Put McKinley Woods on Your List for Spring Hike

Editor’s note: We want you to Be a Trailblazer this year, so we will be hiking at various preserves throughout the year and documenting it for you. Journey along with us as we blaze a trail through the preserves and hopefully encourage you to do the same.

Bloodroot. (Photo by Anthony Schalk)

Sometimes hiking is about the exercise over the experience, and sometimes it’s about the experience over the exercise. Our hike at McKinley Woods — Frederick’s Grove was definitely the latter.

In spring, a hike can be a full-on sensory experience, which makes it a great time for hiking with kids. There’s so much to talk about along the way. What do you see? What do you hear? Smell? Feel? You can turn any spring hike into a scavenger hunt or a game of eye spy.

Speed was the last thing on our mind at McKinley Woods. We walked so slowly on our 1.35-mile hike that the fitness app we used to track our distance and time repeatedly asked if we had finished our walk and simply forgotten to stop tracking.

What we were most excited for on our trip to Frederick’s Grove was the wildflowers, and finding them can be a fun challenge for youngsters. The spring ephemerals are small, peeking up from all the fallen leaves covering the ground. If you go too fast, you’ll miss them.

Our hike was still so early in the season that we weren’t sure much would be in bloom yet. Things started off slowly as we headed down the Trail of the Old Oaks. We didn’t see much in the flat area at the top of this natural surface trail. As we started hiking down the trail’s incline, though, there were new things to see at every turn.

We saw spring beauties, bloodroot, rue anemone and cut-leaved toothwort in bloom. The prairie trillium and Virginia watercress plants were getting close to blooming. At the bottom of the trail we saw patches of Virginia bluebells a few weeks away from providing their much-loved pop of color.

Pro tip: If you’re still learning your spring ephemerals, download the Seek app to your phone to help. The app, from iNaturalist, uses image recognition technology to identify plants and animals that you capture using your phone’s camera. Seek isn’t always useful in identifying plants that have not yet bloomed, but it does a good job quickly IDing flowers.

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Hiking McKinley Woods — Frederick’s Grove

Route: We hiked the Trail of the Old Oaks, starting from the upper parking lot and heading down to the bottom. Before making the return trip back up, we poked around for a bit along the I&M Canal and Des Plaines River.

Distance: 1.35 miles

Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes

Weather conditions: A chilly but sunny early spring morning.

Difficulty level: This is a dirt trail with a steep incline, so it can be a tough hike for little legs in one direction. If you prefer a hike here without the inclines, check out the Upland Trail, which is a flat natural surface trail accessible from the upper parking lot.

Trail notes: Spring rains can make the natural surface trails here muddy, so be prepared and wear appropriate footwear. If you’re concerned the trail might be too slippery for the uphill return trip (it wasn’t for our hike), you can also walk back to your car on the preserve access road from the bottom parking lot.

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The birds are another one of the sweet treats of spring. No matter where you go at this time of year, the birds are making their presence known — to us and their fellow birds.

We saw many of the usual suspects: robins, cardinals, dark-eyed juncos and sparrows. One pleasant surprise was seeing several wood ducks flying out of tree cavities high up in the trees, calling out as they went.

As is usually the case, we heard many more birds than we saw. We heard the laugh-like call of northern flickers, the “fee-bee” whistle of black-capped chickadees, the shout of blue jays across the forest and the “peter-peter-peter” of one tufted titmouse intent on getting its point across. We also heard the songs and calls of eastern towhees, brown-headed cowbirds, house finches and eastern meadowlarks, to name just a few more.

A downy woodpecker. (Photo by Glenn P. Knoblock)

Woodpeckers were making a statement too. We could hear their repetitive drumming near and far and were particularly amused by a pair of downy woodpeckers that seemed to be using their own version of Morse code to tap out messages to each other.

Once we got to the bottom of the trail, where it lets out at the preserve campground, we wanted to poke around a bit more, so we headed toward the I&M Canal and the Des Plaines River. This area of the preserve can be a fun one for kids to explore. On warm, sunny days, you can expect to see turtles or even snakes basking in the sun, and if you look closely you’ll see signs of beaver activity. Plus you can enjoy river views while watching for barges and boats to pass by.

Our visit was after recent heavy rains, so parts of the trail were slick and soupy. Boots are definitely recommended for a spring hike here. The campground area was largely flooded, but elsewhere the trails were all passable, although there were puddles and standing water in a few spots.

Pro tip: If you’d prefer a walk in the woods without the steep inclines of the Trail of the Old Oaks, which can be a challenge for little legs, try the Upland Trail instead. This short, 0.44-mile natural surface looped trail is accessible from the upper parking lot at Frederick’s Grove.

If you want to make a morning or afternoon of your trip to McKinley Woods, make sure to visit the preserve’s other access area, Kerry Sheridan Grove. It’s a short drive by car.

The large aquarium at Four Rivers Environmental Education Center. (Photo by Glenn P. Knoblock)

Kerry Sheridan Grove sits near where the Des Plaines, DuPage and Kankakee rivers meet and form the Illinois River. The water views are fabulous in all seasons, and there’s plenty of great hiking too. It’s also home to one of the Forest Preserve’s visitor centers, Four Rivers Environmental Education Center. Kids will love the interactive nature exhibits indoors and learning about our local wildlife on the All-Persons Trail just outside. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays to Sundays.

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