Machesney Park, IL Cross Country Skiing Trails and Maps

997 Reviews

Looking for the best Cross Country Skiing trails around Machesney Park?

Find the top rated cross country skiing trails in Machesney Park, whether you're looking for an easy short cross country skiing trail or a long cross country skiing trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a cross country skiing trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.

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Activities
Length
Surfaces
Type
32 Results
Activities
Length
Surfaces
Type

Fox River Trail (IL)

45.7 mi
State: IL
Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone

Glacial Drumlin State Trail

53.2 mi
State: WI
Asphalt, Crushed Stone, Gravel

Glacial River Trail

55.8 mi
State: WI
Asphalt, Crushed Stone

Grant Woods Bike Path

5.9 mi
State: IL
Crushed Stone

Great Western Trail (DeKalb, Kane)

18 mi
State: IL
Asphalt, Crushed Stone

H.U.M. Trail

3.5 mi
State: IL
Asphalt

Illinois Prairie Path

58.52 mi
State: IL
Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone

Jane Addams Trail

18.9 mi
State: IL
Asphalt, Crushed Stone

Kishwaukee River Recreation Path

2.5 mi
State: IL
Asphalt

Lowell Parkway Trail

3.5 mi
State: IL
Asphalt

Millennium Trail (IL)

30.7 mi
State: IL
Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone

Moraine Hills State Park Trail

11.4 mi
State: IL
Asphalt, Crushed Stone

Prairie Trail (IL)

