Sleepy Hollow Park (still totally not haunted) has been updated into a natural park area with a…read moremowed playfield and some paths, but no longer features any playground equipment or seating. The playfield is suited for most outdoor sports, tends to be well maintained, and drains well. It's along the Skokie River, which flows well most of the year, so isn't a massive mosquito haven (still you might need a light mist of mosquito repellent to keep the few biters at bay). There's a parking lot on Trail Way, and you follow a path to the bridge that crosses into the park. There's also an entrance at North Ave. where there's parking for 2 or 3 vehicles at the trailhead. It's a nice little park surrounded by woods, and is generally pretty quiet. There are no lights, other than on Trail Way, so be sure to leave before sunset.

The "Home Alone" gazebo might be gone, but a new era just began…read more A $2 million dollar renovation happened in the center of the Hubbard Woods Business District, and this beautiful green activity hub for the community was born. Currently the focal point of a Wednesday summer concert series, musicians are rocking the new pavilion and kiddos are getting their moves on at the splash pad and various climbing structures. Adjacent to the Hubbard Woods Metra Station and across from Once Upon A Bagel, this place is a refuge for commuters, shoppers enjoying the Design District, and passersby looking for an impromptu picnic or rest. Fun for the whole family, the play area is appropriate for ages up to seven or eight with various play structures and swings for the bigger kids. Plenty of seating and parking surrounding the park. Super cool factor alert: There's a free-standing station for repairing your bicycle, just in case you get a flat or need to tweak your seat height or handle bars. Air and all the tools you could need!

Beautiful park, with water. Nice people and what a neighborhood?! We love coming up this way where…read moreit's actually safe!

A really nice Forest preserve Grove. You can park and walk the trails near the river and under the…read morebridge. The Grove itself is on the smaller side. Still a nice place to pull over and eat your lunch, or stretch your legs. Most of the time there is a porta potty. For sure not in the winter. The dam is also a nice little feature.

This is a relatively peaceful place for hiking and biking. But it's a little hilly for an Illinois…read moreforest preserve, so wear appropriate footwear (I learned that the hard way). I've seen people getting professional photos taken with these woods as a backdrop, and it's a good setting for that. There's an expanse of grass between the woods and the parking lot where you can sit, have a picnic, whatever. The paved trail runs up the hill and onto the bridge over Lake St. to the north or towards Old Orchard to the south. As you move south, the forest preserves get a bit busy, so I prefer to head north from here. Just to the west of the main trail, there's a gravel path that tacks off to one side and is a little quieter, if that's what you're looking for. You won't lose sight of civilization completely, but you'll get a breather from the steady flow of bike traffic on the main trail that way.

07/03/20 - Yet another part of the extensive trails that make up part of the vast Forest Preserve…read moreNorth Branch trails. These start East of me by the Chicago Park district on Foster Ave & go West through Labaugh Woods off of Cicero Ave (5 houses East of me) through Forest Glen Woods (2 Blocks west of me) the turns north all the way to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. These trails are awesome as they provide people a little respite from urban life literally right in their backyards. People especially now that the weather is warmer come out for walks, running, roller blading & biking along the trails. My sister and I are both on a mission to not only get exercise, but see our own natural beauty our forest preserves provide & at the same time shed some pounds. The amount we have been walking you see all sorts of wild life, everything from deer, Blue herons, snapping turtles, chipmunks scouting around, squirrels, raccoons, hawks, redwing blackbirds, cardinals (no Cubs though bummer), blue jays even a fox. Today we walked from the Blue Star Memorial Woods to the south end of The Skokie Lagoon & back about 6.3 miles.

There is some beatiful parks and lakefront property that Evanston can boast about. There are also…read moremany parks and walking trails that go all the way from the lakefront to Dodge Ave. On my last visit I was checking out the lush greenery and lakefront property that can be found by Sheridan/Church St. near the boat launch area.

