Photogenic wilderness near Chicago

[Ron Marshall]

I am searching for a national, state or county park or other wilderness site, within 100 miles of Chicago. The pertinent websites don't have much info, and from the site maps, the county parks seem to be a bit more manicured than I would like.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.

[Peter Collins]

I have only walked Ogden Dunes NP in Indiana and Warren Dunes SP just south of Bridgman, Michigan. I think both of them offer photographic opportunities. They should meet your distance criterion.

[Wayne]

There is certainly nothing resembling true wilderness within 100, 200, or even 300 miles of Chicago. What exactly are you looking for? There are many forest preserves along the DesPlaines River in the burbs, if you hike off trail you can find some less disturbed sites. Sometimes. I really used to like Volo Bog, a neat little bog with boardwalk near the town of the same name. But I left that rat race of a state 20+ years ago, many of the places I used to go as a kid have been improved out of existence. Once you get to Volo keep driving about 8 hours and you may find what you are looking for.

[Neal Wydra]

Dear Ron,

Some of the DuPage county forest preserves are much less manicured than the ones in Cook county. There are areas of the Timber Ridge forset preserve that, if you're willing to walk in a bit off the Prarie Path, look as if you're in the middle of nowhere. However, the sights aren't particularly grand.

Check out http://www.canalcor.org/ for something a bit more interesting.

[michael Allen]

Hi Ron,
Go to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources web page, than subscribe or log on to the Midwest Large Format Asylum, this is a LF group that has many members and good info in are area.
If all else fails I frequent Kankakee River State Park, Starve Rock SP, Pallasades SP along the Mississippi.....I might be fixated on rivers in this period of my Photographic career so exploreing for your self is really the best way, just go or is it just do it?
Mike

[chris_4622]

Starved Rock is about an hour and a half drive from Chicago.

[Saulius]

I'd agree with the above recommendations. However if you do go to Starved Rock be sure to go to Matthiessen State Park nearby. Although it is small it offers some wonderful photographic opportunities.

[Chuck_1686]

I think that most of the parks lend themselves to smaller intimate landscapes. Pretty wild places a few feet off trail. Ticks and all. I like the Lake County forest preserves because they tend to be open earlier. Ryerson is nice. Deer Grove forest preserve has a few hills. Chain O'Lakes and Moraine Hills State parks. Illinois Beach State park. Look in the bookstore for some Hiking and Biking guide books for the various counties. Of couse Starved Rock/Matthiessen is great. Chicago Wilderness magazine web site is Chicagowildernessmag.org. I find most places pretty empty early in the morning. But most have manicured trails and hard to get away from the presence of what's just outside the park. The experience may be different from a true wilderness but from the resulting pictures you can't tell that the camera was setup along a nice trail. Oh watch for trash in your pictures.

[Leonard Evens]

Thiey are not wilderness areas, but you might consider the Morton Arboretum, and the Chicago Botanic Garden. The arboretum is actually relatively "wild", but of course the Botanic Garden is not. At this time of year, both should have lots of color from flowering trees.

[Matt Wensing]

Hi Ron,

I live in northwest Chicago and subscribe to the Midwest Large Format Asylum (which someone else recommended). I have been to local preserves on a couple occasions and have been pleasantly surprised with what I've found. Of course, the land itself is flat, but the plant life and even wildlife (came upon a family of deer) is not horrid. I've taken a few intimate landscapes and can say that they were worth the effort.

"Songbird Slough" in DuPage County is next on my list. Right where I-355 meets I-290.

[Matt Mengel]

Ron,
It's a bit out of your range but Turkey Run State park in Indiana has some amazing stuff if you poke around the trails. It's hilly there and there are some spots on the trails that I remember seeing old poplar trees at least 75-100 feet tall. I've been meaning to back with the view camera. According to yahoomaps it's 200 miles from Chitown. www.turkeyrunstatepark.com

[Ron Marshall]

Thank-you very much for all of the informative posts. Many of the suggestions sound promising. I am new to large format and have a number of images floating around in my head that I would like to affix to an emulsion.

[Danny Burk]

Ron, I've come late to this thread, so there's not a lot that I can add. Someone mentioned Indiana Dunes; this is actually comprised of several different areas. Indiana Dunes State Park is an area of forest and dunes, and has some areas that are quite remote if you're willing to hike a couple of miles to get there. There's also Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, made up of scattered segments along the lake. There are also some nice areas within those segments, and well worth driving over to explore them.

I agree with the suggestions for Starved Rock and Turkey Run SP (Indiana). Near Turkey Run is Shades SP, an area similar to Turkey Run and much less crowded.

You'll find some sample images in my online galleries if you'd like to take a look.

Best regards,
Danny www.dannyburk.com

[paulr]

the Chicago version of wilderness might be cabrini green.

[Bill_1856]

A few years ago Sean Yates with his 8x10 Kodak Master and me with my 4x5 Busch had a very nice session at the OXBOW Park in Hammond, Indiana. A boardwalk winds through it.

[matthew blais]

If my memory serves me well, as a once longtime resident of Kankakee, the State park (mentioned above) has what was then called Rock creek, which feeds into the river, and if followed up aways comes to a nice little water falls (8-10 feet) and lots of rock outcroppings.

I always enjoyed some of the farmland down that away too.

Let us know where you go and what your impressions are.

[mark blackman]

Where ever you go, make sure you go fully armed - the US countryside sounds an awfully violent place.

[Will Strain]

Mark - that was an unecessary jab.

Ron - I've found that even some of the larger city parks have areas of substantial wildness in them.

Jackson park has the wooded ilse, which has a regular path, but also many "rabbit trails" going into the woods and waterways.

There is also a large forest preserve on the north side, up at Milwaukee and Devon, along the North Branch of the River.

Just a thought.

[Doug Herta]

Go West to the Iowa/Wisconsin/Illinois border and visit the mounds that the Native Americans built (mounded?) along the Mississippi near Des Moines.

[Wayne]

Yeah Mark, that was unnecessary--but funny. :)