Fox River Water Trails

The Fox River present a number of varied paddling experiences and demands different skill levels in each section.

The Fox River enters Illinois between Spring Grove and Antioch, in Lake County. Approximately three miles below the border, it opens into Grass, Nippersink, and Pistakee Lakes, in the Chain of Lakes area before becoming a banked river again. Through this area, the Fox Waterway Agency manages boat usage and in some areas, for safety and navigational purposes, confines the high speed, powered boat traffic to a series of channels in the middle of the lakes and river with more than 4, 000 buoys.

Approximately four miles downstream of the Chain O’Lakes the Fox flows over the McHenry Dam, the first of fourteen dams on the way to its confluence with the Illinois River, at Ottawa. Below the McHenry Dam there is moderate power boat activity which increases upon reaching Elgin. The dams on the middle section of the river restrict power boat traffic to pools above each dam. As the river enters Kendall County below Montgomery it becomes a large, quiet, and scenic river flowing mostly through farmland.

The Fox River has numerous dams, all of which, except the Kimball Street Dam, in Elgin, have developed or easy-to-develop portages around them. The Kimball Street Dam, however, presents a real obstacle to public passage, creating two potentially separate water trails. One starts at the north boat ramp in Chain O’Lakes State Park, just south of Route 173, and ends at the Slade Avenue boat ramp, in Elgin. The second Fox Water Trail begins below the Kimball Street Dam in Elgin and continues to its end.

Upper Fox—The Chain O’Lakes section below Chain O’Lakes State Park is actually shallow lake paddling. Winds can create challenging conditions for open boaters (canoes). Choppy waters, power boats traveling at high speeds in all directions and their wakes can sometimes make canoeing difficult if not dangerous.

The buoys of the Fox Waterway Agency on the upper Fox, below the lakes section, make it safer for non-motorized boaters to co-exist with the high speed power boaters by paddling along the banks outside of the buoy-defined channel. However, the nearly constant engine noise and wakes make this area a less attractive section for most paddlers.

Below McHenry Dam, stretches of the tree lined banks and less riverbank development make this section a pleasant and easier trip suitable for less experienced paddlers.

Middle Fox—Through Elgin, South Elgin, St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, and Aurora, the river passes through highly urbanized areas and over several dams. Portaging around these dams varies in difficulty. The most difficult part of all the portages is determining from the boat which side of the dam would be the easier way around. Between the towns and dams the river passes through stretches of scenic forest preserves and wooded areas.

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