Poplar Creek Trail Photos
Barrington Pond to Bartlett Road

Here is where I started the Poplar Creek Bike trail trip at the Barrington Road Pond entrance. This entrance is off of Barrington Road south of Interstate 90 and south of Higgins Road (route 72).

I took the trail north (and west) out of the parking lot heading towards Shoe Factory Road. The photo above shows the trail as I was leaving the Barrington Road parking area.

You get into a little wooded section right away although, in general, this is not a very wooded trail.

This is coming up to the first Shoe Factory Road crossing. There is a little parking area on the other side of this crossing too. Although there are some nice parts to this trail what I don't like is that you need to stop to cross so many roads.

The trail opens up a little past the first Shoe Factory Road crossing. This is on the northern end of the trail. There is actually a pretty nice stretch of trail here before the next highway crossing.

The trail heads mostly west at this point and the photo above shows the next road that must be crossed. This is Bartlett Road.

Still heading west on the Poplar Creek Trail you come to another open area between Bartlett Road and Route 59. Most of the scenery along this trail reminds me of the open prairies in this area.

Poplar Creek is actually a very large forest preserve area located in Hoffman Estates. The forest preserve is a larger area that Paul Douglas FP (north and east of PC) and Busse Woods FP (east of PC).

I think that Busse Woods is the nicest of the 3 forest preserves in the area although it is also the most crowded at peak times. The only major road that you need to cross on the Busse Woods trail is Route 72 (at one location).

I have ridden the Paul Douglas FP bike trail many times and it does not cross as many highways as the Poplar Creek Trail does but there is a short stretch that goes along busy Algonquin Road that is not all that great.