Prairie Trail (of McHenry County) Photos
from Fort McHenry Park

As we continue our ride north on the McHenry County Prairie Trail past the long, straight rolling hills part of the trail south of McHenry we ride by Fort McHenry Playground in Whispering Oaks Park in the town of McHenry. This is just before you cross busy route 120.

Fortunately there is a light to help you cross route 120 since this road almost always has a lot of traffic. After crossing the highway (just past the park) you jig jog to the right and down the sidewalk for a short distance and then the to the left. The Prairie Trail continues on the left in the photo above, although it is not clearly marked here.

You actually get through the busy part of McHenry pretty quickly and then there are some more long, open stretches of the trail (just north of McHenry) before you get to McCullom Lake.

You can see McCullom Lake off in the distance as you ride by it on the Prairie Trail. The lake is on the other side of the tracks and off in the distance in the photo above.

As we continue north from the town of McHenry and McCullom Lake we ride through some real nice rural scenery. Once again the trail is straight with gradual inclines and declines and passes through some farm lands. I like the look of the old farm house off in the distance and to the right in the photo above.

This part of the trail is still paved and we are south of Richmond, Il (one of the next towns as we head north). It is actually quite a few miles between McHenry and Richmond which is pretty far north and almost to the Wisconsin border. On the ride when I took these photos my kids were still very young a(ages 10 and 13) nd we actually rode all the way from Dundee, Il to Genoa City, Wisc on this trail.