About-Bicycles > Bike Trails > Illinois Prairie Path

Illinois Prairie Path Photos
Pratt Wayne Woods Forest Preserve

(Click on any of the bike trail photos to enlarge)

Pipe yard along Ill Prairie Path *
Continuing south on the Illinois Prairie Path you come to an interesting "pipe yard" along the trail at this point... The large number of pipes create an interesting repetitive pattern as you see here. My friend and I were both trying to be creative with the photos here. My photos were just not that good but I liked the photo above.

Equestrian area before Pratt Wayne Woods
We started getting into the equestrian areas just before the Pratt Wayne Woods Forest Preserve (south west of Bartlett and south east of South Elgin).
Lamplight Equestrian center along IPP

Passing Lamplight Equestrian Center on the IPP. There were no horses out as we rode by and since I have not been on this trail a lot I have actually not seen horses on the trail although they are allowed on the IPP (even the official sign for the IPP has a horseshoe on it).

Illinois Prairie Path Map
Here's one of the maps that are posted along the Illinois Prairie Path. You may not be able to make out a lot of the details from the photo (the full size will be better, of course) but you can see the overall shape of the IPP. I think that it looks like a sideways "Y" or a sideways "Peace sign" without the circle around the outside.

Golf Cart on IPP bike path *
Sharing the path with golf carts...

Pratt Wayne Woods Forest Preserve
We hopped a chain fence and took a short side trip into the Pratt Wayne Woods Forest Preserve at this point. I'm not sure why this was fenced off (or if we were allowed to be there) but it was not hard to get around and it was a pretty nice forest preserve.
There were also some interesting looking structures in the forest preserve which looked like they were used for equestrian activities but since I am not an equestrian person I could not say what they actually were. This is hard to explain but there are photos of what I called these "horse toys" on the next page in this series.

Illinois Prairie Path Photos

Here's the Illinois Prairie Path Photo tour on the Elgin Branch (from the Fox River Trail) to the Geneva Spur (just past Prince Crossing Road) back to the Fox River Trail at Geneva - September 2007.

Illinois Prairie Path Photos 1 - Fox River Trail Intersection
Illinois Prairie Path Photos 2 - Pratt Wayne Woods FP < You are here
Illinois Prairie Path Photos 3 - Elgin Branch to Army Trail Road
Illinois Prairie Path Photos 4 - Railroad Track Crossing
Illinois Prairie Path Photos 5 - Bridges and Tunnels
Illinois Prairie Path Photos 6 - Prince Crossing Road
Illinois Prairie Path Photos 7 - Elgin Branch and Geneva Spur
Illinois Prairie Path Photos 8 - Geneva Spur to West Chicago
Illinois Prairie Path Photos 9 - Geneva Spur to Fox River Trail

Photos copyright Rob Chapman
* Photos copyright Dale Kiffel