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Print Friendly MapThe Deer Grove Trail is one of several great Chicagoland trails located in properties of the Forest Preserve of Cook County. Deer Grove is the oldest of all the Cook County preserves. It's comprised of rolling upland forest interspersed with wooded ravines and wetlands. The Deer Grove Trail affords views of all these natural features. Its western section is through dense forest. Much of its eastern section circles a large wetlands area.
Deer Grove actually has two trail systems: The paved trail for pedestrians, cyclists and cross-country skiers; and an even longer unpaved trail for hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians. Deer Grove has a large open area for gatherings and picnics, and even a model airplane flying field. At Quentin Road, there is an excellent and recently renovated campground facility directly adjacent to the trail and open to its users. The Forest Preserve's Camp Reinberg has restrooms, water and a small convenience store.
Another asset of the Deer Grove Trail is its direct connection with the popular northern section of the Palatine Trail. Together these two trails afford eight and a half miles of natural and urban trail use.
The largest parking area and main entrance to the trail area of the Forest Preserve is east of Quentin Road, off Dundee Road at Pepper Tree Drive. There is also parking at the end of the park road west off Quentin Road.
Explored the east side of this trail and was really good and well maintained. Good for road bikes as well. West side looked somewhat deserted and the roads to parking was not that great. East side is really good.
My family and I bike on this trail every Sunday, weather permitting. Our favorite is the yellow trail. It has a combination of paved and unpaved roads. It also has uphills, downhills, flat areas, curves, mud, and trees. Seeing deer in the yellow trail is not uncommon. It’s super fun!!!
It's hard to imagine a nature trail any better than this one. Since we were planning to go on and ride the Palatine Trail after this one, we parked at Camp Reinberg, just off Quentin Road. What a surprising treat that was! We found very friendly staff and campers, alike. Plus concessions, water and restrooms – all clean, new, and nice. Who could ask for anything more?! Whenever we go back, we'll probably just stay at Camp Reinberg the night before we ride.
From Camp Reinberg, we first headed off to explore the big loop through the eastern section of the park. What a great mix of woods, grasses and wildflowers! We took far more pictures than we could upload here. After a refreshing break back at the campgrounds, we crossed Quentin Road to ride the western section of the trail. And on to the Palatine Trail to wrap up our outing.
The Forest Preserve gets a 'Perfect 10' for this trail and facilities. They're as good as it gets.
I've skated the Deer Grove paved trails many times before. It's an excellent, scenic loop trail with moderate inclines and double-track width. The main loop itself is slightly over 3 miles long. There is at least 1 paved spur that's about another mile long that terminates on Dundee Road. There are also some other paved trails in the west portion of the forest preserve, west of Ela Road.
I tend to do 2-4 laps around the main loop, starting from and ending at the parking lot located on Dundee road at the south end of the forest preserve. I've yet to skate the spur or the trails in the western portion. But the main loop is diverse enough in scenery to keep many a skater happy, even on multiple laps.
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