Into the Wild

North Branch Trail

View Map

Cook County, Illinois

On most nice fall weekends, the gently twisting, sun-dappled North Branch Trail is full of bikers, in-line skaters, and joggers. These days, trail users are getting a more varied view — glimpses of wildflower-filled woodlands and prairie openings, the result of ongoing habitat restoration work.

The paved North Branch Trail begins on Chicago’s northwest side at the intersection of Caldwell and Devon Avenues and continues along the North Branch of the Chicago River for roughly 20 miles through northeastern Cook County.

Heading north from the city, one of the first preserves is Bunker Hill Woods. Pay attention to the right of the path just north of Devon Avenue. A rich oak savanna and adjacent open woodland still harbor diverse flora and fauna, from mountain mint to rainpool glider dragonflies, despite neglect of brush control in recent years.

While many sections of the trail are still cloaked in a canopy of invasive buckthorn with dark bare dirt underneath, at Miami Woods (just north of Oakton Street), volunteer stewards have removed dense brush to reveal a great river view and encourage native wildflowers. A little farther north, a red forest preserve sign marks a prairie clearing where hawks hunt above waving Indian grass. And not far ahead, past a small bridge, look left off the trail into Indigo Opening, a restored savanna remnant named for the false indigo found there.

Tucked into a corner off Dempster and Lehigh, Wayside Prairie is “a sweet little wet prairie with gorgeous colors in the fall,” according to steward Jane Balaban. “There are beautiful goldenrods, big bluestem that become almost bronze in the fall, as well as northern dropseed that turns a stunning reddish orange.”

Teeming with oak and shagbark hickory trees, the fall foliage at Harms Woods in Glenview is worth a stop. The easy hiking makes for a fun off-trail jaunt, and it is a great place to see migrant birds. Look for warblers throughout September, and shorebirds such as yellowlegs along the river into October.

North of Willow Road in Northfield, the trail loops west around a many-lobed body of water, the Skokie Lagoons. Once a great marsh, the wetland was dredged in the 1930s. Today the lagoons still attract a fair amount of bird life, including more than a dozen kinds of migrating ducks. Follow the undulating trail past the north end of the lagoons to Dundee Road, where bikers can continue — at no charge — onto the refined grounds of the Chicago Botanic Garden to tour both elaborately cultivated and natural landscapes. For most, 20 miles (40 round-trip!) is too long a bike ride; but with access points at nearly every intersection, bikers can easily choose a smaller section.

For more trail information, call (847) 824-1900. To get involved in restoration, visit North Branch Restoration Project.

— Jennifer Tang