Explore the best rated trails in Burbank, IL. Whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Illinois & Michigan Canal State Trail and Tall Grass Greenway Trail. With more than 89 trails covering 948 miles you’re bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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The Prairie Crossing Bike Path is a hard surface trail connecting Mundelein to Grayslake in central Lake County, Illinois. The trail is perpendicular to the 30-plus-mile Millennium Trail, which it...
The Commonwealth Edison Bikeway is a short paved trail that occupies an overhead electric utility corridor owned by Commonwealth Edison, the local utility company—hence the trail's name. While lacking...
The Thorn Creek Trail offers a paved route traversing woodlands abundant with wildlife through several communities on the southern outskirts of Chicago. The trail travels from Brownwell Woods in...
El Paseo runs through the vibrant Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen, once home to a large Czech population but now the center of the Lower West Side’s Latino community. The neighborhood is filled with...
As the name suggests, the Lake George trail travels along the north shore of Lake George, turning north at Calumet Ave/US 41 to skirt the east shore of Wolf Lake. From Lake George the trail also heads...
The Illinois Prairie Path (IPP) was one of the nation’s first rail-trail conversions. It consists of five connected trail segments with three main branches that converge at Volunteer Park (West...
The North Branch Trail follows the North Branch of the Chicago River over 20 miles through Cook County. The trail was originally a dirt path often used for horseback riding; though it’s now paved, an...
The Virgil L. Gilman Trail travels from quiet forest and prairie lands to bustling neighborhoods in just 11 miles, linking a woodsy community college campus with the eastern Chicago suburb of...
The Tall Grass Greenway Trail is a trail that runs along the right of way for ComEd powerlines. The trail goes mainly through neighborhoods in south Naperville, and meets up with the south branch of...
The Oswego Prairie Trail is a short paved route that occupies an overhead electric utility corridor owned by Commonwealth Edison. The path forms a direct link between two parks in Oswego—Farmington...
The Randall Road Bike Trail offers a 4-mile paved north-south route along its namesake roadway in a suburb west of Chicago. A highlight of the journey is the trail's passage through the LeRoy Oakes...
The Chesapeake and Ohio Greenway (also referred to as the C&O Trail) offers a short, paved route through Merrillville, a town just a few miles south of Gary and the southern tip of Lake Michigan. The...
The Chain O' Lakes Bike Path is a paved trail that runs between E. Grand Avenue in Fox Lake and Grant Woods Forest Preserve to the east. The trail parallels the railroad track and Rollins Road/CR 31,...
The Fermilab Trail garners its name by running though the campus of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the former home of the Tevatron particle accelerator. The 3.9-mile particle...
The Calumet Trail traverses the south side of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, a unique ecosystem of forest, marsh, dunes and beach along Lake Michigan. This dirt and crushed limestone path...
The Buffalo Creek Trail makes a loop around the scenic Buffalo Creek Forest Preserve in Long Grove. The crushed-gravel trail provides access to facilities throughout the park. Along the way, you’ll...
Note: Erosion caused by surging waves off Lake Michigan has caused the trail to collapse in sections. The eastern half of the trail along Lake Michigan is closed indefinitely. See the Chicago Park...
The Erie Lackawanna Trail connects Crown Point and Hammond, two former rail junctions whose early fortunes were tied to the tracks carrying people and goods to and from Chicago. Despite traveling...
The Marquette Trail offers picturesque views of Lake Michigan as it travels through the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. This scenic route follows an abandoned rail line through a variety of diverse...
The North Shore Bike Path runs for nearly 8 miles between Lake Bluff and Mundelein, paralleling State Route 176 for the path's entire length. The trail is one of dozens in the Chicagoland area, all of...
The Palos Heights Bike Trail offers a north-south route through residential and commercial areas on the west side of the community. It's also a key connector between two regionally important...
The Southern Dupage County Regional Trail connects multiple of the larger forest preserves in Dupage county together. Starting near the intersection of 75th st and Ogden Ave in Aurora, the trail runs...
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The northern section of the Tinley Creek Trail is a series of color-coded connected loops and spurs that weave through several forest preserves in Cook County. The 24-mile trail system is paved,...
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An excellent example of land use in greater Chicago, the entire Skokie Valley Trail corridor is a rail-with-trail, paralleled by double tracks that sit about 40 feet to the west of the trail surface....
