Grant Park, on the lakefront between Randolph Street and Roosevelt Road, backed by Columbus Drive on the west, is the centerpiece of Chicago's downtown lakeshore district. Much of the park is built atop debris pushed into Lake Michigan after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Mail order merchandise pioneer Aaron Montgomery Ward personally defeated 46 building projects in court over 20 years to keep this space forever open. Reminiscent of French parks with lawns and paths laid out in geometric designs, your dog walk will lead over many bridges connecting areas of the dog-friendly park, including the Lakefront Trail.

Fifteen minutes to the northwest you can hike with your dog in Ned Brown Preserve. The Forest Preserve District of Cook County maintains over 67,000 acres of open space around Chicago, including some 200 miles of tail-friendly trails through the prairieland. The Ned Brown Preserve, created in 1965 as the third nature preserve in Illinois, protects 3,700 of those acres, including Busse Lake, the largest lake in the Forest Preserve District. This is one of the busiest parks anywhere with an estimated 2.5 million visits per year - not including dogs.

The main trail through the park is an 11.2-mile multi-use path that snakes through the property. All the canine hiking in the preserve is easy-going but unless you come early or late, you will dodging bikes and rollerblades and all sorts of wheeled craft.

Tucked within the preserve is the Busse Woods, a designated National Landmark with thick stands of oaks, sugar maples and basswood. Wildflowers grow in marshes that are deep glacial depressions retaining water most of the year. A two-mile nature trail of packed earth and gravel leads into this upland forest.

The preserve is in Rolling Meadows. From Chicago take I-90 West to Arlington Heights Road south to Higgins Road. Go west .6 mile to the park roads.

copyright 2006