Wonderfully updated and accessible playground with plenty of shade and places to sit. Several swing…read moreoptions, plenty of slides and lots of unique park features to keep kids of all ages properly entertained. Fair warning, lot parking is limited, so you may need to park on the street. We will definitely be putting this one into our favorite playground rotation!

Awesome park, soft rubber play surface. Accessible swing, baby swing, lots of fun equipment for all…read moreages.

We looked at this park for accessibility for mobility challenged people. Know before you go! Here…read moreis what we found: - There are no handicap accessible parking spots or restrooms (street parking only) - Terrain is wood chips - No ramps to get into park or play area - There is a wheelchair accessible drinking fountain - There is a transfer station Nice park!

This is an absolutely delightful, tiny little park that is buried in between Dawngate and Plum…read moreGrove Estates and operated by Rolling Meadows, even though there are no amenities whatsoever. It's just a little park with a drinking fountain and some very excellent playground equipment. It's a great spot to take a break during a run and I come down here all the time because I live only two houses away and it is always pretty quiet. Technically, it's a pocket or mini-park, and is a heavily shaded one-acre lot with a bench and a playground.

How can you not love Lake Arlington?! The lake is beautiful,…read morethe treats at the Boat House are great, and the vibe is perfect. 10/10

Lake Arlington is a man made lake in Arlington Heights. There are many things to do there. There is…read morea walking path around the lake. The park also features a playground and exercise equipment. Lake Arlington is a great place to fish, kayak, and boat in the water. In the community center building, you can buy snacks and drinks as well as rent equipment to use on the lake. Lake Arlington is a great place for year-round fun!

Hawthorne Park We…read morelooked at this park for accessibility for mobility challenged people. Know before you go! Here is what we found: - there are no handicap spots but there is plenty of parking on the street - 10 ft from parking - all wood chip terrain - a path surrounds the park and their is a path through the middle of park - handicap accessible water fountain A Great Community Park!

Enjoyable walk with some interesting statues. I've read that they've added some new works since I…read morewas there. I was there in the winter and the paths were still covered in snow. It made for a peaceful, beautiful day even without the missing displays.

What a cool spot! I've driven by this area countless times while shopping nearby and never knew…read morethat the sculpture park existed until I was looking for a place on Yelp to get a quick walk in after a meal. Fortunately for me, this was more than a quick walk as there are about 16 sculptures located throughout the park all which are quite distinct from one another and good for fun photo taking opportunities. Sculptures here range from a wooden arch to steel structures to chiseled rock to a giant muse and even a colorful giant sundial. While not as large as the sculpture park in Skokie or University Park, there's not too many options in the area (unless you also count Morton Arboretum). Overall, worth a visit if you're in the area at all. It's fun and free, and maintained nicely.

This place is a hidden gem.... literally. Well, not literally a gem, but literally hidden. GPS told…read moreme to make a right, where all I saw was a Nissan dealership. Nope, and instead I ended up circling around. But sure, enough, make a right when the GPS tells you too. Ignore that the car dealership is there, and pay attention to the fact there's a giant sign letting you know Vogelei Park is there. We had a barbecue at one of the seating areas with a roof and it was OK. The engineers who designed and created the shelter's roof apparently didn't like the sunrise, as the way it was angled, the unusual early June 90-degree heat and sun shone right on us during the early evening. After it got dark, the shelter had lights that illuminated, which was a bummer. Overall though, it's a great place to consider for a BBQ. BATHROOM REVIEW: Located in the building, the bathrooms were good, for a public park bathroom. It had a couple of urinals and stalls. Sit or squat? Squat.

