Today, Dillon and I set out at a new to us park, Comlara Park in Hudson, Illinois. Comlara Park has a little bit of everything. Hiking, fishing, boating, camping, etc. You could make a weekend out of it there. I decided to check out the John English Memorial Trail, which is 4 miles, out and back. Dillon was on my back and a friend joined me carrying her 18 month old on her back and her 4 year old walked.
We parked at the park and had to walk a little ways to the trailhead, but you could definitely park at the Visitor Center. There are a few parking spots that are 2 hour parking. Parking at the Visitor Center would put you right at the trailhead.
Right away, you get some great views of the Evergreen Lake. We saw some geese and cranes on the lake, but that was about the extent of the wildlife.
The trails were all maintained really well. There were a couple of offshoots, so I was glad I had the AllTrails app to refer to, because there weren’t any signs.
The trails were also mostly flat, a couple of spots were hilly, but nothing crazy. We even saw someone pushing a stroller.
We ended up turning around a little after 1.5 miles. Since my friend’s 4 year old was walking on his own, we decided to turn back before he tired himself out too much and couldn’t walk back. He did awesome for what we did, though!
The last .2 miles, I let Dillon out of the carrier to walk on his own. He really loved chasing his friend and stopped to pick up a ton and VERY sticky pinecones. I think he still has sap on him 11 hours later, even after a bath.
Overall, this is a really nice trail, especially if you have young kids that are able to walk themselves. They could probably do most of it. I would really like to go back to this park and make a weekend out of it, camping, kayaking and hiking.
Thanks for hiking with Dillon and I!