Perhaps you have a glancing knowledge, at best, about the Des Plaines River. For whatever it’s worth, I’m not sure I had even that much when I began hiking the Des Plaines in November 2022.
To help you get your bearings, let’s start with a list. Flowing north to south like the river, of course. Click on any of them to learn more about them.
Top 5 most consequential places on the Des Plaines River
- The source (Union Grove, WI)
- The Chicago Portage site and “new” channel in Lyons
- The confluence with the Sanitary and Ship Canal south of Lockport
- The Brandon Road Dam south of Joliet
- The confluence with the Illinois River near Channahon
Although I managed to see all of these, by foot, they’re not all pedestrian-friendly, and at least one of them – the confluence with the Sanitary and Ship Canal (#3) – is not publicly visible at all. In fact, it’s debatable whether the source (#1), the new channel (#2) or the Brandon Road Dam (#4) can be considered publicly accessible either, although the dam can at least be seen from (where else?) Brandon Road.
You can follow the links for any of the five points above and learn about each, including how I walked to them. And by clicking here, you can see a much longer list of the places I walked along the Des Plaines River.
I have come to greatly appreciate and respect the good work of the many preservation organizations and public/private coalitions, from Kenosha to Will Counties, dedicated to restoring and protecting the Des Plaines Watershed, and making so much of it available to us to explore. I will cite them throughout this website.