Beautiful park I ran a half marathon here and it was an…read moreintense trail but an awesome trail!

Busse Woods is amazing in so many ways. It's my summer's day getaway in my own backyard. My only…read morecomplaint is that they need to do a better job with the number and quality of the rest room facilities. All the preserves in the greater Chicago area are a treasure. Consider joining a volunteer restoration group in your area. The county websites will explain. It is fun, educational and you'll meet wonderfully friendly and knowledgeable folk. No experience needed. It's usually once a week for a few hours on the weekend. Come when your time and mood allows.

Fantastic preserve that's easy to pass by. Reed Turner is a small preserve that has single-track…read moretrails throughout the preserve. This is not a huge preserve so if you want to log miles, this may not fit the bill. A beautiful woodland preserve with a creek and ravines and great beauty!! Well worth a visit and many repeated visits over the seasons!

Neat little woodland in Long Grove with several trails that go through a creek, a pond, and a lake…read more Here you'll find pure undisturbed nature (you'll have to hike on unpaved roads) with lots of beautiful flowers, animals, and insects. There's majestic trees, great water views, and a great variety of plants. Worth a visit if you want to get away from the typical forest preserve.

My husband, friends, and I love this place! It's pretty clean and is absolutely beautiful,…read moreespecially during sunset. There is a path around a decent sized pond where many run or jog, and there are plenty of benches to sit on around the path, as well. A nice perk is that you can watch all of the cute ducks and geese all over the place. Be careful where you're walking because poo is kinda everywhere, though haha! There is a free outdoor workout area you can use with a good amount of different machines, and there are also canoes and peddle boats that you can rent. I haven't been here in the winter season yet, but apparently you can ice skate on the pond when it's frozen during winter, too. Don't let me just tell you how gorgeous this lake is, see for yourself! Many people also fish here, but during certain times, the lake has green algae, so I wouldn't recommend being that close to the water if there are signs out.

Great park and very relaxing time!!! Would recommend for…read moreanyone looking for a great place to unwind!

I think this place deserves an updated review! This place is a great spot for a nice walk, run, or…read morebicycle ride that includes beautiful scenery. The path goes across Kelsey road as well. It offers a resting area, public restroom, and lots of parking. It was not busy at all when I went, which was nice.

Grassy Lake is a nice place for a good walk in nature. Bikes are not allowed here so it is good…read morefor a quiet stroll without a biker flying by you. Barrington does an exceptional job in keeping this place in tip top shape. The signs and paths are well marked. My only gripe is, the paths don't form a loop, so once you reach the end, you have to turn it around and head back the same way you came.

Creekside Woods Park is a 7.3-acre neighborhood park and natural preserve area which is one of the…read morelast remaining undeveloped open spaces in the city of Rolling Meadows. It provides the residents and walkers-by with a nature trail to stroll right into the middle of an authentic, pretty cool woods. It would appear that the trail should have a beginning and an end but it doesn't. It only has a start and a midway point, where it peters out to nothing and no progress can be made. On the other side of the woods, where it looks like the trail is going, is residential housing that is on a private driveway and there's really no great benefit to surprising the residents by tromping out of the woods and onto their lawn or deck. This is a very peaceful, amazing woods and both my wife and myself come here for healing walks of solitude where one can be one with nature. We live right down the street from it, so access is easy for us, but there is no real street parking for anyone who wants to visit. Better to arrive by bike, skateboard, foot, or mule. It's worth it.

Sterne's is a great place to take a stroll. For me, it's just an extension of Veteran Acres...I do…read morea big figure 8 through both sets of trails with my pooch. I enjoy walking here through all seasons. I love that there are a lot of random trails you can take or just stick to the main one. I always seem to spot a few white tail deer or hawks.

I have mixed emotions about this Kane County forest preserve…read more On the one hand I love it because it's very "birdy" and for those who love to watch and count birds it is special. On the other hand I hate the bikes that go whizzing by and rattle the bridge just as I'm capturing a melodic or mournful bird song. There are some who politely slow down and call out "On your left" but some really seem to get a kick out of almost knocking someone over. If you walk over the two bridges and go down the path to the right along the opposite bank of the river you will be in Tekawitha Woods, a twofer! Bikes cannot go through there.

Decent forest preserve a really nice running trail in the morning. Perhaps not as taken care of as…read moreother preserves. Beware of yellow jackets in late summer-early fall. I've gotten stung in this preserve a couple of times just minding my own business and running.

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.