Beautiful trails and scenery. Not too long of a trail but not too short. Lots of wildlife.read more

The Sun Lake Forest Preserve is a wonderful outdoor area that contains a 2.5 mile round trip trail…read more The trail itself is clean and very well maintained, with the edges of the trail always mowed. (In fact, I can't remember a time when the edges had not been mowed.) There are plenty of trash cans along the trail if you need them and, once again, I have never seen these cans neglected. There are also benches that offer a nice view if you wish to take a break or just want to find a nice quiet spot to relax in. Overall, this forest preserve is an excellent place for a little outdoor exercise and some fresh air.

The Des Plaines River Trail is awesome! If you like more of a natural trail. This is the one you…read morehave to check out in the Chicago land area. It goes from North Avenue all the way up to Wisconsin. Anyone who is a big biker and wants to do long distance should check out this trail. Highly recommend for biking enthusiasts! Just a heads up, there are no water fountains along the path. Some of the spots can be tricky to figure out when crossings busy intersections and trying to figure out where the trail meets again at certain sections. The all trails map can be very helpful when riding the Des Plaines River Trail.

This is a crushed limestone trail with alternating open trails and wooded trails. After some rain…read morethe wooded areas are thick with mosquitoes and you really cannot even stop there for a moment as they will descend on you immediately and bite you ferociously. There are relatively long stretches 4 to 6 miles between road crossings and farther south the trail follows the river more closely and there are underpasses under the roads so you don't have to worry about crossing traffic or even getting off of your bike. There are plenty of access points to the trail along all of the major roads going east west near interstate 94 north of Lake Cook Road. There are a few out houses and in some rest areas there is running water and flush toilets. There are quite a few benches along the trail, many in those wooded areas but they're also quite a few out in the open sun as well so you can avoid the mosquitoes. After two or three days of strong rains however the trail can get a little bit of a washboard affect in the low-lying areas and a lot of the gravel moves into pockets and can make it hard to get through if you don't have wide tires.

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!!

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.

Great place, we stopped by for some leg stretching on our way back to NWI (Northwest Indiana) from…read morevisiting my fiance's family in Wisconsin for Easter. This Preserve is really neat, the parts we did explore were very clean and had several garbage cans alongside the crushed gravel paths. There were several ponds suitable for fishing with easy access to the trails too. We parked in the smaller parking lot toward the south which has about a dozen or so spaces and a small field for picnics I presume... Walking toward the North you'll find a larger field and extensive parking area. Close access to both is a fairly large pavilion with a charcoal grill and several picnic tables. Nearby is a quad of Restrooms featuring handicap accessible stalls as well. There are even recycling bins enclosed in a small shelter. Never seen those before at a park, I kinda love it, go green people! Even though we didn't get to see much of it, the part I did get to check out was top notch! I'd definitely go back to check it out again.

Perfect flat winter trail for snowshoeing or cross-country skiing! The trail was visble even though…read moreit was covered with snow. The trail is wide and the brush protects you from wind.

McDonald Woods Forest Preserve located in Lindenhurst is a great place to hike. It's a 2.3 mile…read moregravel path that includes a couple of small lakes. It's a pretty level path with only a couple inclines. It's a heavily wooded area although there isn't much shade along the path. They have bird nest boxes out and a Herron nest box on one of the lakes. It's a fun trail that takes about 45 minutes at a steady pace.

This is a relatively peaceful place for hiking and biking. But it's a little hilly for an Illinois…read moreforest preserve, so wear appropriate footwear (I learned that the hard way). I've seen people getting professional photos taken with these woods as a backdrop, and it's a good setting for that. There's an expanse of grass between the woods and the parking lot where you can sit, have a picnic, whatever. The paved trail runs up the hill and onto the bridge over Lake St. to the north or towards Old Orchard to the south. As you move south, the forest preserves get a bit busy, so I prefer to head north from here. Just to the west of the main trail, there's a gravel path that tacks off to one side and is a little quieter, if that's what you're looking for. You won't lose sight of civilization completely, but you'll get a breather from the steady flow of bike traffic on the main trail that way.

07/03/20 - Yet another part of the extensive trails that make up part of the vast Forest Preserve…read moreNorth Branch trails. These start East of me by the Chicago Park district on Foster Ave & go West through Labaugh Woods off of Cicero Ave (5 houses East of me) through Forest Glen Woods (2 Blocks west of me) the turns north all the way to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. These trails are awesome as they provide people a little respite from urban life literally right in their backyards. People especially now that the weather is warmer come out for walks, running, roller blading & biking along the trails. My sister and I are both on a mission to not only get exercise, but see our own natural beauty our forest preserves provide & at the same time shed some pounds. The amount we have been walking you see all sorts of wild life, everything from deer, Blue herons, snapping turtles, chipmunks scouting around, squirrels, raccoons, hawks, redwing blackbirds, cardinals (no Cubs though bummer), blue jays even a fox. Today we walked from the Blue Star Memorial Woods to the south end of The Skokie Lagoon & back about 6.3 miles.

The park in general is very nice and beautiful. Lots of thing to do. That alone is 5 stars…read moreespecially being so close. But the thing that ruins it is the Rangers/dedicated law enforcement for this area. They are just fishing for whatever like they have nothing better to do. I've heard stories but my personal story is I got pulled over, complained about how I was speeding and then threatened to search the car. Absolute power trip. Other then the tyrants that work here very beautiful place.

Very rude front desk staff. Ruined the experience of wanting to take the trail walk. She was…read moreunwilling to listen