Northerly Island is in Chicago right by the Museum Campus. This is Chicago’s best kept secret. In this blog post we will tell you the reasons we love Northerly Island and give you tips and tricks on navigating the park.
Parking
Parking is available at the park using the ParkMobile app. It is a small parking lot with probably only 10 spots. Most days, you will find a spot to park. If there are events at the park or at the museums, parking is limited. Sometimes it is somewhat difficult to get to the parking lot because of pedestrians and lots of cars in museum campus.
Conservation Stewardship
Northerly Island is a natural area that is in restoration development. They are currently planting native plants and supporting the natural ecosystem in Chicago. You will see young trees, prairie grasses, and native flowers. Volunteers are super important with these kinds of conservation efforts.
Birding
This is our favorite location in the city for birding. Northerly Island has been doing a wonderful job bringing back native vegetation to the area as well as a variety of birds. This is a park where you definitely want to leave your headphones at home. As you walk through the park, you will hear endless bird songs. If you are good at identifying bird sounds, Northerly Island is the park for you!
No Pets
Unfortunately, no pets are allowed. This means that we leave our doggies at home. This is a good rule though! Northerly Island is a restoration site and dogs would disrupt the birds and other organisms living in the area.
Children Areas
There is a nature-play children area at the beginning of Northerly Island. We love nature-play areas because it avoids the use of plastics and it allows children to engage in nature and grow a love for the environment. Our personal favorite is the loose logs the children can move to create whatever they imagine.
Biking
We do not recommend riding your bike at Northerly Island. The west side of the park is paved, however the east side is rocky and uneven. If you are going to bike, we suggest doing a one-way on the west side of the park and turning around and go back the same way, instead of doing the loop.
Strollers
Same with bikes, we discourage strollers. If you do use the stroller, a back-and-forth trip along the west side of the park is still a great walk. We do not recommend using a stroller on the east side of the park. We recommend a baby carrier that the adult wears on their chest or back. This is a great park for children to feel adventurous, but still remain safe. So if your child is old enough, we suggest completing the full loop.
Picnic
There are beautiful areas at the entrance of the park where you can set up a picnic blanket and enjoy lunch or a snack. There are other spots along the trail that you could pause for a snack. I prefer the boulder area that outlooks Lake Michigan on the east side of the park.
Canoeing
There is a station with canoes along the path, however we have never seen them being rented, so unsure if this is a public canoe rental area.
Northerly Island
We love Northerly Island and we hope you will too! Leave a comment and tell us about your trip.
This looks awesome! I lived in Chicago years ago and didn’t know about this, so it really is Chicago’s best kept secret!
My kids would absolutely love the natural play area! The canoe ride with the city skyline as a backdrop would make for some really interesting photos!
Northerly Island Park looks like a beautiful place to go hiking in Chicago! The views look incredible and canoeing sounds like so much fun! Thanks for the great guide!
Northerly Island Park in Chicago looks like a perfect place to go when visiting Chicago. Haven’t been to Chicago yet, but this will be on my list when I finally get to.
What a beautiful area so close to the city! It is really cool that they are planting native plants to revive the area and encourage wildlife and birds… but I also love the mix of flowers and art.
It does look like a great place to go canoeing if they do rent out those boats!
I love that so many cities are really stepping into stewardship of their natural areas and are working hard to reestablish native plants. Northerly Island Park looks like a beautiful area.
I’ve been to Chicago a couple of times, and you know, it never actually crossed my mind to try to do some hiking here! Thanks for sharing for future reference. Northerly Island Park looks beautiful, and I’d love to try some canoeing. Xx Sara
The nature play area is so neat 🙂 This seems like a great place to find some quiet in busy Chicago, thanks for sharing!