Illinois Prairie Path

 Breakaway briskly on the Illinois Prairie Path, a sixty-two-mile crushed limestone trail, located twenty-five miles west of Chicago. Openlands helped create the Prairie Path in 1964, when it became the nation’s first Rails-to-Trails conversion.

Built atop the former right-of-way of the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad, the Prairie Path runs mostly through DuPage County, originating from a point just west of downtown Wheaton, although portions extend west to Kane County and east to Cook County.

The longest of three branches heads approximately 16 miles northwest to Elgin. The southwest branch spans approximately 14 miles, to Aurora, and the eastern branch, known as the Main Stem, jogs 15 miles east to Forest Park, at the Forest Park CTA station.

Concrete mile markers identifying the name of the branch and the distance from Wheaton occur on all three spurs, however, the frequency and character of these markers varies from county to county.

In 2008, the Illinois Prairie Path was inducted into the Rails-to-Trails hall of fame.