The Other Midwest

“I had no idea that there were places like that in Illinois.”

That was the gist of a number of comments made regarding the images I posted of Starved Rock and Matthiessen State Parks in my previous entry.  The remarks, frankly, aren’t surprising.

St. Louis Canyon Waterfall, Starved Rock State Park, Illinois

For those of you who are generally unfamiliar with the terrain of the United States, the conventional wisdom is that Midwest states, like Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, are essentially flat farmland; “flyover country” is the common expression.  And, like most stereotypes, it has some basis in fact.  The northern halves of these states–and the southern halves of Wisconsin and the lower peninsula of Michigan–are in fact, largely flat.  But the other parts of these states are quite hilly–bordering on low mountains, in some cases–and even in the conventionally flat parts of the states, the river valleys are a notable exception.

Rocky Hollow, Turkey Run State Park, Indiana

Starved Rock and Matthiessen are located in the Illinois River Valley, in north central Illinois, and while the canyon settings are unusual, they are by no means unique.  Turkey Run State Park, in west-central Indiana and Hocking Hills State Park, in central Ohio, bear a great deal of topographical resemblance to the aforementioned Illinois parks, for instance, as does Fall Creek Gorge Preserve in northwest Indiana and Pewits Nest State Natural Area in central Wisconsin.

Lower Brandywine Falls, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio

The larger point is that there are numerous places in the Midwest that blow the “flat wasteland” stereotype to smithereens.  That’s the focus of this blog entry.

Red Jack Lake, Hiawatha National Forest, Michigan

I don’t want to oversell the point.  The American Midwest is not, in my estimation, some sort of undiscovered photographic Shangri-La.  There is a reason why the most popular landscape destinations in North America are virtually all in the West.  I myself will be heading to Utah and Nevada for 10-odd days of photography in little more than a week.  But the Midwest has its share of spots of understated beauty; they’re not nearly as numerous or as spectacular as those out West, and we’ll never see droves of western state photographers tripping over one another to seek out landscape opportunities in the Heartland.

Tunnel Falls, Clifty Falls State Park, Indiana

In broad terms, you have to put in a little extra work when it comes to Midwest landscapes, both to find compelling examples and to make the most of them–at least in comparison to the iconic locations out West.  I’ve spoken at some length on this topic with a number of photographic friends and acquaintances who cut their teeth shooting the landscapes of the American Midwest before moving on to other geographic areas in North America (California, the Pacific Northwest, Utah, the Canadian Rockies, etc.) and–quite literally to a person–every single one of them has agreed that composing and capturing Midwestern landscapes is significantly more difficult than those in the more iconic spots in which they now reside.  And, to take it a step further, they all agreed that the experience of shooting initially and at length in the Midwest made their subsequent endeavors much easier.  (“It’s like shooting fish in a barrel,” one of them told me, in reference to photographing Oregon landscapes after developing the craft in the Midwest.)

Pewits Nest State Natural Area, Wisconsin

In that respect, I feel as though I jumped into the deep end of the pool–without swimming lessons or a flotation device–some years ago when I decided to get serious about photographing the landscape.  The learning curve may have been steep, but I feel as though I was able to develop more quickly–from an aesthetic standpoint–than would have been the case if I had been embedded in an area with more “obvious” subject matter and naturally self-composing stimuli.

Elliott Creek at Miners Beach, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan

Here in the Midwest, the postcard shots are at a minimum.  There are no snow-capped peaks reflected in alpine lakes.  No spectacular thousands-of-feet-deep canyons.  No broad deserts with fascinating hoodoos.  No rocky ocean beaches littered with seastacks.

Above Upper Cataract Falls, Cataract Falls State Recreation Area, Indiana

What we have here, when you get past the areas of dense development and agriculture, is a lot of cluttered forests, a lot of difficult to navigate rivers and creeks, with ponds and lakes tossed in for good measure.  Amidst all of this, however, we have some real gems.  I’m quite convinced I’ve scarcely scratched this particular surface, though I try to constantly keep my eyes open.

Lake of the Clouds Sunrise, Porcupine Mountains State Park, Michigan

And with that, I’m off to the deserts of southern Utah and Nevada in eight days. 🙂