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 pleasant to go to. Very close to home if I just want to go somewhere with no noise. Lots of…read moretrails and just driving through it is very nice. Sometimes you can't just drive somewhere super far to sight see but thankfully this State park is here. Also it is free which is very nice.

The owner is very unreliable, I spoke to him over the weekend. Setup a date for us to rent a boat…read morefrom him on that following Monday. Took the day off work to do a little fish and he was a no show. Never again.

Cool place by the McHenry dam where you can purchase limited snacks, ice cream, and drinks, as well…read moreas bait, tackle, and boat rental... Hope you catch a big fish... Enjoy the scenery !

Great selection of fishing rods and fishing reals along with lures. They have the top brands of…read morerods and reels. I got three different rods by St. Croix with one for wacky worms for smallmouth bass, and another for my crank baits. Then another in medium heavy for my spinnerbaits which I have caught some nice northern pike at Three Oaks rec which is where I have got some great size smallmouth bass there too! So Dave's tackle shop has had everything that I needed since the past 20 years or so!

Dave's has a young man working there, not sure if family or not, but boy can he use an attitude…read moreadjustment!!! Unfortunately it shows that he doesn't want to be there and makes lots of customers feel that we are bothering him!!!

As far my experience, having kept my boat here for the last four years, this is a great place for…read morean annual slip as well as over the winter. I think there were some updates in management and they have been treating me really great. I always have something small that I need or requests or whatever it is, it gets handled. I appreciate their attention and care for my boat.

John has always treated his customers with kindness and respect He always would explain what he was…read moreselling and would back it up

Veteran Acres Park is gorgeous, with a clean and historic nature center and plenty of hiking…read moretrails, with water features sprinkled in. I really enjoyed looking at the animals inside such as the snakes, and the trails were difficult enough to be challenging, but easy enough to enjoy the beautiful surroundings. I'm taking a star off because they were spraying Roundup all over the park while we were there, and the lake was quite green. Regardless, it was a fun experience to connect with nature and get off of our phones. We saw some caterpillars, chipmunks, and a lot of turtles. I remember coming here as a child, and will continue to visit when I'm in the area for some fresh air. I didn't see any ticks, but keep in mind there can be ticks and mosquitos in the damper months.

We really enjoyed Veteran Acres, saw a lot of wildlife with my boy and his friends, kids were…read moreplaying Army, I was taking lots of photos as usual n exercising while walking with them!!

HORRIBLE I went to watch my daughters softball game but the…read moredugout was positioned right smack dab in front of the bleachers .and to top it all off the bleachers seemed to be porpously lower than the ground level of the dugout and the scoreboard wasn't lit up. Will update after a bathroom vist.

This is a very appropriate sized park for the city of Wacaunda. See my picture but missing from…read morethat are bathrooms, baseball/softball, soccer fields and a football pitch to boot. There is a smaller set of slides for 1-2 yr okds and then a bigger one for the others.

We rented a shelter at Hastings Lake, Lake Villa. The shelter has indoor flush bathrooms,…read morefireplace, ceiling electric heaters, drinking fountain, grill, & plenty of picnic tables. According to website: shelter description says "exclusive use" of these facilities. When we got there, the ceiling heaters were not wired in, unusable but someone stocked the firewood, assuming it was LCFP - but we still don't know. As we were setting up for the party, tableware, decorations, etc - clearly anyone can see there was going to be a private event. Around 10am a stranger walks into the shelter to use the indoor bathroom, my daughter called out to him, please don't use the bathroom as we reserved the shelter, this is a private event. The man ignored my daughter, of course he used the bathroom & on way out - he called us a bunch of losers. Later, he called the LCFP ranger complaining, the ranger called me - saying the bathrooms are public use no matter that we paid a permit reserving the shelter. I told the ranger, the stranger was very rude & could've been courteous, (we're not animals, of course we would've obigled) while I was trying to explain that, the Ranger interrupted me & said I needed to "stop talking" (and listen) as the Ranger said the stranger did not have to thank us or apologize. I called LCFP to report the Ranger & state what's said on the website "exclusive use" is not correct or the Ranger is wrong & whatever the policy - I suggest you make it clear. All I could do is leave a message to return my call, as of today - no call back. I'm posting this because there will be another rude person invading someone's paid reservation of Shelter A at Hastings Lake. How can LCFP expect patrons who paid the permit be OK with strangers walking in on a private event? If the bathrooms doors were not facing "outside" the shelter or the bathrooms in their own building, I could go along with allowing for pubic use - but that's not the case & as the website description "exclusive use" is not true.

Singing Hills is a beautiful open area with the Millennium Trail winding through it. As the name…read morewould suggest, the trail through this preserve is quite hilly. From the trailhead you can get to Lakewood going south or Marl Flat going north. The biggest negative about this preserve is there is no loop trail. At the trail head there is parking, drinking water, and toilets. There is also horse trailer parking, a hitching rail, and a mounting post (and an additional water pump is also near this area). You can hike, bike, horseback ride, snowmobile, and cross-country ski at this preserve. The old barn owned by Singing Hills Farm still stands on the property at the trail head.

Some friends and I were in the Rockford area looking to rent skiis. Unfortunately, we arrived too…read morelate in the day to rent. I appreciated that the staff was honest with us instead of taking the sale and having us be unhappy. It also helped that they had the most adorable dog in the world. Stop by!

If you are in the Rockford area and looking to buy or rent some adventure gear, this is the best…read moreplace around! Some friends and I recently took a trip to stay at a cabin in the Rockford area. We had planned to go cross country skiing and found that Rocktown Adventures rents xc skis in the winter. What we had not planned on was how slow we would be at finally leaving the cabin to go pick up the skis. Since they unfortunately don't do reservations for the skis, we called ahead to make sure they had some before heading over. By the time we got there it was already around 3 pm and unbeknownst to us, they close at 5 pm on the weekends. We got started with the rental process only to realize we would have very little time to ski before sundown. After explaining a couple options we had for still getting out on the skis, the staff member ultimately told us it probably wouldn't be worth our money given our time constraints. Instead of staying quiet, taking our money, and letting us have a very short ski trip, the staff member suggested the option that was best for us! He then told us that if we were ever back in town to just give them a call and if they had skis available he'd have them ready for us when we arrived. Not only is the staff knowledgeable and caring but they have an incredible selection of gear. We didn't end up spending any money there, and that is exactly why this was a five star experience!

Offshore contacted Eddyline and changed their order with them so I could have two matching colored…read morekayaks, a Caribbean 12 FS and a Caribbean 14 FS, and delivered them to my home in Noblesville Indiana. My local Eddyline retailer was unable/unwilling to do the same. Great communication and pleasant demeanor. Highly recommend Offshore in Lake Bluff.

We spoke with Sam from Offshore, regarding repairs to our Zodiac boat…read more After much discussion with Sam his integrity became apparent in that his honest opinion was that spending additional money to repair this boat would not be worth while. He is to be commended for his honesty in appraising the return value for the expenditure for the need repairs. He took the time to honestly evaluate our Zodiac boat rather than turn just a "quick profit". We honestly would not have know the difference. He runs his business in a forthright manner to be commended in this day and age the "Quick Profit". Thank You M. Jens