The Moraine Hills Bike Paths
McHenry Dam to Black Tern Marsh Viewing Platform

After you go through the tunnel under River Road to the southwest part of Moraine Hills the crushed stone trail heads west and south towards the Fox River and the McHenry Dam. Most of the trails that go through Moraine Hills are crushed stone although there are a few paved sections.

Although I took some photos of and from the viewing platform on the east side of Black Tern Marsh (towards the bottom of this page), there is another viewing platform on this side of the marsh too which I did not go out to on this ride.

This is where you can branch off the main trail to the Fox River and the McHenry Dam. There is a thick pine wooded area on the right before you get to the road and parking area.

This is the McHenry Dam. As I mentioned earlier, there has been a drought prior to my ride on this trail so the Dam was pretty dry. I have seen other photos of this Dam where the water is flowing over the top of the Dam.

There are some benches along the river here on the up-river side of the McHenry Dam.

This is just past the McHenry Dam (heading east). I was attacked by some kind of flies here as I stopped for this photo in this hot and humid weather. There is an advantage to being on a bike and constantly moving.

As you can see the Moraine Hills trails are a combination of paved and crushed stone surfaces.

This is just before the cut off for the Black Tern Marsh Viewing Platform. This is worth checking out and now I wish that I had stopped at the viewing platform on the other side of this part of the trail (before the McHenry Dam).

The long wooden steps that lead you down to the viewing platform.

As you walk up to the viewing platform the structure frames the scenery in the distance for you. Actually the viewing platform really makes the scenery much nicer.