If you’re looking to incorporate more of what nature has to offer in 2025, you may want to check out the Forest Preserves of Cook County’s Salt Creek Trails System.
With paved and unpaved trails stretching along the Des Plaines River, Salt Creek and Brookfield Zoo, the trails offer awe-inspiring scenery, wildlife sightings and much more.
“The unpaved system dates to the mid late 1930’s when the Forest Preserves acquired land,” Pamela Sielski, senior landscape architect with the Forest Preserves of Cook County, said. “Paved Trails (7.1 miles of paved between 31st St. in Brookfield to I294, DuPage County Line) started in the mid 1970’s [through] the last regional trail connection in 1995.”
Known as the Salt Creek Greenway Trail, the nearly 25 mile-long, regional pedestrian/bicycle trail, extends from Busse Forest in Elk Grove Village to the Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, the trail is a key link in the development of a 210-mile integrated trail network in northeast Illinois that includes the Illinois Prairie Path and the Great Western Trail, among others.
“The Forest Preserves of Cook County trail systems are one of its greatest, most popular assets,’ Sielski said. https://fpdcc.com/downloads/maps/trails/english/FPCC-Salt-Creek-Trail-Map-2-24.pdf
A great benefit to any area, trails offer outdoor recreation and transportation alternatives, while supporting economic activity, and promoting environmental awareness and healthy lifestyles.
“Access to open spaces for recreation has been shown by many studies to improve physical and mental health and to increase quality of life,” Sielski added. “Trails bring those health benefits to all by providing individuals of diverse backgrounds access to our public lands for all types of outdoor recreation at no cost.”
In addition to the 7.1 miles of paved trail, an additional 6 miles of paved trail and 5.5 miles of unpaved trail allows an opportunity to experience diverse environments including restored habitats.
“Many of our existing trails started as Native American trails, equestrian trails and old roadways or drives that were present prior to the Forest Preserves acquiring the land,” Sielski said.
Surfacing trails was first done in the late 1960s to accommodate changes in trail users, moving from riding horses to riding bicycles, Sielski added, noting the first bicycle path was installed in that era on Salt Creek, between the Brookfield Zoo and the county line, converting an old horse trail into a limestone path.
Following that, a massive paving project created the North Branch of the Chicago River Trail, starting at Devon and Caldwell, and eventually extending all the way to the Chicago Botanic Garden.
“For a time, the Forest Preserves was nationally recognized for its efforts in this area, and it continues an aggressive bikeway program to this day,” Sielski said. “Thousands of acres of land formerly available only on foot and horse [are] now accessible to faster moving bicycle traffic.”
For more information, go to Forest Preserves of Cook County.