As 2 miles turned into 3, then 4, then 5,6,7, and finally 8, we realized we were no longer on the Willow Creek trail. For the rest of the day, both my feet were soggy - not pleasant. Important lesson: waterproof boots only work when you are standing in less than a foot of water. It was at this point I stepped in a small divot in the creek, leading to water rushing into my boots. We started to follow random trails off of the main one, well, because what fun is the regular path? (We still stayed on designated trails… we think) About an hour to an hour and a half in, I was attempting a long exposure of the creek rushing through a unique industrial area. I’m not sure if he was biting his tongue or it genuinely didn’t bother him… This meant that I used a tripod for every shot. On top of that, being that it was heavily forested, I was shooting at very low shutter speeds. For the first 30 minutes, I’m sure Ben (my friend) was frustrated because I stopped every other second for some pictures. After driving by the trailhead approximately 6,000 times, we parked the car and set off on our first hike. Then, we scouted locations and settled on the Willow Creek trail. We found our spot and set up camp at possibly a personal best speed and made sure we had all 6 fans ready to go for the scorching hot night ahead of us. Luckily, when we got there, they had plenty of available sites. Nevertheless, we packed up and headed out around 6 am. In other words, we couldn’t book a site ahead of time since we were leaving in only two days. This is when I discovered that Reserve America (campsite online booking website) had a “three day in advance” policy.
![rock cut state park rock cut state park](https://cdn-assets.alltrails.com/static-map/production/area/10116665/parks-us-illinois-rock-cut-state-park-10116665-20190607150426-625x365-1.png)
We agreed on the location, and I went to go book the campsite. I had driven by Rock Cut on my way back from Minnesota the previous week and noticed that it was the largest park in northern Illinois.
![rock cut state park rock cut state park](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/04/32/49/52/rock-cut-state-park.jpg)
We scouted locations (we had to stay close as I was leaving for Colorado in several days) and came across Rock Cut State Park. With only a handful of days left available before moving to DC, I said, “Let’s make it happen”. He immediately jutted in expressing that he wanted to get away and camp. Only three days before this shoot, I was talking to one of my closest friends about traveling west for a project.