April 16, 2024
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Historic Route 66 Runs Through This Popular Forest Preserve

Enjoy Part of Historic Chicago Portage Waterway in Lyons, IL

By Julie Johnson

Ottawa Trail Woods,

200 W 47th Street, Illinois & Michigan Canal, Lyons, IL

800-870-3666

Complete with a  wheelchair accessible entrance and a great access point for the Illinois & Michigan Canal, The Ottawa Trail Woods in Lyons, Illinois has Old US Rt 66 running straight through it. Enjoy matured oak groves leading the way to shaded picnic areas and CCC-built stone shelters. Tables, grills, hiking paths and wetlands complete the offerings. 

And, if you’re a train-brain like we are, you can make your way over to the Chicago Portage National Historic Site and catch a glimpse of the Metra BSNF commuter line. Great place for biking and hiking too. Popular family reunion spot with enough shaded space for the whole family. 

Excellent interpretive storyboards honoring early settlers and the local indigenous peoples who aided them.  Visit them online at FPDCC.com for a complete list of ADA accessible spots all throughout the park system.