A Neighbor's Guide to Blackwell Forest Preserve
Most of us drive past it a hundred times a year. Blackwell sits right there off Butterfield Road, 1,366 acres of woods, water, and grassland with a big grassy hill in the middle of it. If you have only ever pulled in to walk a loop and leave, you are using maybe a tenth of the place.
Here is what is actually out there, what it costs (mostly nothing), and the handful of details worth knowing before you go.
Getting in
The main entrance is on the north side of Butterfield Road, a quarter mile west of Winfield Road. That is the one that takes you down to Silver Lake and the picnic groves. There are two other ways in that people miss: the McKee Marsh lot on the north side of Mack Road east of Route 59, and the off-leash dog area on the south side of Mack Road, also east of Route 59.
One heads-up for the near term. The Forest Preserve District has flagged construction along Mack Road between Williams Road and Route 59 for a new maintenance campus, with intermittent detours and temporary closures. If you are aiming for McKee Marsh or the dog area, check the preserve page before you load the car.
The preserve is open one hour after sunrise to one hour after sunset. Dogs are welcome on leashes under 10 feet, except inside the fenced dog area. Alcohol is not allowed anywhere in the preserve.
Mount Hoy, the hill with a past
The hill is the thing everyone asks about. Mount Hoy is a scenic overlook and a genuinely good birding spot, and in winter it turns into the tubing hill that half of DuPage County grew up on.
Its history is better than the view. Blackwell was chosen as the site of a county landfill that operated from 1965 to 1973. What the District learned there about managing solid waste was worth having, and what is left is a grass hill you can walk up on a Tuesday evening.
For winter: tubing runs when 3 or more inches of snow cover the hill, on weekends and school holidays December through February. You rent a District inner tube at the base. You cannot sled on Mount Hoy, though you can sled elsewhere in Blackwell. The District posts current conditions and hours on its Winter Fun page, and conditions change fast, so check the morning of.
Silver Lake
Silver Lake started as a quarry. The District converted it to hold stormwater and give people somewhere to go, and now it is the center of gravity for the whole preserve.
You can rent a canoe, kayak, rowboat, or paddleboat there April through September. If you own your own canoe, kayak, or stand-up paddleboard, you need a District permit to put it on Silver Lake. Worth knowing: you do not need a permit to use the canoe launch on Mack Road to get onto the West Branch DuPage River. That is the quiet option on a busy Saturday.
Fishing is open on Silver Lake plus White Pond and Sand Pond, with bluegill, catfish, largemouth bass, northern pike, rainbow trout, and walleye. Anglers 16 and older need a valid Illinois fishing license, and an inland trout stamp if you are going after trout. Creel limits and lake maps are on the District's fishing page.
The trails
More than 7 miles of turf and limestone trail, open to hikers, bikers, horseback riders, and cross-country skiers, with a connection over to the Illinois Prairie Path. Horse trailers park at the McKee Marsh lot, and riders stay off the Egret Trail and the developed areas.
Two notes if you go in winter. When the trails are groomed for skiing, walkers should stay off the set tracks. And the District keeps an interactive trail map plus a printable PDF, which is the one to have on your phone since cell service gets thin in the low spots.
McKee Marsh and the mammoth
North of Mack Road, McKee Marsh is the wilder half of Blackwell. Trails, two vernal ponds where northern leopard frogs breed, and enough cover that you will see wood ducks, blue-winged teal, and solitary sandpipers if you are patient. Across the preserve, people regularly turn up wild turkeys, deer, great blue herons, coyotes, red foxes, muskrats, and bald eagles.
And this is the fact to have ready the next time someone says nothing happens in Warrenville: in 1977, the skeleton of a woolly mammoth was found at McKee Marsh. It is roughly 13,000 years old and one of the oldest finds of its kind in northeastern Illinois. The land it came out of was shaped by the Wisconsin Glacier 12,000 to 15,000 years ago.
The human history is close behind. In the 1830s Erastus Gary, one of Winfield Township's first settlers and a founder of Gary, Indiana, lived on this land and ran a grist mill east of the West Branch DuPage River. The District bought the property about 130 years later and named it for Roy C. Blackwell, a former District president.
Camping, 10 minutes from your house
This is the part people are most surprised by. Blackwell has a family campground open Friday and Saturday nights May through September, with extended dates around holidays. Each site has electricity, a gravel parking pad, a fire ring, and a picnic table. None have sewage or water hookups. Tents, trailers, and motor homes all work.
If you have a kid who wants to try camping and you are not ready to drive to Wisconsin to find out how it goes, this is the trial run. You are 15 minutes from your own bed. Reserve through the District's family camping page, and book early, because summer weekends move.
There is also a youth-group campground with 12 sites, each holding 25 campers. It is open year-round but reserved for recognized nonprofit groups whose members are 17 or younger, so scout troops and similar. Worth a call if you lead one.
The rest of it
Picnics. Dozens of tables and plenty of grass for a blanket. Ground fires are not allowed, but you can bring a grill, and the preserve has hot-coal containers. For a bigger group, Hawthorn Grove holds up to 300 and there are four 100-person shelters, some with grills or electricity.
Dogs. The off-leash area is fully fenced. You need a District permit for each dog you bring, so sort that out before you show up with a car full of retrievers.
Archery. Beginner, advanced, and interactive ranges, each with bow racks and limestone shooting lines. Bring your own gear and a District permit.
If you only do one thing
Go on a weekday evening in the next few weeks, park at the main entrance, and walk up Mount Hoy about an hour before sunset. It is a short climb, the light over the West Branch is worth the trip, and you will be back in the car before the mosquitoes get organized. Then come back in February with a tube.
Details at any public preserve change with the season and the weather, so confirm hours, rentals, and permit rules with the Forest Preserve District before you go.
If Blackwell leaves you wanting more trail, our walker's guide to St. James Farm covers the quieter one on the other side of town. And the rest of what is worth doing around here is on our things to do in Warrenville page.