Explore the best rated trails in Mount Prospect, IL. Whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Illinois & Michigan Canal State Trail and ComEd Greenway. With more than 123 trails covering 4860 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 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...
In just a few short miles, the Wauponsee Glacial Trail leaves the urban confines of Joliet to bask in open farmland and reclaimed tallgrass prairie where the bison roam again. Named for a glacial lake...
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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...
This shared-use path runs east-west through the village of Carol Stream in Du Page county. Sitting on the grassy north side of Lies Road between Fair Oaks Road and Gary Avenue, the path is used as an...
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 Bull Valley Road Shared-Use Path travels along the south side of Bull Valley Road in the city of McHenry, Illinois. The paved path is suitable for non-motorized uses including walking, jogging,...
This bike path sits on the east side of Almond Road between Washington Street and Fairfield Lane in Gurnee. The 8-foot wide asphalt path is used by residents as a spot for exercise and recreation, but...
The Long Prairie Trail journeys across the width of agricultural Boone County for nearly 14 miles on the railroad corridor previously used by the Kenosha and Rockford Railroad, later known as the...
The John Husar I&M Canal Trail is the northernmost trail developed on the Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor. The Illinois & Michigan Canal provided the final link in the water route...
The Seven Waters Bike Trail is a scenic corridor stretching more than 17 miles northsouth between Burlington and Muskego Lake into Waukesha County. The trail was originally three trails, locally...
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...
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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....
About an hour northwest of Chicago, the beautiful Grant Woods Forest Preserve spans more than 1,000 acres, offering an outdoor respite of prairie, woodlands and marshes. The crushed limestone pathway...
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 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 Lily Cache Greenway travels east-west across Bollingbrook, from the ComEd Greenway to the Plainfield border. The trail more or less follows the course of its namesake creek, and is characterized...
The Lake Geneva Bike Path runs through the scenic resort city, offering connections to many of the community’s amenities. The trail has five unique, color-coded segments. The Blue Route is the...
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 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...
Helping to extend the excellent network of trails around the city of Racine deeper west into the heart of the county, the Racine County Bike Trail serves as a disconnected addition to the...
The Stone Mill Trail runs between Lawrence Road in Harvard and Maxon Road in Chemung. The 1.5-mile, paved trail mostly parallels County Highway 17 (Ramer Road) and active railroad tracks, and will...
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 Great Divide Trail sits is a one mile non-motorized trail through a negihborhood at the northern tip of Joliet, Illinois. The paved trail, which sits in the shadow of electric transmission lines,...
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 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...
The Robert McClory Bike Path runs the length of Lake County, knitting together a string of communities on the north shore of Chicago all the way to the Wisconsin border. In 1997, the trail was named...
The Struckman Boulevard Path is just over a mile long, stretching between Bartlett Road and State Route 59, (although the path narrows from the end of Sunset Park up to the end on SR 59). That said,...
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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...
The Lake Geneva Bike Path runs through the scenic resort city, offering connections to many of the community’s amenities. The trail has five unique, color-coded segments. The Blue Route is the...
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...
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The Bloomingdale Trail, part of “The 606” park system, is a 3-mile, elevated rail-trail on Chicago’s northwest side. Built on a former rail line, the trail sits 17 feet above four of the city’s...
The Great American Rail-Trail highlights some of the country’s most iconic landmarks, well-known geography and storied history across a 3,700-miles-plus route between Washington and Washington....
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 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 Union Pacific Recreation Path offers a short route through the Village of Lincolnwood's east side between Devon and Touhy avenues. Following the former Union Pacific Railroad, the rail-trail...
The DeKalb-Sycamore Trail—also known as the Peace Road Trail—parallels the eastern side of Peace Road from DeKalb to Sycamore in northern Illinois. Along the way, you'll pass a mixture of residential...
The Stearns Road Bike Path is a dedicated sidepath traveling from Hanover Park to the Bartlett, in the Chicago suburbs. The asphalt path sits on the north side of Greenbrook Boulevard/ Stearns Road,...
The Kuhn Road Trail starts on Lies Road, at Glenbard North High School and continues south along Kuhn Road, past single-family homes and Friendship Park. The trail officially ends at Barbara O'Rahilly...
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...
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...
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The Monon Trail in Lake County, Indiana—not to be confused with the trail of the same name in Indianapolis—links the two Chicago suburbs of Hammond and Munster. The paved trail occupies an abandoned...
The Pennsy Greenway stretches between Calumet City, Illinois, and Schererville, Indiana. The trail begins at the southern end of the Burnham Greenway on the eastern edge of the Forest Preserve...
Lake Renwick Preserve is home to an artificial lake of the same name that was created from former quarries where aggregates for concrete were once mined. Today, the lake is a recreational amenity in...
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 Robert McClory Bike Path runs the length of Lake County, knitting together a string of communities on the north shore of Chicago all the way to the Wisconsin border. In 1997, the trail was named...
