Sledding on the North Shore of Chicago

Guide to Sledding on the North Shore

December 29th, 2010 by Anne West
Categories: Living here, Things to do

In this flat-as-a-pancake part of the Midwest it is hard to find a real hill, which is frustrating when you’re a kid and your school just announced a snow day. Of course, that doesn’t happen nearly as much around here as it does in some of the less snowy places I have lived, like Baltimore, MD and Raleigh, NC. Even though they only get around 22 flakes of snow per “storm”, that’s enough to shut down the whole town for a week. People freak at the sight of the first snowflake, there’s a run on milk and bread at the store and cars are skidding all over the road. But here in the Midwest we just put on boots and gloves and go about our business. Conditions have to be really bad for them to call a snow day.

But back to hills and sledding. Necessity being the mother of invention, kids will build a hill if they can’t find one. Doesn’t make for a very long run, but it’s better than nothing. Finding a real hill usually involves getting in the car and driving somewhere. Here is my official list of places to sled on the North Shore:

Lake Bluff – Blair Park Sled Hill, 355 W. Washington
This hill has lights and is open until 9:00 pm.

Glencoe – Watts Park Sledding Hill, 305 Randolph St. (across from the outdoor rink)
This barely qualifies as a hill, but it’s perfect for little kids and novice sledders. And convenient for those living in Glencoe and Winnetka.

Techny Prairie Park, 1750 Techny Rd.
Bigger than Watts Park, and therefore good for “intermediate” sledders.

Northbrook- Wood Oaks Green, 1150 Sanders Rd.
Now this is a hill. It’s big and it’s steep enough to give even teenagers a thrill. We discovered this one last year when my daughter had a soccer game on the field nearby. After rolling down the big grassy hill in summer, she couldn’t wait to try it out on a sled. It did not disappoint.

Highland Park – Danny Cunniff Park, 3100 Trailway St (end of Half day Rd.)

Glenview – Flick Park, 3600 Glenview Rd.
This one’s lighted and open til 10:00pm, but unsupervised. There’s parking right next to the hill.

Glenview – John’s Park
Also lighted and open til 10:00 pm, but unsupervised.

Evanston – James Park (aka Mount Trashmore), intersection of Dodge and Oakton.
Big, steep and bumpy, it’s definitely not for toddlers. In fact, the city of Evanston now prohibits sledding on the large center hill since someone was hurt on it. The side hill is smaller but still plenty fast.

Evanston – Lovelace Park, Gross Point and Isabella
Less challenging than Mount Trashmore but kids love it.

Do you have a favorite hill you’d like to share? Please leave a comment.

Tags: sledding on the north shore, winter fun

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 29th, 2010 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Living here, Things to do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.