Spent the morning at Illinois State Park beach...the biting…read moreflies finally win and chased us away...which led us to this little hidden gem. Jones Island Park is a well kept park full of shade trees, a playground, walking trail with benches, a shelter house, a sand volleyball court...and a beach. It's small, we'll-maintained, the swim area is marked off, the water is warm, the littles can stand, and there are no flies!!! Not quite the view of the Great Lake, but still a beautiful setting. Swim in the lake area. Fish in the canal. Relax beneath a shade tree. A little bit of something here to keep the young and the old content for a very long while!!! Annnnnd, unlike the rest of the local park/beaches....it's free!!!

Fantastic local park, with volleball field, kids park and a small beach. Great fishing too.read more

This place is beautiful, with an awesome little pier, multiple nice shoreline walking areas, and…read morepretty direct access to the des plaines river and another, much smaller pond with a stream running just south of the parking lot. The only reason this place doesn't get a perfect 5 star is for 2 reasons: 1. On the northern edge of the lake, the expressway and electric towers are very loud and get pretty annoying, and 2. You better pack bug spray because the day I came here, I had 6 ticks crawling on me after I left. luckily none of them bit me, but still. I understand it's tick season but it's still pretty crazy. Awesome place overall, and seems to have good fishing. Even saw a loon on the day I went. Would recommend as a walking/fishing area.

Lake Carina is a forest preserve. I went here to eat a late lunch and walk around with my…read moreboyfriend. It's quite small and easy to miss when you're driving on 21. The venue has a lot of parking and the lake is very pretty. It's a nice place to go for a walk. Beware of the many mosquitoes and gnats - it is a lake after all. I am afraid of bees, and there seemed to be an abundance of them on the trail. Along the walking trail, there are benches along the way. There are picnic tables and trash bins by the entrance of the trail. When you enter, there is a dock for fishing. You must be licensed to fish if you are over the age of 16. There is also a bike trail, but I didn't get a chance to check that out. I believe the walking trail is about a mile long. You could also walk your dog. They conveniently have doggy bags at the beginning of the trail as well. There is also a bathroom area next to the parking lot. The walking trail itself is pretty, but nothing amazing. You do go under some big electric posts. When we were walking, they were buzzing which was a little scary for me. The last thing I'll add is be careful where you step. Some people aren't considerate enough to pick up after their dogs. Other than that, it's a nice place to go for a walk. It's not a place I would go out of my way to see.

This is one of our favorite places to walk and view native plants and birds. Nestled in the…read moreSouthwest Corner of Moraine Hill State Park,this park offers great walking and biking paths. You can walk along the Fox River or take the circular crushed limestone trail . Plenty of parking along with restrooms,picnic tables,bait and snack shop and BBQ grills. Definitely a place to visit when in McHenry County.

This is a great place to walk and to see nature all around you. The trails are wide and go through…read morea variety of different habitat. I enjoyed seeing many late summer blooms and so many birds. Parking lot is huge and there is a bait shop for those who like to go fishing.

Today, my boyfriend and I rented a paddleboat for an hour. The weather forecast indicated rain…read morewouldn't start until 1:00 PM, so we thought we had plenty of time. However, around 12:20 PM, the sky turned black. We immediately turned around and began pedaling back to the dock as fast as we could. While we were heading back, a safety staff member on a speedboat approached us. He told us we had to return to shore but added that he couldn't tow us in--we had to pedal all the way back ourselves. While we were already doing that, the storm was rolling in incredibly fast, and it was a genuinely scary experience. As we finally approached the dock in the storm, we saw two teenage employees who had been assisting people earlier. One of them looked right at us, but instead of helping us secure the boat, both boys ran back into the covered checkout area and completely ignored us. As we struggled to park and tie up the boat in the pouring rain, not a single staff member stepped out to help us dock safely. Meanwhile, at least 10 employees were crowded inside the checkout area. As a person of color, I am unfortunately always hyper-aware of how I might be treated in certain environments. I have visited this forest preserve many times, always thought it was beautiful, and was so excited to show my boyfriend around. To be treated with such a lack of care was incredibly disappointing. When we spoke to the male manager, he explained that they are required to clear the water during storms. My boyfriend clarified that we had no issue with leaving the water; our issue was the complete lack of staff assistance to help us dock safely in a dangerous situation. The manager offered us a "rain check" for a free rental, but missing out on time wasn't the issue--our safety was. No one seemed to care that we were the last ones out on the water. I hope this forest preserve implements a better emergency protocol, because storms on the water can quickly become life-threatening. I guess my question is if the staff are closely checking the weather , why even let people still go out on the water ? Instead of saying "hey there's a storm that is going to be rolling through , we are holding back on rentals at this time for safety reasons " .

Independence Grove is such a nice forest preserve with lots of things to do especially in the…read moresummer time. Beautiful trails to walk/run along but they also have a playground for kids. They have a beer garden and snack shop. They also have water activities that you can rent like paddle boats and kayaks. It's just a nice place to go solo or with friends if you are looking to connect with nature for a bit.