The North Shore Bike Path runs for nearly 8 miles between Lake Bluff and Mundelein, paralleling State Route 176 for the path's entire length. The trail is one of dozens in the Chicagoland area, all of...
The Commonwealth Edison Bikeway is a short paved trail that occupies an overhead electric utility corridor owned by Commonwealth Edison, the local utility company—hence the trail's name. While lacking...
The Cal-Sag Trail (or, Calumet-Sag Trail) is currently under active construction. As of early 2018, it has a competed section of about 13 miles, stretching from near its western terminus at the John...
The Millennium Trail currently spans just over 30 miles in two disconnected segments, but there are plans to extend it to 35 miles and connect it to the Des Plaines River Trail. The trail goes through...
The Busse Woods Trail system is located within Ned Brown Forest Preserve, a 3,700-acre property in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. There are 11.2 miles of paved trails for cyclists, equestrians...
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The eastern segment of the Great Western Trail in Illinois follows 12 miles of an abandoned railway corridor through DuPage County, between Villa Park and West Chicago. There are plans to extend the...
Running between the suburbs of Chicago Heights and Joliet, the Old Plank Road Trail offers views of oak trees and sugar maples, prairie grasses, and wildflowers that peek up through the...
The Erie Lackawanna Trail connects Crown Point and Hammond, two former rail junctions whose early fortunes were tied to the tracks carrying people and goods to and from Chicago. Despite traveling...
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The Salt Creek Trail travels nearly 27 miles from the Brookfield Zoo to Busse Woods Forest Preserve. Along the way it connects several beautiful county forest preserves and other woodland...
The Joliet Junction Trail is a paved path that travels north–south through the west side of Joliet. It occupies an abandoned Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway corridor that in its last years was known...
The Timber Ridge trail is located on the eastern side of the Timber Ridge Forest Preserve in west Chicago. The preserve offers several trails, fishing, picnicking, and is home to Kline Creek Farms,...
The Prairie Point Trail is a scenic neighborhood route that connects twice to the longer Grove Road Trail. While never far from houses, the trail offers surprising scenery, including a stretch along a...
The Techny Trail links downtown Glenview, a charming village northwest of Chicago, with the Techny Basin, a scenic wetlands area adjacent to the West Fork of the Chicago River's North Branch....
Prairies and dunes are just two of the natural features you’ll experience on the Prairie Duneland Trail, located just a few miles south of the Lake Michigan shoreline and the Indiana Dunes National...
The Thorn Creek Trail offers a paved route traversing woodlands abundant with wildlife through several communities on the southern outskirts of Chicago. The trail travels from Brownwell Woods in...
The North Branch Trail follows the North Branch of the Chicago River over 20 miles through Cook County. The trail was originally a dirt path often used for horseback riding; though it’s now paved, an...
The Dunes Kankakee Trail is a 3-mile walking and bike path that begins in the Indiana Dunes State Park and travels south to Chesterton. It connects the Calumet Trail, which is also in the state park,...
The Thorn Creek Trail offers a paved route traversing woodlands abundant with wildlife through several communities on the southern outskirts of Chicago. The trail travels from Brownwell Woods in...
Just 1 mile long, the Valley Line Trail—also known as the Sauganash Trail—extends between Bryn Mawr Avenue and Devon Avenue in the Chicago neighborhood of Sauganash. Two bridges allow for safe...
The Poplar Creek Trail is a 9.5-mile paved loop around Poplar Creek Forest Preserve near Hoffman Estates. The trail has a couple of hills but is otherwise level and makes for a pleasant journey...
Although the Phyllis Harmon Path is short, it's an important connector in an east-west bike/ped route between Arlington Heights and Glencoe. Following Dundee Road, the paved trail goes from the Des...
The Hickory Creek Bikeway offers nearly 4 miles of paved pathway through a wooded preserve. On its western end, the trail begins at Hickory Creek Barrens Nature Preserve and Lincolnway Road; on the...
The Chicago Lakefront Trail is aptly named; it spans 19 miles along the shore of Lake Michigan, going right through downtown Chicago and passing many cultural and tourist attractions throughout the...
The Buffalo Creek Trail makes a loop around the scenic Buffalo Creek Forest Preserve in Long Grove. The crushed-gravel trail provides access to facilities throughout the park. Along the way, you’ll...
