colored sands forest preserve 3-6-11

A nice hike. Nothing special. But it's always good to get out and wander around in the great outdoors.

Colored sands is across the street from the FP we hiked last Sunday. The main trail loop is only 2 mile long. We could have gone off on some side trails but the snow on the lesser trails discouraged me from doing so. 2.17 miles according to GPS. 92 minutes. A lot of the trail had snow on it and was a bit slow, but most of it was OK.

We did stop to chat in the parking lot with some people we ran across last week and some other people who were taking pictures. They took pictures of us. Wilma is just so photogenic.

Getting to these FPs is a bit of a trick. They are out in the middle of nowhere. It's not hard to get there, but Google maps is not all that much help as the area is not real well mapped.

Take Rockton Road west from Rockton, IL. It changes names to Shirland Road along the way. In Shirland at the school, turn north on Boswell Road. There is a sign there telling you to turn north to get to Sugar River FP. Nothing said about either Colored Sands or Sugar River Alder FP. But that is how you get to them too.

You will pass Forest Preserve Road as you head north on Boswell. There is a sign there telling you to go west (left) to get to Sugar River FP. Keep going north. Go north to Yale Bridge Road (the next road). Turn west (left) and go to Hauley Road (not far - I think it is the next road), and turn north onto Hauley. Haas is the first cross street. There is a sign there telling you to turn left (west) to get to Sugar River and Colored Sands FPs. Turn onto Haas Road. There is a sign right there saying no outlet. Google maps shows Haas Road as continuing north through the park and going up toward Wisconsin, but it does not actually seem to do so.

Sugar River Alder FP sneaks right up on you. It would be real easy to drive right past it. Colored Sands is across the street. I parked at Sugar River Alder and walked across the street into Colored Sands to start our hike. The parking lot at Colored Sands half a mile or so down the road was locked up so I ended up coming back and parking at Sugar River Alder FP.

I have been told you can walk along the Sugar River from Colored Sands FP down into Sugar River FP to the south. There is no trail shown on the map going that way and I did not try it. Maybe some time after the snow melts we will give it a try.

The trail map shows a segment of the main trail loop going along the north edge of the FP just inside the FP along Haas Road. There was sort of a trail but the bird nets were up along it and there was a sign saying the area was closed. In any case it does not appear to go all the way to where we started across the street from Sugar River Alder FP so we just hoofed it along Haas Road back to where we started.