Bald Eagle Trip

In February we ended up having a beautiful weekend- I think it was like 60-some degrees, so we drove over to Alton and Grafton in Illinois to spot bald eagles.  Dustin has been wanting to go for years...and this is not really my cup of tea....so when the weather was so gorgeous, I was actually excited to get outside and do something!

So we get to Alton and find a spot where a tour bus is stopped and people are all watching.  I quickly notice how EVERYONE has binoculors except for us.  We walk up and look in the direction they are spotting these eagles....and see nothing!  There were some trees on the other side of this lake that I guess they were looking at.  I thought someone may be nice and offer for us poor saps to use their binoculors, but no such luck.  So we leave and decide to find a different spot....so at this point I'm a little annoyed with Dustin cause I'm like why didn't you tell me we needed binoculors?!  He says as a kid they would come here and went to some dam and were up close right in front of them, so you didn't need them.  So then we start driving aimlessly looking for this spot he remembers as a kid.  I quickly stopped that cause he can't remember how to get to a place he went to last week, let alone from 20 yrs ago!

So I suggest we drive along the river road and head up to Grafton and go to the state park and try to get some information on the best sites to go to.  On the way up there, we spotted an eagle sitting high up in a tree, so finally a little excitement!  We get to the park and no eagles, but it was still fun to just walk around.  It's not every day that you have snow on the ground, a gorgeous blue sky, and warm weather!  Here are a few pics from the park:

So we decide this whole thing kinda sucks and the eagles must be hiding out, so we decide to head back home.  Then holy moly, I had my head out the sunroof for like a 10 mile stretch cause there were eagles flying around everywhere!  They were all really high, so my photos didn't turn out well, but you get the idea!

Now, would I do this again or recommend it?  Definitely not worth it if it's cold out.  If it's a nice day, I'd definitely go do it again....and would be better if Dustin knew where that dam was at and if you are still able to get a great view there.  There were also a few wineries, ice cream shops, etc. that it would make a cute day trip too!