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Overview
The Skokie Valley Trail connects Highland Park in the south to the northern trailhead in Lake Bluff. The entire trail corridor is a rail-with-trail, paralleled by double tracks that sit about 40 feet to the west of the trail surface. The well-maintained asphalt path offers a nice, smooth experience for a multitude of uses. In addition, the trail shares right-of-way with a major electricity service company, and you will see high-voltage electrical wires overhead.
About the Route
Even in such an urban environment, nature flourishes along the Skokie Valley Trail. Although the trail passes suburban Chicago life along each side of the corridor, it's not uncommon to come across rabbits, deer, blackbirds, hawks, and robins among numerous tree and low-brush species. The trail is sandwiched between US 41 and the train tracks for most of its course, and there are several major road crossings. While these are well marked and include crosswalks, use caution when crossing.
The northernmost section of the trail passes through mainly commercial and light industrial developments, and as the trail approaches Lake Bluff, some residential subdivisions. Just before reaching the Deerpath golf course in Lake Forest, the Skokie Valley Trail splits, with a short spur turning east toward the lake and ending at the Laurel Avenue trailhead.
The 200-plus-foot trail bridge over State Route 22 signals the midpoint of the trip. The southern portion of the trail carries trail users south, passing through, Northcroft Park, Heller Park, and Buckthorn Park, before coming to its southern trail endpoint near Woodridge Park.
Connections
At the northern end of the trail, the Skokie Valley Trail connects to the North Shore Bike Path.
A disconnected section of the trail is open on the same corridor farther south, in Cook County.
The Skokie Valley Trail (Lake County) runs between North Shore Bike Path (Lake Bluff) and Lake Cook Rd (Highland Park).
Parking is available at the Skokie River Nature Preserve.
This is an approximate address, please see the TrailLink map for detailed directions.
The trail closed signage is still up as of 4/15/2023 around the 8 mile area. You can get through, but considering the date, it's possible construction will resume as the weather warms in the next few weeks.
The trail is closed at mile 6. There is little, if any signage for the detour. Take Old Elm Rd east to pick up the North shore trail to bypass the closure.
Love the length of this. Usually do it in a little over an hour, and at just under 20 Miles this is a perfect ride to help you maintain and work on a faster pace when training for those much longer rides. Surface is good enough, not the best but not even close to being bad. Good straight aways, only a few roadway crossings on the entire path so you can maintain a good speed without having to stop or slow down.
This is not the trail to use if your looking for great views. As mentioned it's sandwiched between train tracks and Route 41. However, it offers straight, flat roads with limited crossings for almost 10 miles.
I love to use this trail for speed training. With mile markers along the way I can do intervals and accurately gauge when I need to let up and rest. Fellow trail users are well mannered, and move to the side when you let them know you are passing.
With connections to the North Shore trail and the McClory trail I can ride from North Chicago or Libertyville to Northbrook without ever having to ride on the road. One of the few interconnecting trails in the area
Great trail for uninterrupted speed. Pretty boring so bring your headphones. You can park at either end for a smooth 20 mile ride¿¿
I live close to this trail and I use it about 5 times a week. Yes, it's boring, but it's safe and there aren't alot of dogs and people using the path. There are many other riders who use this path to train because the trail is wide, less traveled and not too bumpy (with tree roots). If you're looking for a scenic route, don't come here. It has power lines, traffic from route 41 and the train on the other side. However, I've seen deer, hawks, rabbits and tons of birds. I've grown to love this trail because it offers me the opportunity to do 15 miles daily, quickly and with safety. As a single woman rider, this is very important.
I wouldn't' think this is a bad bike path... it's fairly uninterrupted for 10 miles straight forward ride. If you are into more scenic with nature surrounding path, DPR trailer is not far away. I like to ride here just to spin a little bit outside. Also as for a parking in Lake Bluff end, on the east side of Mariani Landscape building, there is a small parking lot for the park, less than 1/4 mile, I would say 15 sec ride from there to the path.
