Grove Road Trail

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 side of Grove Road and soon arrives at Prairie Point Community Park. The park features baseball and soccer fields, volleyball and basketball courts, a sledding hill, picnic shelter, splash pad and skate park. The Prairie Point Trail, which encircles the park and then extends south to residential subdivisions, meets the Grove Road Trail at both the north and south ends of the park.

South of the park, near the entrance to the local high school, the trail changes over to the west side of the road and continues south past a mix of neighborhoods and open fields. The smoothly-paved trail ends at Reservation Road, but a short on-road route via Crestview Drive leads to Waa Kee Sha Park.

Parking and Trail Access

Parking for the Grove Road Trail can be found at Prairie Point Community Park (4120 Plainfield Road) in Oswego. Vehicular access to the park is possible from both Plainfield Road and Grove Road.

Pretty good

May 2020 aidantheponyboy

The trail itself is smooth and easy to ride, but there is a crossing of a major street, with no light. Mostly people respect the pedestrian’s way, some do not. In terms of views, it doesn’t offer much, except for the last section, which is beautiful. Overall, pretty good trail that perhaps could be expanded upon.

Trail to nowhere

August 2015 jayheyl

I'm having some trouble figuring out why this trail even exists. One end is very much the middle of nowhere. The other end is in a somewhat more populated area, but then the trail goes to nowhere, so...

The trail itself is in reasonable shape. It's asphalt interrupted in just one spot by concrete sidewalk. The asphalt has some minor cracks but they mostly serve to keep you from falling asleep. The trail is quite straight with only minor elevation changes.

As far as scenery, there isn't much. Some nice houses, and a lot of corn and soybeans. When coming back north there is a nice vista of a good part of the Fox Valley. That's about it.

Unless you live in the immediate area or really like corn and soybeans, there's little reason to take much interest in this one. You can use it to extend a ride south on the Fox River Trail as I did. You have to wind your way through the Oswego surface streets a bit and eventually cross Rt. 71, which can be a problem right now (August 2015) due to construction. I recommend taking Forest Ave across 71 to Prairieview Dr. Make a left and wind around a few blocks to Lakeview. A very short block will take you to the trail.

At the southern end you can continue on Reservation Rd., eventually merging onto Van Emmon Rd., riding all the way into Yorkville. This would all be on-road. Once in Yorkville, though, you're probably going to have to turn around and come back the way you came. There doesn't seem to be a good alternative route.