Illinois Prairie Path - Photos 5

Elgin Branch (from the Fox River Trail) to the Geneva Spur and back to Geneva
(Click on any of the bike trail photos to enlarge)



As we continue south on the Elgin Branch of the Illinois Prairie Path we pass over one of the busy highways on this bridge. I have not been on this branch of the IPP very often so I can not tell you which road we are crossing at this point but this is still quite a ways from where the IPP intersects with the Great Western Trail.

The part of the path has chain link fences on both sides. Although this is not all that scenic I thought that it was an interesting view of the path...


This is one of the underpasses (tunnels if you prefer) where the IPP passes under a busy highway. One of the really nice features of this bike trail is that it has the bridges and tunnels that allow you to ride over or under the highways without having to stop, wait (and risk you life in some cases) to cross. I have been on plenty of other trails with terrible highway crossings so I can really appreciate this.

I think I took this photo from my bike as I was riding through the tunnel. Although I do not know which highways this is under, the Illinois Prairie Path crosses Route 59 and North avenue (Route 64) in this area so it is likely that this would be under one of those highways.



You can easily tell where you are by the many IPP markers (with the distinctive emblem) posted along the path. The sign above indicates that we are still on the Elgin Branch (although we are reaching the end of this leg at this point).


The photo above is just before the Illinois Prairie Path and Great Western Trail intersection. There is a large map posted at the intersection but it can still be a little confusing if you have not ridden these trails before.

In our case, we ended up continuing on the IPP via the Prince Crossing Road until we reached the Geneva Spur which we took west back to the Fox River Trail (since we had a limited amount of time on this ride).