|
About
Bicycles Online > Bicycle Touring and Trails > Illinois Prairie Path
The Illinois Prairie Path
The Illinois Prairie
Path, Northeast Illinois. The FIRST Rails to Trails Conversion...
Connecting to the IPP (Elgin Branch) from the Fox River Trail |
One of the long bridges along the Illinois Prairie Path |
The "Steps" to the tracks along the IPP. |
The Illinois Prairie Path (Illinois - 61m) is the first U.S. rails to trails bike trail (OK,
multiple use trail...), the longest in northeast Illinois (when you include
all of the branches) and possibly the most confusing because of it's name
(Prairie) and various branches or sections.
Illinois has a lot of "prairies" and,
unfortunately, a lot of "Prairie Paths" and "Prairie Trails"!
The "Illinois Prairie Path" (described here) is actually
quite historic in that it was the first rails to trails conversions in the
U.S.! This trail was developed from the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin (CA&E)
rail line and goes from Maywood to Wheaton and then has branches to Elgin,
Aurora, Geneva and Batavia.
IPP History and Map and connecting
trails:
The Illinois Prairie Path emblem that you
see all along the trail has meaningful symbols related to the paths history
and uses. The IPP.org website is a great resource on the history of this path and also
has a very good map of the path (Due to the format of that website I can't
link directly to the map but it is easy to find on the website).
There is also some information on May Watts,
who in 1963 (at the age of 70) wrote a letter to the editor of the Chicago
Tribune which started the rails to trails conversions in the U.S!
You can also get a free hard copy bike map
of Northeastern Illinois, including the IPP, at the IDOT link found at the FREE Bike
Trail Maps Resource page.
The IPP also connects to the Fox River
Bike Trail in four locations (west end), the Great Western Trail
in Dupage County (and indirectly (via the FRT and other bike trails to the Great
Western Trail (in Kane county) ) and to the Des
Plaines River Trail (east end). These are just some of the bigger trails
that connect to the IPP. There are also a number of smaller connecting
trails.
Through one of the tunnels along the IPP |
A nice open "Prairie" path... |
The switchback at the end of the IPP, Geneva Spur |
Prairie Paths of Illinois
OK, I want to clarify the
"Prairie" bike trails in this part of Illinois and listed on the
about-bicycles website.
| > |
This page is about the "Illinois
Prairie Path" (Maywood to
Wheaton to Elgin, Aurora, Batavia and Geneva). |
| > |
The "Prairie
Trail" is the
Mchenry county trail that connects to the
north end of Fox River Trail and continues north to the Wisconsin
border. |
| > |
The "Long
Prairie Bike Trail" is a paved
bike path (in Boone county) that goes from just east of Capron, Il.
to Roland Olson
Forest Preserve just west of Caledonia, Il. |
| > |
There is also a "Pecatonica
Prairie Path" (which I have not been on (yet)) just
west of Rockford. |
The Illinois Prairie Path Photo
Tour
The photo tour for the IPP trail currently
includes the Elgin Branch and the Geneva Spur. These photos are from a trip that I took with a friend in September 2007. I
have been on a few other parts of the Illinois Prairie Path but I have not
ridden the entire trail (yet). I have this on my list and will try to bring
my trusty camera with me for photos of the rest of the trail as soon as
possible (so many trails... so little time...) Or maybe one of the other
contributors to this site will send me the photos and descriptions for the
rest of the trail.
What I like about this trail is that it is a
nice east west bike trail that covers a lot of miles!!! There is also a lot
of nice scenery along the IPP. The parts of the trail that I have been on
are mostly crushed limestone. I was not real crazy about most of the Geneva
spur because many places cross busy roads and go parallel a lot of other
roads (some busy, some residential).
Illinois Prairie Path Photos
Illinois Prairie Path < You are here
Here's the Illinois Prairie Path Photo tour on the
Elgin Branch (from the Fox River Trail) to the Geneva
Spur (just past Prince Road Crossing) back to the Fox
River Trail at Geneva - September 2007.
Illinois
Prairie Path Photos 1
Illinois Prairie Path Photos
2
Illinois Prairie Path Photos
3
Illinois Prairie Path Photos
4
Illinois Prairie Path Photos
5
Illinois Prairie Path Photos
6
Illinois Prairie Path Photos
7
Illinois Prairie Path Photos
8
Illinois Prairie Path Photos
9
See the Fox
River Bike Trail South pages to continue
from the end of this article (Photos 9, where the IPP meets the Fox River
Trail, in Geneva) on to Dundee and the Fox
River Bike Trail North photo tour up to Algonquin and finally to the
McHenry County Prairie Trail photo tour all the way to Genoa City Wisconsin!!!
|