Again, just for 20 mile roundtrip with uninterrupted bike path, this path is pretty decent. Yes, power tower above buzzing, but that does not affect my ride that much.
Today was beautiful--a surprising 65 degrees for late October with clear sunny skies. My fiancé and I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to escape Chicago for the day. We had heard that there was a fantastic, lush bike trail up in Skokie. Unfortunately, this was NOT the bike trail we were anticipating.
Upon arrival, we parked at some strip mall indicated by the website. We couldn't wait to hit the trail. As soon as we found it, I knew we had made a mistake.
Pros:
~Paved bike path
~A few dry bushes at the southern part of the trail
Cons:
~Post-world apocalyptic powerlines buzzing above you for the majority of the ride
~Runs parallel to train tracks on the left and a noisy highway on the right
~Eerily quiet for a beautiful day
~Not a single tree was passed during our ride
Conclusion: We ended up cutting our activity short and headed back to the Chicago lakefront. Frankly, we should have done that in the first place.
Having grown up on the NW side of Chicago my whole life and biking anywhere I could, I have wanted a longer ride. I have done the NBT and the loop at the Skokie Lagoons but wanted some more distance without having to repeat something. I found out about the Skokie Valley Trail and figured why not. While it is a short jaunt from the Skokie Lagoons on a rather busy street, it was well worth it. Pros to the trail: Relatively flat, smooth, well-maintained and the crossings are well marked and safer than others. The trail allows the rider to maintain constant speeds or strength/endurance train. It is lightly traveled so there isn't very many people to look out for, or small children. Cons to the trail: It's boring. I admit I read that and didn't think it could be that bad, but there is little to look at. The shade is limited, so bring water. Other than that, the trail is great and worth the ride up off the NBT or to just use as a 20 round trip ride if wanted.
I rode on this trail for the first time today. Overall, it's a very easy ride with only a few main road crossings, none of which required any significant effort/wait to cross. It's generally straight and flat, and completely paved from end-to-end. As such, it's more suited to road bikes than mountain/trail bikes. Trail is basically a narrow North/South green belt, with rail lines on one side and main roads on the other. As such, it's not very quiet, scenic nor does it provide much shade, but it does have a lot of greenery along the way. Mileage signs are in place every half-mile, so a good gauge of progress is available. Trail was fairly busy with riders on my Sunday morning ride, but most riders were courteous as they whizzed by us on our slower trail bikes. If you are in any way paranoid about high-voltage power lines, this trail is not for you, since they tower overhead more or less from end-to-end. You can even hear them buzzing above when its not noisy. Signs on trail indicate it's maintained on the North by Lake Bluff and on the South by Lake Forest; Kudos to both towns -- overall the trail is exceptionally well maintained, compared to others on which I've ridden. Pros ---- - Flat, straight and paved. - Very well maintained. - Well marked Cons ---- - Not for you if you want a shady, scenic ride. - No water fountains, off-trail benches nor restrooms along course. Overall, highly recommended, especially on cooler days.
If you're looking for a convenient, no-frills, mostly flat roadway to build up your endurance, this is a great trail for the purpose. Don't come here to enjoy picturesque views of flora and fauna: most of the scenery consists of power lines and the rear side of industrial complexes. But if you're looking for a minimally challenging, quiet space to work on your pacing / speed, the Skokie Valley Trail really fits the bill.
I enjoy straight and fast. this trail is it, in between the train tracks and the highway, the trail now goes all the way to Rt. 176. There is a Culver's ice cream about 3 miles to the west. If you go east, it will take you to the Green Bay Trail, which makes for a very nice twenty mile loop.
This is a great trail, very flat and smooth and easy to navigate. I was there on a Sunday afternoon and glad to see that there was not a lot of traffic on it. It is not particularly scenic nor quiet (you can hear the cars from the Interstate below) but nonetheless very enjoyable. I recommend it and will probably go back since it is very easy to get to.
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