Weekend getaway from Chicago. Looking for some swimming and hiking. Where should we go?
 

We would like to have a relaxing getaway in Wisconsin or Michigan from Chicago. We love Door Country, but it is a little bit too far just for a weekend trip. We would like a nice not too crowded swimming beach (river or lake), and parks (woods) where we can walk, hike or bike. Just looking to spend some nice time outdoors. Where can we go?

Thank in advance you for all your help!

Try the Kettle Morraine Forest area in Southern WI.
Other ideas:
Yellowstone Lake or Blackhawk lake, WI.
Dubuque, IA
Sugar River, WI
Lake Geneva is popular but may be too crowded for your taste.
Green Lake, WI or nearby Lake Wisconsin.

There is a national park and a state park at the Indiana Dunes. The Indiana Dunes are near Chesterton, Ind., only 25 miles from Illinois. You can hike, bike & swim. Stop at the visitor information & get maps. The Dunes access the Calumet Trail - over 9 miles of hiking/biking as well as the hiking trails inside the state park.

http://chicagowildernessmag.org/issu...umettrail.html

THIS is exactly why I left Chicago: there is nowhere to escape to for the weekend. No nature, no national parks, no ocean, mountains: just Gary, Indiana, Milwaukee, or Detroit. Top all that with 100degree heat and humidity: how fun!!!!

But, Kevin, perhaps you hadn't heard that there's this little body of water near here called Lake Michigan? You should've checked it out. It's really quite pleasant. :-d

St. Joseph, Michigan is a nice weekend get away.

kevin_in_seattle -- quite frankly you have no idea what you are talking about.

Thanks so much for all these ideas. I will use one of them this weekend for sure.

The heat in Chicago has been unbearable!

Kevin, but we have Millennium Park, and great Opera House, and CSO, and theaters, and Ravinia, and museums, and dining, and shopping, and many other things that make Chicago the best!

kevin in seattle, I think you are really a charge. I have a home in MI and it's on a 600 acre lake and I can get away to that area for a weekend.

And it is wine, fruit, lake, resort, golf, ski, outdoor sport country which resembles Chicago only in its good restaurants.

And also wanted to add, the Starved Rock, Galena and the Illinois River regions. This is the easiest to access, IMHO, just not a "nervous" ride. AND it also has huge amounts of outdoor activies, B&B's etc. boating, and water activities galore, as well.

I was reading about Dave's Loop in Backpacker magazine. It describes a "mosaic of woodlands, prairies and glacial moraines" through a forest preserve in the Barrington Hills area of Chicago. Not what I was expecting in the Chicago area. I thought I might check it out the next time I am in the area. Has anyone heard of this?

I haven't heard of that one, but I have to say that the entire areas of Cook, Will, Dupage Counties have numbers of forest perserves, hundreds of miles of bike trails, and hiking, nature museums abound.

My daughter and I just went to one near Oakbrook which you would think was out in Northern "woods". Creek, walk, natural interactive wildlife museum, hiking, bridges, original water/wheel power "plant" etc. To think there is nowhere to go, well they haven't got beyond CTA systems or a highway in their lives.

There's also Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center and the huge Forest Preserves surrounding that entire area. There are original prairies, marsh and pond "walks" some of them are many miles long. This is also the glacial moraine. Google Tampier and Little Red Schoolhouse, if you are interested.

ok, you people must not have ever travelled out west, or anywhere for that matter. Look at the pathetic examples you have given for your weekend getaways. First of all, Lake Michigan is so polluted with mercury and ecoli that it is practically a dead lake. And you reminded me of the time I drove 2 hours to get to Starved Rock, only to arrive to this ugly kandscape of tiny trees I could find on my street in Chicago. It was o depressing. Have any of you been to the Northwest or Yosemite or the Grand Canyon, or seen the Redwoods, or seen the ocean? I am thinking not.

kevin in seattle

oh, one more things...if you think the forest preserves around the little red schoolhouse is a real forest, and has nice trees, then I defintely know you have never been in real nature.....

ok, bye!!

kevin_in_seattle -- give it up would ya. I've traveled around the world, including your precious seattle. Oh, and if you think that the forests out west are a big deal, you've surely never traveled to the Brazil to see a real forest (as I have) so put a sock in it. Your vitrol is shrill and pointless and makes you look like nothing but an adolescent wind-up. This poster simply wanted a weekend away from Chicago, and was not asking your for opinion on the northern midwest.

JJ5, Thanks for the information. I'll have to check out those preserves the next time I'm in the Chicago area.

Just ignore kevin_in_seattle, school will soon be back in session and he will be too busy with his junior high friends to bother with us.

Five hours to Langlade County, WI. Try Langlade or White Lake! Most weekend guests are from Chicago!

Me too, Vittrad- I've been out West many times. It's pitiable to have such a need to belittle.

Actually, the Forest Perserves are dense now, deadfall has not been picked up or managed in years and the areas mentioned are quite different than they were when my children were small- they are in their 30's now. I was surprised myself.

And Lake Michigan has no need to be defended.

Also, if you are more adventurous- you may want to make the drive to my wine country in SW Michigan. There are dune opportunities (largest in the USA East of the Mississippi and only one open to the public in the USA- near Mears-Sleeping Bear- 4 hours) for jeeps, cars, and 1000 acres just for hiking if you have the legs. Also the St. Joe etc. - lots of creeks (Dowagiac) and good canoing available in the Mendon/ Three Rivers MI areas. (2 to 3 hours)

Also SW Michigan has more B&Bs and numerous spring fed lakes for water sports. google southwest MI B&B - lots have swimming on Lake Michigan or one of the spring fed lakes right on the properties.

Some Lakes within 3 hours or less:

Indian- Dowagiac
Magician
Diamond near Cassopolis (very high end lake
Big Fish
Finch
Saddlebags- East & West
Clear
Stone
Gravel
(all of the above are near Lawton/Marcellus)
Sisters Lakes
Paw Paw
Little Fish
Twin
Donnell
Dewey
Bunker

I could go on for 20 more- but some or most of these have rentals or B&B's.

Thanks so much again for all these invaluable ideas! I did not expect my post to turn into such heated discussion :). Actually, I have also traveled to the West including Seattle and surroundings multiple times, and still think Chicago is one of the best cities to live.
I was just looking for new ideas for weekend gateway.

Thanks again for all your help!