Virgil Gilman Trail Photos
Fox River Corridor and Southeast Leg

We started our trip to the Virgil Gilman Trail here at Hudson Crossing Park at the southern end of the Fox River Trail in Oswego, Illinois. You pass through some nice parks on this part of the trail.

This is one of the first bridges that you cross on the Fox River Trail (FRT) heading north from Oswego.  After passing through the parks on the very southern end of the trail, the FRT runs along Route 25 ~ between the river and the road ~ all the way to Aurora.

It is a little less than 5 miles, on the trail, from Oswego to Aurora.

The photo above is now from the beginning of our trip in the Virgil Gilman Trail. We got on the trail where it connects to the Fox River Trail ~ at the Fox River ~ and took the trail southeast to start. This part of the trail was pretty nice.

A while back we saw a cop car parked partially on the trail and I made a joke about it being a biker speed trap (fortunately we were not speeding!). :-)  A short time later the cop car was driving along the trail towards us as we headed back from the southeast end of the trail (at Hill Ave).

Actually, later I was kind of glad that they do patrol some of the trail since the Virgil Gilman Trail (VGT) passes through some pretty bad areas like by the river where there were there was a large group homeless people drinking and throwing bottles out on the trail when we passed by.

This is the bridge that goes over the Fox River on the Virgil Gilman Trail. Shortly after the bridge you go through some short tunnels. The bad area that I was talking about above is just past this bridge.

The photo above is from one of the worst parts of the trail where the actual trail ends and you go on to some roads past an industrial area on Rathbone Ave and Terry Ave. This photo shows where you pickup the actual trail again (on the right) off of Terry Ave.

Back into the woods here, heading northwest, you start getting into the best parts of the trail. This one of the wooded parts of the trail is between the Aurora Country Club and Palmer Park.

This photo is looking back (southeast) from Palmer Park. This is where the Palmer Park Shelter building is located.

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The photo above is a lower profile of the same location (at Palmer Park) showing the trail and the pods from the nearby fern trees.