I can honestly say I probably spend half of my summer at the Evanston sailing beach and the…read moreEvanston dog beach. My dog even gets excited when we drive by on Sheridan Road. All the facilities are top notch with clean facilities and groomed beaches. The staff are always friendly and do their jobs well. We keep a sailboat at paddle board down at the sailing beach for easy access and it's easy to find street or lot parking to enjoy a day on the water!

I recommend this place because the park is giant and big space to play so I totally recommend this…read moreplace for kids too

Warren Park is a very large park in West Ridge, on Chicago's far north side. It's the largest on…read morethe north side I think. I think I might have been here once when I lived in West Ridge a mile away. They have facilities for baseball, basketball, and soccer, as well as a 9-hole golf course (waaaaay on the northeast side of the park, at the corner of Pratt and Ridge), and tennis courts that double as pickleball courts. There's a path that runs through the park as well so you can walk or job, but I also saw people riding bikes on it when I was here. In wintertime, they have an ice rink. You can play cricket here, racquetball, and there are three playgrounds. The field house is large too. There's a gymnasium and the Northtown Garden Society operates out of here. I was surprised to see the garden club because I had been curious if there was one around here but couldn't find one. I'm sure one of if not their major project is the maintenance of the Warren Park community garden, which is between Western Avenue and the field house. Near the field house, on its south side, is a work of public art that doubles as a place to sit and take a load off. The history of Warren Park is a particularly interesting one and combines the politics of Chicago. The land was once the Edgewater Golf Course, a privately owned course. It was purchased and the community soon learned that the developers wanted to put a high rise and shopping center here. It was indeed re-zoned by the city when community efforts failed, and those groups (called the Allied North Side Community Organizations) appealed to the governor, who signed legislation making it a state park to preserve the open land, calling it the "first major state park in Illinois created in an urban area". The state only purchased about a third of it, though, and the remaining land was still undergoing development, much to the dismay of the surrounding community. Is the end, the Chicago Park District chose to condemn it and turn it into parkland, and the state transferred its property to the city. This park as a very large parking lot, which is good since there are so many activities here. There are bathroom facilities inside the field house as well. The field house and playgrounds are accessible, and depending upon one's accessibility needs other areas of the park may be as well.

I have been here many times. This time I decided to smoke a cigar and sit on the shore rocks. You…read morecan see the Chicago skyline long in the distance. There are really nice homes that are huge in this area almost reminds me of Kevin McAllister's home from, "Home Alone." The Park has plenty of benches and also a jogging path along the walkway. The only con about this place is that you need to be really careful walking in the grass because dog poop here are like land mines! *Kaboom*

#magic I love it here!…read moreMiles of biking, running or walking paths. Beautiful beach to run through the waves. A nice park to lay on a blanket. A hop, skip and jump to Northwestern. Watch the sunrise and a full moon come up over the water. My favorite meditation spot.

This is a peaceful area close to the Morton Grove Metra Station. I've come here during lunch and…read moreI've seen deer here sometimes, but mostly it's just people in their cars. It's beautiful in the fall with the colorful leaves, but I've never ventured out into the woods. Stop here for a little forest bathing, there's plenty of room, and its so green.

Came here for a birthday party for my friends' son last summer. It's a great area, and they had…read morereserved a pavilion so we had a lot of space. The pavilions also seem to be spaced out enough that you're not right on top of another group. My one complaint was parking: there was a verrrrrry large group a few pavilions down, and because there was so many people their parking spilled into the space for our pavilion, so we had to park a ways down. I get that it's all open parking, so not really anyone's fault, but it was pretty hard to find parking. The pavilions are good size, and had plenty of table space and seating (plus room for some games). There was also plenty of 'lawn space' around for people that wanted to be out in the sun. Porta potties were the only bathrooms I saw, and depending on which pavilion you were at it could be bit of a hike to them. Overall, not a bad place to have a larger gathering.