1
Friendship Park
Managed by Mount Prospect Park District
28 acres0.9 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Des Plaines
Des Plaines, IL parks, trails & bike paths
About 4.4% of Des Plaines is conserved land, roughly 405 acres. There are about 7.4 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Friendship Park (0.9 mi), Big Bend Lake Preserve;Big Bend Lake (0.8 mi), and Prairie Lakes Park (0.8 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Des Plaines, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Des Plaines outdoors
Conserved land
4.4%
405 of 9,157 acres
Trails
7.4 mi
0.5 mi per sq mi · 4 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
49
7 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
20.5 mi
3.3 mi lanes · 11.7 mi off-road paths
Conserved land is a share of the whole town area. Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Map
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number or a place below to zoom in© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk
Parks & preserves with trails
Ranked by mapped trail miles. Directions go to the nearest marked trailhead or public parking.
2
Big Bend Lake Preserve;Big Bend Lake
Managed by Forest Preserve District of Cook County
161 acres0.8 mi of trail
Big Bend Lake Hiking Trail
Dog rules not recorded
3
Prairie Lakes Park
Managed by Des Plaines Park District
42 acres0.8 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
4
Campground Road Woods Preserve
Managed by Forest Preserve District of Cook County
42 acres0.5 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the trailhead
5
Einstein Park
Managed by Mount Prospect Park District
6 acres0.5 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
6
Arndt Park
Managed by Des Plaines Park District
14 acres0.4 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
All 49 parks & preserves
- Lake Park74 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Harry Semrow Preserve58 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Apache Park2 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Algonquin Woods Preserve44 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Lions Woods Preserve37 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Northwestern Woods Preserve24 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Belleau Lake Preserve18 ac · 0.1 mi trail
- West Park11 ac · 0.1 mi trail
- Des Plaines Manor Park2 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Cumberland Terrace2 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Northshire Park2 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Central Park2 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Hawaii Park1 ac · 0.1 mi trail
- Forest Preserve District of Cook County41 ac · Directions
- High Ridge Knolls Park37 ac · Directions
- Belleau Wood Preserve35 ac · Directions
- Rand Park15 ac · Directions
- Kloempken Prairie Preserve7 ac · Directions
- Chippewa Park6 ac · Directions
- Seminole Park6 ac · Directions
- Blackhawk Park5 ac · Directions
- Leisure Center Park5 ac · Directions
- Eaton Field Park4 ac
- Cheyenne Park4 ac · Directions
- Sesquicentennial Park4 ac · Directions
- Tomahawk Park3 ac · Directions
- Devonshire Park3 ac · Directions
- Kylemore Greens Park3 ac
- Cornell Park2 ac
- Willow Park2 ac · Directions
- Craig Manor Park2 ac
- Westfield Gardens2 ac · Directions
- Dimucci-Lowenberg Park1 ac
- Kutchen Park1 ac
- Potawatomie Park1 ac
- Woodlawn Park1 ac
- South Golf Cul de Sac Park1 ac · Directions
- Centennial Park1 ac
- McKay-Nealis Park1 ac
- Menominee Park1 ac
- Kiwanis Park1 ac
- Jaycee Park1 ac
- Sioux Park1 ac
Who protects the land
405 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes3.3 mi
- Off-road bike paths11.7 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes5.5 mi
Courts & fields
- Baseball36
- Tennis22
- Basketball20
- Soccer16
- Pickleball14
- Softball3
- Skate park2
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Next door
Des Plaines and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Des Plaines | 4.4% | 7.4 mi | 49 |
| Mount Prospect | 7.6% | 3.0 mi | 29 |
| Maine | 2.9% | 21.3 mi | 78 |
| Chicago | 8% | 239.6 mi | 520 |
| Rosemont | 1.6% | 0.9 mi | 5 |
| Elk Grove | 5.6% | 18.3 mi | 49 |
| Park Ridge | 3.1% | 7.6 mi | 24 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Des Plaines's trails yet. Muddy, icy, a bridge out, where to park: a quick post helps the next person.
Sources: trails, parks, preserves, courts and bike lanes © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), map data as of 2026-09-28. Conserved land: USGS Gap Analysis Project, Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US). Measured against the Census town boundary.
How we measure
"Trails" are OpenStreetMap paths, bridleways, public tracks and unpaved footways, plus footways inside a park or preserve or on a named trail route. Sidewalks are left out. Areas are counted on a 20-meter grid, so overlapping parcels count once. "Conserved" includes conservation easements, which protect land from development but are usually private property. Trailheads are the nearest marked trailhead, public parking lot or information board within about 150 meters of a preserve. Dog rules come from OpenStreetMap when someone has tagged them; otherwise we show what's typical for the land manager, or say the rules aren't recorded.