26.4 mi
State: IL
Asphalt, Crushed Stone, Dirt, Gravel

Rock River Parkway Trail

2.4 mi
State: WI
Asphalt, Concrete

Rock River Recreation Path

10 mi
State: IL
Asphalt

Stone Bridge Trail

5.8 mi
State: IL
Crushed Stone

Virgil L. Gilman Trail

11.5 mi
State: IL
Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone

White River State Trail

19.7 mi
State: WI
Concrete, Crushed Stone, Gravel

Badger State Trail

39.8 mi
State: WI
Asphalt, Crushed Stone

Chain O' Lakes Bike Path

3.2 mi
State: IL
Asphalt
Accordion

Cheese Country Recreation Trail

46.4 mi
State: WI
Crushed Stone, Dirt, Gravel

Kishwaukee-Kiwanis Trail

4.5 mi
State: IL
Asphalt

Long Prairie Trail

13.9 mi
State: IL
Asphalt, Crushed Stone

Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail

6 mi
State: WI
Dirt, Grass

Seven Waters Bike Trail

18.6 mi
State: WI
Asphalt, Crushed Stone, Gravel

Stone Mill Trail

1.5 mi
State: IL
Asphalt

Sugar River State Trail

22.7 mi
State: WI
Asphalt, Crushed Stone

Joe Stengel Trail

7.9 mi
State: IL
Ballast, Grass, Gravel

Pecatonica Prairie Trail

14.3 mi
State: IL
Asphalt, Crushed Stone

Lake Geneva Bike Path

8.9 mi
State: WI
Asphalt

CamRock Trail

2.4 mi
State: WI
Crushed Stone
Trail Image Trail Name States Length Surface Rating
The Fox River Trail (FRT) was built on stretches of three former railroads: Chicago, Aurora & Elgin; Aurora, Elgin, & Fox River Electric; and Chicago & North Western. Today, it hosts a multitude of...
IL 45.7 mi Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone
The 53-mile Glacial Drumlin State Trail between Cottage Grove and Waukesha provides a glimpse into the past when glaciers bore down on southeastern Wisconsin in the last Ice Age. Those gigantic sheets...
WI 53.2 mi Asphalt, Crushed Stone, Gravel
The Glacial River Trail provides bikers, pedestrians, and in-line skaters with a 55.8-mile off-road/on-road rural route winding through farmland, prairie, wetlands, and woodlands as it passes through...
WI 55.8 mi Asphalt, Crushed Stone
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...
IL 5.9 mi Crushed Stone
The western segment of the Great Western Trail in Illinois follows 18 miles of a former railway corridor through DeKalb and Kane counties, between Sycamore Forest Preserve in the City of Sycamore and...
IL 18 mi Asphalt, Crushed Stone
The H.U.M. Trail (a.k.a. the Huntley-Union-Marengo Trail) was planned to link all three of its namesake northern Illinois towns, but so far only connects Marengo and Union. Interestingly, the...
IL 3.5 mi Asphalt
The Illinois Prairie Path (IPP) was one of the nation’s first rail-trail conversions. The 58-mile trail consists of five connected trail segments with three main branches that converge at 300 S...
IL 58.52 mi Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone
The Jane Addams Trail runs for 18.9 miles between Orangeville and Freeport, following a rail line that the Illinois Central built in 1887 between Freeport, Illinois, and Madison, Wisconsin. The route,...
IL 18.9 mi Asphalt, Crushed Stone
The Kishwaukee River Recreation Path runs for 2.5 miles in Cherry Valley on the outskirts of Rockford in northern Illinois. The well-maintained, asphalt trail connects the Kishwaukee River Forest...
IL 2.5 mi Asphalt
The Lowell Parkway Trail runs through the charming town of Dixon, Illinois, boyhood home of Ronald Reagan. The trail occupies the rail bed of the old Illinois Central Railroad, between Lowell Park and...
IL 3.5 mi Asphalt
The Millennium Trail spans just over 30 miles in two disconnected segments. The trail goes through forest, farmland, and the suburban neighborhoods of Lake County with a range of surfaces, including...
IL 30.7 mi Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone
Moraine Hills State Park Trail offers a wonderful experience for any geology or nature aficionado. A moraine is an accumulation of earth and stones carried and finally deposited by a glacier....
IL 11.4 mi Asphalt, Crushed Stone
The Prairie Trail runs the length of McHenry County and is managed by the McHenry County Conservation District. The rail trail spans just over 26 miles from the Wisconsin border and the farms and...
IL 26.4 mi Asphalt, Crushed Stone, Dirt, Gravel
The Rock River Parkway Trail in Janesville runs between Rockport Park and S. Jackson Street bridge on the north side of the river. Here, at the trail's eastern terminus, you can easily link to Spring...
WI 2.4 mi Asphalt, Concrete
The paved Rock River Recreation Trail winds throughout downtown Rockford and environs, following the east bank of the Rock River through Shorewood Park and Martin Memorial Park. Officially, the trail...
IL 10 mi Asphalt
Built on a former rail bed dating back to the 1850s, the Stone Bridge Trail provides a crushed limestone pathway through rural countryside. A highlight of the trail is passage on Stone Bridge over the...
IL 5.8 mi Crushed Stone
The Virgil L. Gilman Trail travels from quiet forest and prairie lands to bustling neighborhoods in just 11.5 miles, linking a woodsy community college campus with the eastern Chicago suburb of...
IL 11.5 mi Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone
The White River State Trail is a 19.7-mile trail composed of two separate segments: a 12-mile stretch that runs between Elkhorn and just west of Burlington in Walworth County, and a 7-mile section...
WI 19.7 mi Concrete, Crushed Stone, Gravel
Closure Notice: The Stewart Tunnel has been closed since 2019 and remains closed for the foreseeable future. A detour using Tunnel Road allows trail users to go around the tunnel. Visit the trail page...
WI 39.8 mi Asphalt, Crushed Stone
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,...
IL 3.2 mi Asphalt
Accordion
Most suited for ATVers, snowmobilers and motorized trail-bikers, the Cheese Country Recreation Trail, also knowns as the Tri-County Trail, spans 47-miles through Wisconsin’s rugged Driftless Area. On...
WI 46.4 mi Crushed Stone, Dirt, Gravel
The Kishwaukee-Kiwanis Trail winds through the northern Illinois town of DeKalb, coursing along a river, through woodlands, among open spaces through parks and through suburban back yards. The trail...
IL 4.5 mi Asphalt
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...
IL 13.9 mi Asphalt, Crushed Stone
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...
IL 9.2 mi Asphalt
The Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail runs for 6 miles along an abandoned railroad corridor, between the towns of Allens Grove and Clinton. The trail is open to snowmobiles, cyclists, horseback riders and...
WI 6 mi Dirt, Grass
The Seven Waters Bike Trail is a scenic corridor stretching more than 18 miles north–south between Burlington and Muskego Lake into Waukesha County. The trail was originally three trails, locally...
WI 18.6 mi Asphalt, Crushed Stone, Gravel
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...
IL 1.5 mi Asphalt
If you can’t make it to Switzerland, then you can do the  next best thing: take the Sugar River State Trail to “America’s Little Switzerland,” New Glarus, Wisconsin. Settled in 1845 by a small group...
WI 22.7 mi Asphalt, Crushed Stone
The Joe Stengel Trail follows an old railroad corridor for 7 miles between the town of Polo and the much smaller community of Woosung. The trail corridor traces farm country along a route scattered...
IL 7.9 mi Ballast, Grass, Gravel
The Pecatonica Prairie Trail, formerly known as the Pecatonica Prairie Path, is a 14.3-mile rail-trail extending from the western edge of Rockford to N. Farwell Bridge Road west of Pecatonica. The...
IL 14.3 mi Asphalt, Crushed Stone
The 8.9-mile 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 Lake Geneva Bike...
WI 8.9 mi Asphalt
The CamRock Trail travels 2.4 miles through its namesake CamRock Park in Cambridge, Wisconsin. CamRock Park, managed by Dane County Parks, offers a number of ammenities to trail users including...
WI 2.4 mi Crushed Stone

