Review Date
June 9, 2006

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 4 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 4 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a month

Reviewed by: JoeDell ,  Cross Country Rider

Summary:
Outstanding trails and more added every year by dedicated volunteers working with land managers. Here's a map: http://www.bicyclesetc-il.com/cambr/guideElements/maps/PalosMap.gif

Signage has been improved.

Recommended Route:
Here's more details:
http://www.bicyclesetc-il.com/cambr/guidePages/IL/Palos.html

Other recommended trails in the same area:
Kettle Moraine above the cheese curtain

Comments

kstine71 (09/19/2007)

tried the links but they didn't work

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Review Date
November 26, 2005

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 3 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 4 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Ridden Once

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Reviewed by: babba ,  Cross Country Rider

Summary:
Really Fun Trails!! I live in NY and was amazed at how many hills and how much tech stuff there was. I have to admit, visiting family in Illinois didn't really motivate me to bring my bike. My wife's cousin told me to, and well, I had a blast!!

Recommended Route:
Go to the left, then the right, then up, then down, what do I know I was lost within 4 minutes!!

Other recommended trails in the same area:
Knoch Knolls was not even worth mentioning.

Review Date
October 23, 2003

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 3 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 4 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a week

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Reviewed by: Thomas ,  Racer

Summary:
Palos Trails

If I-55 is flowing, a person can get down there from the city in under 30 minutes. This is a great thing. However the signage is terrible and it is easy to get lost the first few times out. The two way traffic is the real terror here and potentially fatal head ons are a reality. Pay attention and call out often. The steep ravines are fun and are quickly mastered. SO tired of all the logs and down trees. They are fun the first few times but there are so many now that it blows the flow on some of the trails. You hear people say they hand out tickets for being on the illegal trails but I've never witnessed it. Far too crowded on weekends and it seems to draw what I would consider a bit of the squid crowd (no helmets, out of control riders).
Don't know the name of it but the low trail that runs along the road is a lot of fun and like to ride that both ways. Plus keep in mind that the entire park is one big nuclear waste and God knows what else is buried out there. Don't drink any of the water from the wells. And too during the summer the mosquitos and flies can be voracious, it's pretty much ground zero for the West Nile virus. But with all that said there is no where else to go where you can get a ride in without commiting to an entire day.

Review Date
June 6, 2003

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a month

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Reviewed by: GregR , from Carol Stream, IL

Summary:
For the Chicago area, its good but compared to what else is out there...its less than average. Good place to bring beginners, and get them hooked on MTBing. There are a fair amount of illegal trails that are decent, but they are short and if you get popped by the man, be prepared to fork over $75 or $80 (not sure what the penalty is). Most of the legal trails are pretty smooth, and ridden a lot. Be wary of head on collisions because the trails see lots of bikers, even during the week. The weekend mornings are the busiest. The whole closed trail thing really is a bad situation, the FPD has their head up thier a$$, and CAMBR is just about the only group willing to put up with the politics. I give them kudos for it, but it really has not gotten any trails there opened up. Turf1 was built by them, good job. Compared how many trails got closed with the one trail they have opened in the last 4 or 5 years and you can see that they really are not effective. But again, they are the only groupd really doing anything about it. Who know's if anyone else is capable. The existing legal trails need to be connected with good narrow track. The illegal trails were closed basically because of a few problem spots on them. I say fix or reroute the trouble spots, it would make a world of difference, just dont close every trail that gets a puddle on it! Dont drink the water there, there is nuclear waste buried in a few locations. There are much better trails in the area (although they are very short), but nobody is going to show them to you because that would just get them closed and patrolled by the FPD. If its wet, stay away, you wont enjoy it and it will tear the trails up. 3 stars.

Recommended Route:
Start at Bullfrog or Wolf Road woods, and ride all the trails in both directions.

Other recommended trails in the same area:
Go down to the Peoria area, good trails there. Kettle Morraine is about the same as Palos, only longer, and less technical.

Review Date
May 29, 2003

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a week

Reviewed by: Heather , from Chicago

Summary:
I think these trails are awesome, by far the best we've found in the area. REAL singletrack, and depending on your skill level, you can ride around most log jumps if you please:) The ravines are nice too. Other than that it is pretty hilly for Illinois. The trails are all built really nice so that if you keep your momentum, you can go over/climb anything on the trail, there aren't dead spots. The scenery isn't too bad either, keep your eyes open for deer and of course, listen for the bullfrogs. My advice is to go and get lost the first few times and then after a while things will start to look familiar. Also, to avoid the crowd pass bullfrog lake parking, people like to hang out there looking cool before/after their ride. Go up a few parking lots and start the trails farther down if you aren't looking for a date.

Recommended Route:
just go and get lost.....