HIDDEN PARK ALERT!! HIDDEN GEM ALERT!…read more When the sun came out one afternoon after a cloudy, dreary week, I knew I had to find some outdoor spot to frolic about in. Since I was in Palatine at the time, and wanted to go home to Roselle without driving too far out of my way, I pulled up the Yelp app and typed in "park." Too many places popped up, none were what I was looking for. So I tried, "zoo." One of the first things to pop up was the Northern Illinois Raptor Center. What!? I did a quick search on what it was, expected there was some kind of magical owl zoo somewhere, and headed out this way. The drive to this park is very easy to miss. I did miss it, and had to do a long turn about through a neighborhood to get back to the entrance, which is located off of Higgins at the intersection of Golf, in between a couple car dealerships. The easiest way to find it is to look for the Hoffman Estates Park District sign and turn RIGHT THERE. Then you'll see a barn at the end of the drive and a park. Whew. I got out of my car, walked over to the barn and older building, found locked doors, wandered over to a map, scanned the map, saw absolutely no mention of any raptors or owls or birds, and decided, "Screw it, I'll just go walk around the park since I'm already here." Fortunately, my disappointment was quickly dissolved after one leisurely lap around the park. Here's what Vogelei has: - A pond that's part of the Bio Swale Water Quality Initiative. I'm still not quite clear on what it is, but it's a water system that cleans storm water runoff of man-made chemicals while providing a habitat for animals and helping the environment. Whatever it was, it sounded and looked awesome -- grassy, marshy areas, a walking path, a picturesque bride and gazebo. And white birds with long legs that fly away when I try to take pictures (darn bird). - A rose garden. Not a very big rose garden, but it's a nice little rose garden with blooms bigger than my hand. I kid you not. Crazy giant flowers. - Lots of grassy areas for picnicking, hooping, and running around like crazy. The park district also holds concerts (mainly for kids) here sometimes. - A playground jungle gym that's shaped like a barn. Sweet. - A splash pad!! It's basically a large, squishy pad with sprinklers. It's turned on during the day -- all you have to do is press down on one of the buttons on the padded surface to activate the water that shoots up. Yes, there is a chance you could get wet doing this. It's fun. Take it from this lady with the crazy hair (oh, what a sight that must have been)! - A conifer garden: an area with a bunch of tiny pine tree bushes. - Safety town. One of those little set-ups where kids can ride their tiny bikes around a little town and learn how to be safe when they cross the street and all that fun stuff. - The barn. Apparently the barn holds some kind of banquet room that you can rent for events. Cool. The park district's summer camp also uses the building for the kids -- I kind of felt like a creep walking in there. Not sure what that other, seemingly abandoned building was for. I probably spent a good forty-five minutes lurking around the park. Not bad. Still no awesome owl zoo, though. Disappointed, I left and wrote this review. As I was finishing up this review earlier this morning, I decided I really needed to go back and find that mysterious magical bird zoo before finishing this review! Back I went... and instead of an empty park, I was greeting with a full parking lot and tons of camp kids. Definitely not the kind of scene for aimless wandering with a camera. Fortunately, someone pointed me in the direction of the raptor center... YES! IT EXISTS! ... which was in a cluster of tiny house-like buildings, surrounded by a fence to keep people out. There were no birds. The birds will be on display later this year or something. Bummer, but so glad I figured out this mystery! SO. This definitely isn't your typical suburban neighborhood park. I won't go out of my way to come back here again (OK, maybe I will -- because I already did), but if I'm in the area and looking for a quiet park to hang out in, I'd re-visit. Nice job, Hoffman Estates.

I live in the a nearby town and had never realized it was here!…read more A coworker suggested the Jack O'Lanterns of the World event they had, and we decided to make a date night of it. We went on Sunday, and were really surprised by all the trails and the lake access - I'd thought it was just a skate park based off shopping across the street my whole life. My partner and I really enjoyed the event, and are excited to go back and explore the options for fun daytime activities. Going off another review, Lake Zurich is definitely not a rural/hidden lake, it's smack dab in the middle of suburbia and exactly what we expected.

The Lantern Festival was located here. Such a great experience…read more I've not been here other than this experience but the are is large. There are picnic tables and a concessions building. It's located down by the water. Would be a great place for football or volleyball.

Convenient small park in Deerfield with a wide array of options including playgrounds, baseball…read morefields, soccer fields, basketball nets, BBQ grills, picnic tables, and pavilion. Theres also a walking path that takes a short time to walk around with exercise equipment located along the route. It is not as full featured as larger parks in the area but has enough options to do a wide variety of activities.

Maplewood Park is a nice neighborhood park that is part of the Deerfield Park District. My husband…read moreand I came here with a friend to play Frisbee. This park features a large field for soccer and baseball games. There are also walking paths, a playground, and picnic tables. The walking path also features exercise equipment. Maplewood Park is a great place to get some exercise and spend an afternoon. I highly recommend Maplewood Park!