Recent Trail Reviews

Sugar River State Trail

Good easy trail. Started in New Glarus and went foe about 2 miles.

June, 2026 by gann_chasity

Good easy trail. Started in New Glarus and went foe about 2 miles.

Glacial River Trail

a lot of road riding

June, 2026 by 47gkpg2wy5

We took this trail from the Wild Goose trail but had no idea we would be on so many roads. As you got closer to Watertown, you are also on the road. We personally try to avoid roads as much as possible so we didn’t like this part. We only went to Watertown from the North so I am not sure what the rest of the trail is like. The actual bike paths are great.

Seven Waters Bike Trail

flat

June, 2026 by sterp8

I think it was a nice trail. We started out in Rochester and went north Very flat so there is constant pedaling. Good signage. No bathrooms until Meyer Park or Heg park and pray they are open.

Accordion

White River State Trail

Update!

June, 2026 by b7ggzfh8h9

As of June 15th, the trail is now open between Burlington and Lyon.

Millennium Trail (IL)

Review of Northern Section

June, 2026 by tandemlovers

We rode the entire northern section this spring. 10 miles one way. Best place to park if you want to start in Round Lake Beach is the Round Lake Beach Elementary School parking lot. It's about a block and a half off the trail near the west terminus.
Most of the trail is well manicured fine limestone. Very good condition throughout. Scenery is excellent.
The signage is ok. Some intersections are well marked and others not marked at all.
There are several spur loops and many neighborhood access spurs. Use a map, these can get very confusing.
It loses a star for the signage and some rather intimidating grade crossings near the west end.

White River State Trail

Between Spring Valley road trailhead and Lyon the trail was closed due to 2 bridges being washed out

May, 2026 by fredklausegger

Between Spring Valley road trailhead and Lyon the trail was closed due to 2 bridges being washed out

Moraine Hills State Park Trail

My wife and I just purchased two e-Bikes and decided to use this place for our maiden voyage. This was also our first time at this state park. We really enjoyed the tails and the nature. We will be returning with cameras and fishing poles.

May, 2026 by garyboutte

My wife and I just purchased two e-Bikes and decided to use this place for our maiden voyage. This was also our first time at this state park. We really enjoyed the tails and the nature. We will be returning with cameras and fishing poles.

H.U.M. Trail

My honey had not.rode a bike in many years and didn't want to ride around a lot of people. So when we found this trail it became a favorite, very few people, flat, nice flowers and views. The parking is really easy at both ends.

April, 2026 by dambrisco

My honey had not.rode a bike in many years and didn't want to ride around a lot of people. So when we found this trail it became a favorite, very few people, flat, nice flowers and views. The parking is really easy at both ends.

Poplar Creek Trail

You need to cross several major roads, but the ride is beautiful!

March, 2026 by judy.meigel

You need to cross several major roads, but the ride is beautiful!

Cheese Country Recreation Trail

Beautiful multi-use trail. It is the only trail open to ATV/UTV’s in Southern WI

March, 2026 by dougmayer11

Beautiful multi-use trail. It is the only trail open to ATV/UTV’s in Southern WI

Prairie Trail (IL)

2026 ride in early March very rough

March, 2026 by w5q7jv7kc9

The trail from rusty nail north to Richmond was very rough and I lost the screws to my kick stand with all the bumps in the trail is there any plans to help smooth them out — I understand the horses share the trail but if they could help by staying to one side so us bikers have a chance on using the trail with out so many bumps dug into the paths¿

Great Western Trail (DeKalb, Kane)

jaro1311

November, 2025 by roachjames771

This trail starts behind my home in sycamore. I’ve ridden it dozens of times. I like to stop at the winners circle at the speedway and grab lunch. Flat and well maintained.

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Accordion

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