I can't speak for summer and autumn but this is a nice park in the winter and spring. The sledding hill looked fun, they have a bunny hill level for little tykes and the full hill for older kids. I'm definitely too mature for that myself, though. Okay, so I looked around at three local stores and they were all sold out of sleds apart from a wooden toboggan that was more costly than a nearby kayak. I'm blaming that on too many months of quarantine and joblessness.
The trails are scenic and more extensive than the map led me to believe. I don't think it's to scale; the back 40 goes on for much longer than I figured. I'm glad I turned around when I did on my winter hike. Come springtime and warmer temps the whole northern expanse was just about the right amount of nature and exercise. I mainly did the southern circuit in the snow and the sweeping elevation changes and the train trestle over the Belle River were just lovely.
Some of the trails could be better marked. On my winter visit I wasn't even sure if the park ended at a low clearance bridge where a road goes over the Belle River. Turns out more than half the park is past there and crossing the road seems to be the preferred way to get there, though the troll way seems more adventurous. There's some power lines with mowed grass that intersect some of the trails and it's unclear if that isn't also a trail. I don't think so but I got kind of lost at one point and tried to use that to double back and got caught up in some sogginess. If you stay close to the Belle River you shouldn't have that problem, though. I also wandered through some of the twisting mountain bike trails trying to find my way back. Just judging from being on foot they didn't look anywhere near as fun as the bike trails at River Bends. Ultimately I ended up using the Google maps on my phone to get back to where I needed to be.
There's equestrian trails here, too, and a nice clubhouse with restrooms, vending machines, picnic tables and pamphlets for this and other parks in St. Clair county. This is a quiet, laid back park but I don't think I'd drive too far out of my way to get here. read more