Back to a Destination
With rather gloomy weather and our cookout plans set for the evening, we were looking for something to do this Memorial Day holiday afternoon.
We decided to make the drive to Aurora, Illinois, to visit one of the starting points of the Illinois Prairie Path. We visited this trail briefly on Day Ninety-seven, but we were east of here on the main line in Elmhurst. We were just across the Fox River in the same spot on Day One Hundred Twenty-four, but on the Fox River Trail that day.
Both the Fox River Trail and the Illinois Prairie Path are one of Trail Link.com’s Top 100 Destination Trails. The Illinois Prairie Path is also one of their Rail-Trail Hall of Fame inductees. We’ve only been on a couple of miles of both of these extensive trails, but it’s easy to see why they are chosen as examples of great trails.

Within moments of parking our car near the river and heading northeast on the Aurora branch of the trail, we saw and heard a catbird, red-wing blackbirds, a red-bellied woodpecker, a Baltimore oriole, killdeer, and several cedar waxwings.
After a short walk on this portion of the trail, we drove to another part of the trail that we had crossed as we drove in. The trail here is unpaved and runs under extensive high voltage electric lines. We noticed this part of the trail being used more as a travel route with people carrying shopping bags between commercial and residential areas.
Whether used for bird watching, exercise, or as a travel route, this trail gets the job done! I don’t know when we’ll get back out this way, but we’re looking forward to visiting again sometime. Good day, good walk!