This is a nice little beach in Wildwood. You do need a resident parking sticker to park along the…read moreposted area however. We are not Wildwood residents but have found parking not too far off. The swimming area is marked and mostly attracts families with young kids.

Nice park. It has a pavilion and a small beach area. The park is not very big, but it is a hidden…read moregem. Recommend you check it out. Oh, and Joe says, "Don't forget...it turns out the grass isn't always greener on the other side."

Beautiful place for walking/hiking. Lots of greenery and nicely groomed gravel paths. Saw some deer…read moreand waterfowl while hiking.

Nice preserve with lots of trails to walk on. Fishing spots, cook out areas and volleyball sandy…read morecourt. Lots of beavers which is fun to see their dams and tree eating. Very busy, lots of families, plenty of parking!

We came for the water slides today on a hot day. The prices are reasonable…read more This is a pleasant and safe environment. The outside of the water park has sprinklers for a tease. Once inside, there are slides for children, teens, and adults. I saw plenty of lifeguards and life jackets, ensuring everyone's safety. The bathrooms are reasonably clean, with private showers. There are plenty of chairs for everyone to lounge in after leaving the water. The facility is family friendly.

I took a little vacation from the city over 4th of July weekend and ended up spending a day in…read morebeautiful Gurnee! The original plan was to do Six Flags or maybe Key Lime Cover. However, once we got here, I just didn't want to deal with huge crowds. I used my Yelp app and found this hidden gem! It was not crowded at all. It was likely all local families. This was probably my favorite day of the vacation. We hung out for a few hours and this really nice aquatic center and then stopped at Jewel on the way back to the hotel and picked up some food -had a picnic back in the room. A really nice venue -I'm sure much nicer than crazy Key Lime Cove (who wants to be indoors on a beautiful summer day?) I felt like I was truly on vacation at a luxury resort. Funny what 35 miles out of the city can do for your spirit!

I have never received such a horrible reception anywhere in my life. I stopped here in order to…read morewalk to the marathon station to resupply on my canoe trip. When I returned the owner (a woman in her 50-60's) full out accosted me and demanded I pay her $10 for use of their property. I thought it was a park I had stopped at and I apologized, but she wasn't having it. She kept yelling, how could I possibly think this is a park!? I paid her to get her to leave me alone and she continued to berate me. I finally had to say, "I paid the $10, can you leave me alone now!?" The answer was no. I was honestly sorry I was trespassing and apologized, then paid. What more do you want from me? She's a first class jerk. Avoid this place like the plague. It gets even better. I posted this review while still sitting there. The lady apparently saw this and stormed out and started yelling at me again. She demanded my ID and told me she was going to call the police if I didn't remove the review. I told her that, no, I would not give her my ID and I also would not remove the review. I told her she is welcome to the call the police, I'm not breaking the law. She told me I'm trespassing. I then reminded her that I paid $10 for the privilege of sitting here and being berated. She said, "I'll give you the $10 back." She also pointed out that I don't have a license for my canoe. Later I looked this up and apparently you do actually need a license for a canoe so I guess I was breaking the law. I'm a bad ass. At this point her husband came out. He was initially confrontational but he quickly calmed down and helped calm down his wife. At this point I was packing anyway and just wanted to get the hell out of there. I never got my $10 back :)

Terrible experience today with the owner charging me 3 times $40.43. after that he called me a…read morescammer and started cursing me to get the *F out of he's place. He is not professional at all and wouldn't recommend this place to anyone!!!!! I was previously going to spend a good 40 something dollars but I will never ever stop by and buy anything from this place!!!!

This is a great small town park and it's huge. Baseball diamonds, soccer area, football area, stage…read morefor music or movie evenings, a great bike/walking path all the way around, a fishing pond and more. Great American park in a great American town.

From the owner: Central Park is one of the biggest parks in Grayslake, IL. Operated by the Grayslake Park District,…read morethe park features 2 playgrounds, a splash pad, softball/baseball fields, football/soccer fields, a lacrosse field, a 1.5 mile walking/biking trail, picnic shelters, disc golf, a band shell, washrooms, and so much more! Several large community events are hosted at the park throughout the year.

I returned here after visiting about 30 years ago, and was very impressed with the trails. You can…read morespend many days here and still not see all the areas the park offers. We parked at the Oak Opening area and hiked down to Lake Defiance, taking the Lake Defiance Trail. We stopped at the Nature Center to see some displays and chat with the ranger, and then continued our hike. Seeing the moraines, the leftover hills and ridges from the retreating Wisconsin Glacier, 10's of thousands of years ago, was a geologic trip through time. This is a great local state park that does not have an entrance fee! (None of our state parks have entrance fees to the best of my knowledge!) This is a place I can't wait to get back to explore, right in the backyard of the Chicago 'burbs!

Very thankful my son recommended training for long runs at Moraine Hills. His mapping of the route…read moreprovided a great roadmap. There is signage, mileage marking and different surfaces (soft and asphalt). for the trails. The varying elevations provide great opportunities to train well. It did not disappoint. Thank you!!