view.  This next picture made me kneel down to view out.  The ground literally fell straight down to the field.  

     

     I didn't want to take a tumble right here.  The tree to the left marked where the ground stopped.  Underneath it was a row of limestone embedded into the bluff.  Row after row of golden corn stalk remains lined the ground.  Train tracks ran through the field heading north and south.  Occasionally I heard the whistle of an engine and the train would pass full of oil tankers. 

     I brushed the dirt off of my knees and continued on.  It was a physically challenging hike, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.  I felt alone on the bluff.  It is a silent place filled with trees and overlooks.  The only thing before and behind me was the trail.  I made it to the bottom with a smile of accomplishment.