Find the top rated horseback riding trails in Illinois, whether you're looking for an easy short horseback riding trail or a long horseback riding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a horseback riding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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Rode this train on 8/14/22. We did the entire trail, including the loop around the lake. There are several road crossings, but the busy roads have traffic signals to make it safe. This trail goes through dense woods, open meadows, small towns, and along Thorn Creek. The pavement was excellent and the trail was not crowded at all.
I initially did this trail, in the Cook County Forest Preserves maybe 3o years ago. On my recent return, I find that the trail has been extended both to the south and to the north. Totally paved trail in good condition. You will find a few bridges over major roads and the other street crossing were either at traffic signals or were at more minor roads. The nice part is the forest tree shading over the path that is very curvy and rolling. The south extension has a nice bridge over the double track railroad-probably why the extension took so long to fund the construction. At the north end, the trail does go thru the Chicago Botanical Gardens (when it is open) and now the new north extension connects east to the junction of the Green Bay Trail and the Robert McClory Bike Path. 43 miles out and back on a very nice day for riding.
What a beautiful walking trail right in town! Smooth and paved for miles of easy walking. Half the trail is the neighborhood and the other half is the woods with a creek. Peaceful water sounds the whole walk. Dog waste stations and lots of friendly pups and people out exercising. No real shade, so go on a cooler evening when it’s dry. Not a hiking experience but a beautiful smooth walk for exercise.
Great path to bike for any age or experience level. Great history at the stone bridge.
A nice ride. The hub is a good place to start.
Started from the Bourbonnais side and did the entire thing as a loop. There's about three miles of crushed limestone which turns out is the most predictable part of the trail. The rest is asphalt, but it's just… ok. This entire trail is "just ok".
Let's start with the asphalt: it's not great. It's not terrible, but it's got some really bad root upheave throughout. There are a handful of actually dangerous potholes in there as well. Because so much of the trail is partially shaded it can be difficult to spot any of the rough spots (if it was fully open or fully shaded your eyes could adjust, but the dappled light makes it impossible to ever fully acclimate).
Then there's the overall design of the trail. While it has some interesting hills and turns, they're often innundated with blind curves. Even some of the straight sections have overgrowth encroaching on the trail making this even worse.
Finally this trail is seemingly used by people who don't seem to have a lot of shared trail experience. People walk on both sides of the path. Announcing yourself will have people moving in lots of unpredictable directions; instead of moving to the right, they may act startled and actually move LEFT. One person who knew I was coming up and I approached very slowly from behind didn't even acknowledge me – instead they just started, very slowly, moving to the left side of the trail until they were OFF the trail. On shared paths you want every person to move predictably. This was not a thing on this trail apparently.
What this adds up to is that you end up having to constantly be on extra high alert and you're not going to be going very fast. You'll maintain a medium speed, and any time you really want to push it, the conditions of the trail will quickly make you dial it back.
The scenery was ok. Some good glimpses of the river, but nothing dramatic. A lot of similar looking woods. A few breaks in the woods as you go through the park system, meaning picnic shelters and overlooks. No real meadows or fields or even sections right up next to the water. The trail did provide good shade from the sun, so if it's a hot day, this trail should be fine temperature-wise.
The crushed limestone section was the best part of the trail, primarily because it was (as mentioned above) the most predictable. Far less traffic. No weird asphalt cracks / root upheave / holes to deal with. They were fine even on my narrow 700x23 tires.
This trail is really designed for recreational riders, and it's fine for that. If you want to go faster look elsewhere. Probably decent for a recovery ride. Not worth a longer drive than 30 minutes unless you're already in the area.
1. A bridge across the channel just north of Lincoln Avenue now connects the two main sections of the trail. This means you can go from Devon Avenue to Argyle Avenue with no street crossings.
2. The trail through the Evanston arboretum is now paved, so the west side path is continuous from Lincoln to Green Bay Road.
There are sections of this trail that are very rough. After a few miles...I just gave up beating me and the bike to death. This could be a beautiful trail if it just had some repaving and trimming.
Ride this trail often, today all 20 mikes and back from Rockton Road south to the Long Trail trailhead/end in Capron. There are some rough spots to watch out for between Caledonia and Capron but overall we found it to be in great shape for our bikes with mountain/fat tires. Crushed gravel with blacktop sections, very shady with open farmland areas.
Hit this trail in two different trips. Came on 7/21/2022 and started at Daniel Wright Woods and headed north, rode about 20 miles north. The trail was limestone and appeared to be in relatively good shape. Trail was a mixture of shade and sun. This part of the trail was well maintained and enjoyable. On 7/28/2022, we came back, started at the Half Way Forest Preserve and headed south. The first 5 miles were just like the week before, well maintained and after that things drastically got worse. There was a lack of signage and also the trail was very poorly maintained. We had to worry about going around so many mud puddles and also there were plenty of areas where it looked like rain at one time washed out the area and made nice sized gulley's. We got 11 miles in and the trail abruptly ends...no signage or maps at all to tell you where you need to go. Luckily, I had my phone and checked the traillink app, but we decided, that we had enough of the rough terrain, that we headed back. Such a disappointment.
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