The Lincolnwood Valley Line Trail connects the existing Valley Line Trail (Sauganash Trail) to the Skokie Valley Trail in Cook County. Like the previous segments, this trail occupies a former Union...
The Calumet Trail traverses the south side of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, a unique ecosystem of forest, marsh, dunes and beach along Lake Michigan. This dirt and crushed limestone path...
The Paul Douglas and Crabtree Preserve Trail System connects two large nature preserves in northwestern Cook County. The trail begins at the Old Stover Trailhead in the Crabtree Preserve, near the...
The Timber Ridge trail is located on the eastern side of the Timber Ridge Forest Preserve in west Chicago. The preserve offers several trails, fishing, picnicking, and is home to Kline Creek Farms,...
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Illinois’ Centennial Trail runs through parts of three suburban counties from Willow Springs Road to Romeo Road/135th Street southwest of Chicago. The trail occupies a thin strip of land between the...
Prairies and dunes are just two of the natural features you’ll experience on the Prairie Duneland Trail, located just a few miles south of the Lake Michigan shoreline and the Indiana Dunes National...
The village of Palatine has connected many of its community assets with two long sections of off-road, multi-use trail. The more popular northern section is the one most references call simply and...
The Grove Road Trail parallels the local thoroughfare in the Village of Oswego, located near the southwestern edge of the Chicagoland metropolitan area. In the north, the trail begins on the east...
The eastern segment of the Great Western Trail in Illinois follows 12 miles of an abandoned railway corridor through DuPage County, between Villa Park and West Chicago. There are plans to extend the...
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The western segment of the Great Western Trail in Illinois follows 17 miles of a former railway corridor through DeKalb and Kane counties, between LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve and the town of Sycamore....
Blackberry Trail follows a stretch of Blackberry Creek in Montgomery, Illinois. The trail is accessible from the forest preserve entrance at Caliendo Circle. Heading north, the trail reaches Mayfield...
The Illinois and Michigan Canal State Trail follows the eponymous waterway alongside the Illinois River. It traverses the I&M Canal National Heritage Corridor, designated in 1984 and the first...
August 7th. Almost a perfect summer day and definitely perfect for a ride. Did a 30 mile round tripper from just south of Wisconsin line to south of McHenry and back. Condition of trail for that portion was about the best I've ever seen on any trail. Highly recommend parking at the trailhead for the Hebron Trail off Keystone Road at the north end of the trail. Hebron Trail will then take you straight east to hook up with Prairie Trail where you can begin and head south. No problems, well maintained all the way. Passes through several small, medium sized towns on this stretch with McHenry being the biggest. Plenty of access to services, food, water if you need it. Plan is to continue from McHenry on down south for my next leg of this trail. Can't wait to see what's ahead.
This bike trail has the best sights of any! In Batavia you have the huge windmill, Fabyan Japanese gardens, and trolley museum. Pretty wildflowers as you go through Saint Charles and pass Camp Kane. The train museum in St Charles is neat as well as the collection of signals with the Woodcliff sign, then once you get to Elgin you can see a little castle off the path, Pratt's castle! I don't think any other path has as cool sights as this one.
One of the best bike trails in northern Illinois. Haven’t finished all the trails and look forward to being there again with it’s maintained quiet paths, and very few people using the trails as compared to the Des Plaines river bike path. Love the one way bike paths given the hills, our age and safety concerns. Given the steep hills and the effort it takes to reach the top each hill, I can understand why there are few people on the trails.
This is a great running path, walking path but not a path for serious riders!! Simply stated there are too many intersections on this path. No momentum at all.
When people think of trails, they think of trees, prairies, forest, ponds and lakes. You get very little of that here. But it’s an experience. Carving through the local neighborhoods to complete this “trail”. If you’re not comfortable south of 105th, take your whisk broom back to your cozy higher tax bracket trails. I’m on a mission to bike or walk all Cook county Forest Preserve trails this summer. Wish me luck!
