I will be staying in Bloomington, Ill for six weeks during Fall '99. Hope to do some photography on the weekends within 4-5 hours of Bloomington. Suggestions on areas to shoot fall colors, lakes, etc. are appreciated!

Southern Illinois would be a great place! Shawnee National Forest, (Giant City, Garden of the Gods,Lake of Egypt, etc)

Try heading over to Parke County, IN near Rockville (just northeast of Terre Haute). Over half (32) of Indiana's Covered Bridges are located in Parke County. They have a Covered Bridge Festival Oct 8-17, 1999. They will have lots of yard sales and events. So if you want to avoid the crowd, go before the Festival, during the week or very early in the day on the weekends. See their web site at www.coveredbridge.com

Right about at your 5 hour limit will be Talls Stacks in downtown Cincinnati, OH., Oct 13-17. Tall Stacks is a celebration of the Steamboating Era. I relize this is a city event, but it’s a great photographic opportunity on the Ohio River with the hills changing color and all the boats. There will be 19 authentic or ornamental sternwheelers or sidewheelers, including the Mississippi Queen, Belle of Louisville and Delta Queen. The event is so big it only happens every 4 years. See www.tallstack.com

Hi Lisa
Another suggestion: Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. It is about 1 1/2 hours from Bloomington.
This is a beautiful park, and is popular for "weekend getaways" for city people. There are high bluffs over the Illinois river, hiking trails and a lodge. This area is especially beautiful in the fall. You will be so close, don't miss it.
You would go north on I-39. Near the Oglesby exit (before LaSalle/Peru) you will see an exit marked for Starved Rock State Park.
Hope you enjoy it!

I concure with the recommendation that you visit "Starved Rock State Park". It requires less driving time, thus more time to explore and photograph the area. It is amazing to find such rugged landscape in the farm lands of Illinois.

Jim

JRB...I am just curious..how far back did you go to pull up a thread that is four years old?

You will only be about 3 hours from Chicago. You could do city and lakeshore, skyline shots if that is of interest to you.