Paul Douglas Forest Preserve

This is another quality forest preserve with a multipurpose path. I was slightly confused when the path ended on the north side, but I just biked on the road to get back to where I started. I’ve been here only one time so far, but I was overall impressed by the quality of the path. The path was pretty much smooth in all spots (as opposed to Busse which has quite a lot of bridge swells and bumps. There are no areas that stick out in my mind when looking back on my last bike. It was rather quiet and a nice place to walk, ride, or hang out. I’ve driven by this a few times and never gave it a chance until a few days ago. Check it out!

Great paved trail for a walk or run anytime of the year! I’ve only been here once but I plan to come more often; hopefully I’ll have some wildlife sightings the next times I come. The forest preserve is very peaceful even thought it’s right next to Central Road. There are a good amount of rolling hills so running/​biking may get a bit tiring but those Heidi Klum legs will totally be worth it!

It’s sunny, let’s go.
Paul Douglas Forest Preserve,
parking off Central.
One small parking lot
and a large, looping paved trail
around the forest.
Go walk, run, or roll.
Home to birds and animals,
millipedes abound.
People are quite few,
the land is kind of boring,
but hey, it’s nature.
The highway nearby
is easily heard inside,
that’s kind of a shame.
I wish there were more
unpaved paths and tree cover.
Fall is still lovely.
Thanks for a nice walk.
Who knows if we will be back.
And now my poem ends.

I have now seen the following wild animals including the deer originally mentioned:
–Raccoon (very obese one at that)
–Coyote (have no fear they are afraid of you!)
–Garter Snake
–Weasels (3 times!!)
–Bat (I don’t want to talk about that one)

Other reviewers have already covered logistics like parking, etc. I’ll give you my opinion of the trail.
I had been here once before but was immediately put off by the fact that there is a huge section of the trail that is along Algonquin Road. And so I never returned here. Preffered to go to Busse Woods. But since this trail is so close to where I live, I decided to go back and try it once again. After I completed the loop I realized I made a mistake by not coming here more often. It really is very, very beautiful with some gentle rolling hills perfect for biking. One of my favorite parts: there is a point where you’re on the western part of the trail going south along Huntington and around the Mundhank Road intersection you come upon this magnificent view looking downhill. Now mind you, this isn’t the Swiss Alps, but I was surprise at how picturesque it was given that this is Cook County, the flattest of all counties in the US.
This trail is also not as busy as busse so that is also a huge plus. I will definitely come back here more often, maybe just do the forest preserve part back and forth and avoid going onto to Algonquin Road. Yes!
Here is a video I made of my ride…

Great place to ride your bike! There’s a lovely paved loop that I completed a 50 miler on this week. I only spied one port-​o-​potty and a single water pump, so plan accordingly.
There’s plenty of parking off of Central Ave, which is where I recommend leaving your four wheels if you’re heading out to put in some miles on two weeks. This place is less crowded than Busse Woods, so it’s easy to just cruise.
The wildlife and sights are pretty impressive, too. The deer get quite close to the path and the views are a great distraction from the fact that you’re riding around in a circle for hours at a time.
The joy of training, my friends.