This trail has a little bit of everything! Our family parked at the Davis Campground trail head. There was plenty of parking, a picnic area and a restroom at that location. The first 3.6 miles of the 10.6 mile (each way) trail is crushed rock - so I would not recommend that portion for folks with road bikes. The rest of the trail is asphalt which is in good condition. The busy sections (through Kankakee River State Park) are divided with markings for left/right traffic. There are some hilly sections, but there's nothing too tough and 90% of the length of the trail is shaded by a lush tree canopy. Some of the highlights of the trail include a suspension bridge, multiple lookout spots along the river - and some really fun twisty turning sections that keep you focused and alert behind the handlebars! Our family stopped at the suspension bridge where there is walking trail access to river below. Below the bridge there are rocks to climb on to explore the clear river water and it's many fish. To make a day of it, bring lunch to enjoy at one of the many picnic/lookout areas along this beautiful and well maintained river. Just a great day of exercise, nature observing and family fun! Highly recommend.
We rode the trail Wed, July 25. First time since last fall. We were pleasantly surprised to find the parking lot off of 135th St to be newly paved with the parking spaces marked! In addition, the port-a-potty, which was clean, and handicap accessible, has been replaced by a permanent large vault toilet. It remains clean. We rode from 135th St to the fork that branches off to the Cal-Sag. Great Trail, but no other facilities or benches other than the two, one and two miles from 135 St. Great trail, but could use some flashing lights just before you cross the road to enter the industrial area. Lots of traffic there. I believe that is Lamont Rd. Loved riding through Waterfall Glen.
I've ridden this trail many times at different times of the year. There are several branches - Elgin, Geneva, Aurora, Batavia - and it also extends eastward from Wheaton/Dupage County. Most recently on a perfect day (July 24, 2019) I rode the Fox River Trail to the Geneva branch to the Aurora branch. Each time I hope it will be a better experience but alas it's just a flat out boring grind. It should really be called the ComEd trail since a lot of it follows ComEd high tension wires - which means straight as a ruler flat as a pancake boring as heck miles. The only other trail that is straighter an more boring is the so-called Great Western Trail from Sycamore to St. Charles. - yuk.
Granted, some of the path goes through nicely wooded areas - for example from West Chicago to Wheaton and the Aurora branch to 59 with the exception of a mile or so is fairly nice.
About 90% of the trail is crushed stone - some of it badly in need of attention and maintenance. I realize it was an unusually wet Spring and lots of flooding - but some of the path is dicey. There's a stretch just west of Farnsworth Road that has been "patched" with rough cut stone - NOT crushed rock - that is dangerous - especially if one hits it as speed.
From Geneva to West Chicago and from West Chicago to Aurora it's just a grind. Nothing much to look at, very little variation in direction and mild change in elevation - just pounding out the miles. Lots of weeds to ComEd's "Prairie Restoration" especially in comparison to the Prairie Restoration at Fermi Lab which is much more diverse and interesting - and authentic.
With the beauty of the Fox River trail is an alternative - as well as several others - I'm writing the Prairie Path off my list.
We’ve only done Oswego to Geneva so far but I’m already so impressed. Beautiful well maintained trail. While it’s a great trail for getting a workout in you’ll be torn between it and stopping to take in the amazing scenery.
I live near Fermilab and can access it by bike without having to drive over. 99 times out of 100 I probably wouldn't choose this path. Fermi is a huge chunk of land that should offer a far better bike trail in my opinion. As it stands the path that leads you from the west side of the property to the east can be best described as a straight-ish cement/asphalt trail with little more eye candy than the main building itself. They used to house buffalo to the east on their farm but they were moved out years ago. Now all that stands is a farmhouse. Near the east side of the property is a small village but aside from a bathroom and maybe a vending machine, there's nothing of interest here. To get more miles you can veer off on any road in the compound but these take you down gritty asphalt roads without much more fanfair, and a bumpy ride to show for it. There's a lot of potential for a great bike path in here, but I don't think the powers that be want a great deal of folks meandering through. By the way, be prepared to show your ID to get in. That is mandatory.
Simply put, it doesn't get any better than this in Illinois. Referred to as the Lake Michigan Trail, this one can be ridden along the lake for more than the advertised 19 miles. I've done every inch of this path numerous times and always look forward to coming back. The entire trail is cement or asphalt making it an easy mover. Wind can obviously play a role (yeah, go figure) as can traffic (many walk, peddle and run this trail). The sites...well...they are as you can imagine, limitless. There are an endless number of places to stop for a rest and an equal number of curiousities to pull over and check out. My favorite is north of Oak Street beach. After a good number of miles I like to pit stop here and jump into the lake to cool off. This isn't for everybody. : ) In all seriousness this path has so much to offer you might ride it 50 times before noticing something new.
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