Backyard and Backcountry: Raceway Woods

I've been meaning to get out hiking since I got home for Thanksgiving last week and today I was finally able to! In the northwest suburbs of Chicago we got some snow overnight and when I woke up the trees looked extremely beautiful so I had to at least get out for a short hike. I spent the afternoon hiking the Raceway Trail, a 3.3 mile loop through Raceway Woods. I was also excited because being home meant I was able to borrow my dad's DSLR camera, a Canon 10D which made my pictures come out alot better.

The Raceway Trail winds through Raceway Woods, a 122 acre forest preserve operated by the Forest Preserve District of Kane County and the Dundee Township Park District. The trail is named after an old auto racing track, which has been somewhat preserved in the form of the paved Raceway Trail. From 1958 to 1969 the Meadowdale International Raceway hosted a series of automobile races as an attraction to get people to move to the Dundee and Carpentersville area, which was beginning to be developed as part of the postwar housing boom of the 1950s.

The track was highly criticized due to its sharp corners and bridge across Shaw Creek, and due to several crashes and a death, declined in popularity. After hosting it's last event in 1968 it was shut down the following year.

In 1994 the park district acquired 90 acres that would eventually become Raceway Woods, which stands on 122 total acres today. The preserve features the paved Raceway Trail as its main trail as well as a series of shorter unpaved side trails. Raceway Woods is open to hikers, bicyclists, leashed dogs, and even equestrians.

Raceway Woods is a cool piece of local history and provides a great opportunity to view suburban wildlife including whitetail deer and a variety of birds. It was nice to be able to hike among the snow after months in the desert!