I can tell that Paul Douglas Forest Preserve is extra into the preservation thing because they only made one f*cking entrance to the whole damn area and if you miss it, that’s it. You have to drive around the perimeter of the preserve for another 15 minutes, the whole time saying, ‘yep, we definitely should have turned back there’, until you come back to the one, singular entrance.
On the other hand, that out-​of-​the-​way drive around the PDFP led us past a factory across the street that had a bunch of pallets laying out in their parking lot that we later went back to steal in hopes of finally putting some of the crafty sh*t I pinned on Pinterest to good use, but then realized as we got up close that the pallets were actually industrial sized and wouldn’t fit in our car so we left them… oh, and they may have had a ‘property of’ stamp and phone number on them, but I’m not governed by stamps so I’m still thinking of snooping around in there again.
Anyway, when we finally found the stupid entrance (on Algonquin, west of Roselle. NOT the first right as your GPS would lead you to believe, but the second one with the big olé sign) I was excited to poke around the landscape as the whole one entrance thing has me convinced there’s some type of government testing here, and based on Occam’s razor, I’m gonna have to go with aliens. We’d come over the weekend to take in a low-​impact sunset hike while the weather was still fairly warm. We discovered that the most established path is a paved loop around the perimeter, and largely meant for cyclists. We probably would have gone for the walk or jog, but since we’d already wasted 15 minutes of daylight driving around the park and seeing all the outskirts had to offer the first time we missed the entrance, we opted to explore on your own sans paved path.
There was an odd structure off in the distance that I wanted to explore but there were no direct paths that we could see and the prairie area is so thick and there’s a mucky kind of hidden swampy area making it almost impossible to get through without prior Navy Seal training. So we set back to to hit up the suggested adventure trail that did already have some sort of path laid out. On the way over to said path, we found ourselves sole-​deep in a cornucopia of corks. Proabably around 10,000 wine bottle corks were spread across this one area. No bottles, just a shit ton of little corks all over an overgrowth area that looks like at one time it may have been an extended part of the parking lot. Mystery! Why were they there? Who put them there? Charles Shaw? I had a feeling Trader Joe was behind this… but why? Can’t wait to pick up where this investigation left off on my next visit.
Also, the highlight of this particular Adventure Time episode with Candice and Mark (besides the unidentified structure off in the distance that may or may not have been a secret ropes course or tool to communicate with the aliens) was this big piece of hair poop on the group. It was like a lion fur ball or dried up alien placenta– the jury’s still out, but I did upload a pic as evidence.
The actual walking paths into the preserve are just old car tracks from someone who had clearly not driven through in a while based on the rampant sticker balls and thorn-​y sticks that kept trying to attack my knees. There’s dog poop along the path and it’s a bit too bumpy to make a running path without twisting your ankle, but if you use your imagination, you can pretend like you’re just over the hill in Jurassic Park where the brachiosaurusesesesesees (that’s how you make that plural, right?) roam.
Overall, it wasn’t the most thrilling forest preserve in the area, but there were less people (as long as you avoid the bike path area) and if you use your imagination there’s lots of fun to be had and land to be explored… plus I really want to know what deal with those corks and that alien structure is so you know I’m coming back.

The Paul Douglas Forest Preserve is on the frontage road to 90, but within a few minutes cars and people become a distant memory. The forest is lush and hilly with several sections that are fully shaded. The trail is smooth and surprisingly vacant. As an avid cyclist these are qualities that I look for in a bike path. I have never come across the family with the double wide stroller that is stopped in the middle of path while their kids haphazardly ride wherever they want without regard for others (COUGH. BUSSE WOODS)
There is a parking lot off of Central Road with tons of parking. The loop around the trail is about 7.5 miles if you go west when you get to Algonquin and Roselle. The best way to experience the trail is to do a ride in early spring and go back at least every other week. There is an amazing transformation that takes place at the Paul Douglas forest preserve that must be experienced to appreciate.
I’d like to paint a picture using colors we all understand… crayola crayons.
It starts off with hues of Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Maize and Asparagus. By the end of summer the preserve has blossomed from a four pack of earth tones to a 30 pack of magical colors. Dandelion, Goldenrod, Fern, Blue Violet and Lemon Yellow to highlight a few. There are wild flowers, weeping willow trees, and butterflies galore.
In summation, its a magical place… especially in late summer.

Paul Douglas Forest Preserve is one of my FAVORITE places for birdwatching! While the trails are pretty flat and don’t offer a challenging hike, entering at Grassy Ridge Meadow gives you access to multiple bird habitats. You can see birds that like wet thickets (common yellowthroat), marsh-​dwellers (marsh wren), birds that prefer ponds, lakes, and streams (great blue heron), birds of the forest (eastern towhee), and species that nest in wildflower prairies (eastern meadowlark). You can even get a look at heron and cormorant nests at the right time of year. Of course, with all the small birds, you get a few raptors, too!
The trails are better for biking or in-​line skating than real hiking, because they’re mostly paved and have little variety. Kids will be bored, and maybe worse, they are likely to be buzzed by red-​winged blackbirds if they stray too close to a nest. For me, getting buzzed is a plus, but it might make your tot cry. The couple of unpaved trails are not marked well and aren’t tended well, either. I didn’t follow any of them to completion because the tall grasses were growing over them in some places, so I worried about stepping on a nest or a snake. There’s also a soccer field near the parking lot, but it seems a silly place for it since a badly-​aimed kick will cost you your ball (unless you disregard the signs and try to wade into the swamp, that is – not a good idea).
To sum it up, come here to birdwatch, bring your binoculars, and leave the kids at home.