The Forest Preserve Headquarters of Winnebago County is by far my favorite underrated park in the…read moreRockford area! Lots to explore and so many different, unique areas within the park. I love the view over the quarry in all seasons but it's especially beautiful in fall/winter. The walk through the woods and around the ponds and river on the other side of the forest preserve are gorgeous in spring with frogs and other small animals to find and lots of mossy pathways. It feels like a fairytale! (Photos by Figment Photography)

Great place to hangout and have a few beers and go on nature walks…read more I've never camped here, but I heard that its cool. There are a lot of nice shelters and a respectable playground. You can pick morel mushrooms here during the early-mid spring. There's a fair amount of wildlife (deer, turkey, woodpeckers, toads, etc.) as well. The conservation sheriff cruises through every once in a while to make sure no one's doing anything retarded. Its a popular hangout for delinquent kids during the day, so check your grills before you cook. There was piss on one of them once.

A decent hamsterwheel for children. Want a place to tire them out? You could do worse…read more A few things I can say, is whenever you take children out in public, certain things happen in public. Most of the lower reviews I've seen are realistic, and legitimate gripes, but that's the 21st century for you (with this kind of population). When it gets down to it, there needs to be more places like this for children to have fun. Its not a bad place to take the kids or have a birthday party. The layout and equipment is pretty clever to where the possiblity of injury is low. As for me, I'm just going to sit around and drink a soda for an hour, in the hopes the kid is wiped out at the end.

Is dirty dirty dirty , way too crowded , dirty carpet , too many exits and entrance on the toddler…read moreside , restroom too close to playground.

Can't believe I'm the first one to review this place! Beloit, you guys are slacking!…read more This is a pretty neat playground to take the kids to with an awesome view of the river. Not exactly sure what river it is, Illinois i think? The playground is well maintained, my 10 year old loved it. Not your traditional playground with swings and seesaws, but plenty of stuff to climb. There's also a walking trail along the river but I was sad that I couldn't go because we didn't take the baby stroller! We had our infant in the car seat and she was too heavy to lug that thing around in. Parent fail! Would love to come back and bring my walking shoes to get my steps in!

This is a park directly across the river from central Galena. You can get there via bridge over the…read moreriver - or there's parking on the east side of the river. There's a hill from the main entrance on the east side of the river to get to the top - with great views of central Galena. This is such a nice park. There are paved walkways that take you through the park There are a number of benches with various views. There's a gazebo, a statue of Grant, historic cannons/howitzers, a water fountain, a playground for small kids, and a basketball court. Can be a good place to just relax or to stroll. To stroll the whole thing - while reading the signs - took 45 minutes.

This is a good-sized park that wears many hats. It has a gazebo, where I'm sure many a ceremonial…read moreevent has been held. There are basketball courts, so people of all ages can play. There's a playlot for little ones and their carers. A fountain is part of the landscaping and probably provides some meditative white noise for people just here to relax and be. There are also several historical monuments; after all, named after favorite son Ulysses Grant, you'd expect as much. I was a bit surprised that there are two cannons here... not what I was expecting! Probably not loaded, though. There is access to Main Street on the east side of the river by using the pedestrian bridge. The lettering on the side of the park with its name was destroyed a few years back, and a Boy Scout troop repaired it. That's really cool that the local troop worked with the community in this way.

This is a very nicely kept park. Although owned by the park district, it really is a…read moreNeighborhood park due to no parking available. They have two sets of swings (one for younger kids and one for older), a small playground area, and a small shelter area with two picnic tables. Surrounding the park is a large green space that many of the local kids play sports on. This park does back up to houses and does not have any large shade trees.

Such a fun and small park! There is a great covered area with seating, and benches surrounding the…read moreplayground but far enough away that you're not in the action. The equipment on the playground is well maintained by the park district, and both my 2 and 4 year old can play fairly independently on most of it.

I say this about a lot of parks but, this is definitely one of the best parks I have ever been to…read more There are 6 areas for different sports, including: basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, volleyball, and ping pong. In addition to the sports, there is a very nice playground, pavilion (with electricity and a grill), and a walking trail.

Certainly it's not anything comparable to the big popular arboretums and botanical gardens those…read moremay think of, but for Rockford it's good. It's not a humongous one, but there's plenty of ground to cover and nature to see. Klehm Arboretum has a respectable collection of flowers, plants, and trees. A lot of family activities. There's often some kind of special event going on for children and family things. A lot of the gardens are specific toward one plant species or a family. It of course has better viewing in the spring and summer, but any time of the year has something to check out. The visitor's center is the first place most people come to. Get a map. You can find out where all the gardens are and which paths to go on. It has a pretty cool pond garden in front you should stop at. There's a Prehistoric Garden featuring a T-Rex. Also children will enjoy the Fountain Garden. This is a way to cool off in summer. Even though the programs say there's an admission charge, you can still usually get in free. It's not like there's anyone at the gate. This is best in the summer, but there's also later year activities like hay mazes and whatever.

The garden in the name is a bit confusing as it's more about trees. Like 98% trees, 2% flowers…read more Keep in mind I visited in the 3rd week of may...there should be some more flowers. There was a bit of a flower arrangement by where they apparently hold weddings so that was something. But otherwise trees...trees and more trees. The paths are freshly paved and there are many more natural paths that branch off of the main paved paths. We walked around the perimeter of the garden staying on the paved paths. There wasn't much to view but I did see one wild turkey so I added a star for that. We also took one short dirt path just to see...but it was just a short dirt path through the trees. If this place was free...I'd of liked it more I think. But at $12 per person it seemed like paying to hike through a nicely maintained park. I ended up here because Anderson Japanese Gardens were overflowing with attendees. So I went here where there were like 4 cars worth total on same exact day. Anderson btw charges about the same price so...maybe it's an entertainment value for the dollar deal? I think so. If you are a manager here...everything was very well maintained...you just need to give people more color to see on the main paved paths.