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 Stearns Road Bike Path is a dedicated sidepath traveling from Hanover Park to the Bartlett, in the Chicago suburbs. The asphalt path sits on the north side of Greenbrook Boulevard/ Stearns Road,...
The Racine-Sturtevant Trail runs for 3.5 miles from the western side of Racine to near the eastern edge of the Village of Sturtevant. The trail occupies an abandoned rail corridor for most of its...
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 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...
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...
Ridgefield Trace currently consists of two short segments open for use. The western section runs from McHenry County College on US 14 in Crystal Lake to just west of N. Oak Street. Active railroad...
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 Struckman Boulevard Path is just over a mile long, stretching between Bartlett Road and State Route 59, (although the path narrows from the end of Sunset Park up to the end on SR 59). That said,...
The Cal-Sag Trail (or, Calumet-Sag Trail) is currently under active construction. It currently has a competed section of over 15 miles, stretching from near its western terminus at the John Husar I&M...
Little Calumet River Levee Trail stretches from Munster to Gary, Indiana. The trail zigs and zags through a number of local parks including Riverside Park, Wicker Memorial Park, Homestead Park,...
The popular Rock Run Greenway Trail is a balanced mix of natural areas and cityscapes that alternate over the length of the trail. The natural areas are frequented by recreational users. The...
Closure Notice: As of April 2021, the portion of the bike path on the Route 176 bridge over the Des Plaines River is closed for bridge repairs. Trail users can follow posted detour signage via the Des...
The Fort Hill Bike Path trail sits on the north side of Peterson Road/ County Road 20. The trail peels away from the Prairie Crossing Bike Path at Midlothian Road and extends west, passing industries...
The Lake Geneva Bike Path runs through the scenic resort city, offering connections to many of the community’s amenities. The trail has five unique, color-coded segments. The Blue Route is the...
Pros: fast way to get north-south or vice versa, mostly clean gravel.
Cons:Many streets to cross, if you don't keep your head on a swivel and you stop, you have a great chance of being mugged.
Hi I have ridden this route in the past and enjoyed the variety and safety of car less rides. I am looking for pictures of the newly opened tunnel that connect the Fox River Trail to the Illinois Prarie Path. - Thanks in advance.
There is an access at bluff road as well in case you are looking for a place to park that isn’t four miles away. One word to the wise, the crossing for bluff road is a bit dangerous. There is limited sight distance and cars coming flying by so be careful when crossing the road. The trail is nice and smooth and connects to several trails. There is a pretty good slope on this trail, something rare for Illinois.
This is a terrific trail to ride. Woods, Meadows, winding creeks. A bridge over rail lines and a tunnel under rail lines.
We rode this trail along with a loop around Sauk Lake for a 30 mile round trip.
We started in the morning but did find as the time got later the road crossing that had nothing more than a crossings sign became somewhat difficult to get a break in traffic.
Two of us rode the McClory southbound on July 2, 2021. We experienced few of the negatives described in other reviewers, especially the ones from years ago. Near the northern extreme of the trail, we experienced two spots with a little broken glass, but literally a couple of feet each and they were past. There were some gritty-looking areas surrounding the trail, mostly in Waukegan, but no people or areas anywhere that felt truly dangerous. The trail crosses a lot of streets and that slowed us down, especially since we had been riding several hours. The path was well kept throughout; it was easy to ride and we never had to reduce speed because of the surface. It's also not excessively dusty; no need to wipe down our bikes at the end of the day. We still prefer paved trails, but there's no doubt: combining this trail with the southern Kenosha County trail is an easy way to get from Wisconsin toward Chicago. The paved part, from about Waukegan through Highland Park, is a little faster and almost entirely flat. At Lake Cook Road near the Braeside Metra station, it connects with the Green Bay Trail to continue toward the city.
I love the convenience of this trail, but it is in serious need of repair. Bumps are everywhere.
This is a really nice trail with lots of places to stop along the way and some great scenery at times but the southern end of the trail in particular is in pretty rough shape. I had a puncture flat along the way in a not so great area. I was approached by a pedestrian who asked me for spare change rather than asking me if I needed help with my tire. I recommend riding with a buddy along the south end. Otherwise a great trail
I live off of the 606 and love using it for my daily exercise. I typically run the full loop which is 5.4 miles, but it is 2.7 miles end-to-end. The 606 can get SUPER busy when it’s nice out which makes it more of hassle than it’s worth when riding your bike. Lots of people that don’t understand sharing the path or what “on your left” means… but that isn’t the trail’s fault. Lots of convenient stops too if you’re going for a walk and want to stop for food. early
This is a very nice trail where you can go quite fast. Just be careful of pedestrians. The trail connects to the plank trail and the route 30 trail as well. I recommend this trail in the fall as it is very beautiful.
I love riding the Erie Lackawanna early in the morning. However, around Highland it needs repaving. It’s pretty bumpy and rough.
It’s too short for most bikers but it’s good to get you from point A to B. It doesn’t quite go all the way to Harlem Av it stops at the Shell gas station. It’s great if your ok for a straight line ride with minimal grades, about 3% in some areas.
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