Sections of Rock Cut’s Main Park Road have been resurfaced and widened. “As soon as the state finds out that someone tests positive, they have to be quarantined for 10 days and then they have to be symptom-free for another three days before they can attempt to come back to work,” Brown said.Ĭonstruction barriers that were a common site throughout the park in 2019 are largely gone. One of Rock Cut’s eight full-time employees and a part-time conservation worker recently tested positive for COVID-19, Brown said. Signs posted throughout the park instruct visitors to practice social distancing and ask people who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms not to enter the grounds. The Lone Rock Cafe on Pierce Lake is open for outdoor dining only. Picnic shelters are available on a first-come, first-serve basis with a 10-person limit. Rock Cut’s playgrounds and the beach at Olson Lake remain closed. Camping has been permitted since May 29.īut restrictions remain in place at the 3,029-acre state park, the largest in northern Illinois. Rock Cut reopened May 1 for hiking, biking, fishing, boating and horseback riding. “But, now that there’s really nothing else to do, we’ve been coming more often. “We usually come once or twice a year during the summer,” Nilson said. Megan Nilson, 39, of Rockford and her 10-year-old son, Carter, took advantage of Tuesday’s sunshine and temperatures in the low 80s to kayak on Pierce Lake. It’s not uncommon to have a few thousand vehicles come in on a busy day, and there have been a lot of busy days.” “I think it’s busier than before the pandemic. JB Pritzker’s shelter-in-place order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, park superintendent Brad Brown said. Visits have rebounded nicely since the park was shut down for nearly six weeks by Gov. “When I went online to get my campsite, it was pretty much empty, but now it’s maybe 30% full.”
![rock cut state park rock cut state park](http://www.seasite.niu.edu/jimstest/Photos/Jan2002/images/i_rc_ia_sph.jpg)
“With the virus and all, I thought maybe there wouldn’t be so many people here,” Forbes said.
![rock cut state park rock cut state park](https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/600x600/15231978_4hTSCVJSE6Gv8kcau8OQll2JYcBnfoGGj6M_O28ids8.jpg)
What Jim Forbes, 75, didn’t expect was the size of Tuesday’s crowd at Rock Cut. There are probably a few more hills than I am used to.” “It’s a nice place to come out and kayak,” said Peg Forbes, 72.
![rock cut state park rock cut state park](https://www.parkadvisor.com/images/051191/pic02.jpg)
The retired couple first visited Rock Cut over 40 years ago. LOVES PARK - Jim and Peg Forbes drove Tuesday from north suburban Evanston to Rock Cut State Park, where they pitched a tent and plan to camp for three days.