My best friend Liz and I took a mini roadtrip through Northwest Illinois, with stops in Byron and Freeport, before camping at Apple River Canyon State Park. This corner of the state is full of quirky roadside attractions, local history, and scenic views. Our itinerary could be done as a 1 or 2 day trip. I enjoyed some of these places so much I took Josh back to Byron to visit them too!
Stop 1: Heritage Farm Museum
https://www.byronforestpreserve.com/facilities/heritage-farm-museum/
8059 North River Road, Byron, Illinois
Open daily – 8am-8pm (April 1st – October 31st)
Byron Forest Preserve’s Heritage Farm Museum is an open-air museum about farming history. The various barns and other buildings are set up with displays and informational signs for you to freely explore. When I revisited in 2023, I saw that the Wilbur House is now set up as a museum too. It’s actually a really neat way of doing it- the displays are all behind glass with audio recordings. This means they can just unlock the building without having to staff it.
Stop 2: Jarrett Prairie Center
https://www.byronforestpreserve.com/facilities/jarrett-prairie-center/
7993 North River Road, Byron, Illinois
Monday-Friday 8am-4:30pm, Saturday/Sunday 9am-4pm
Right next door to the Heritage Farm Museum is the Jarrett Prairie. There’s a golf course, 440 acres of nature preserve, and a small but very nice nature center. They also have very beautiful event spaces. On our visit we checked out the nature center, took in the views from the deck, and then hiked through the dolomite prairie. The trails and the prairie are all well-maintained, and it’s quite a unique habitat.
Stop 3: Hairy Cow Brewing Company
https://hairycowbrewing.com/
450 E Blackhawk Dr, Byron, IL 61010
Wednesday-Thursday 11am-9pm, Friday-Saturday 11am-10pm, Sunday 11am-8pm
We had lunch on the deck overlooking the Rock River. Hairy Cow brews a variety of beer styles and the menu changes frequently. They offer tasting flights, or you can get just 1 or 2 tasting glasses. They also serve woodfired pizza with a bunch of fun toppings. It is so good! I got the All Day Breakfast Pizza and I was so happy. The staff are also super friendly and it’s all-in-all a great atmosphere.
Stop 4: Little Cubs Field
https://www.littlecubsfield.com/
1160 W. Empire St, Freeport, IL 61032
Little Cubs Field is definitely worth a drive to visit. It’s a scale replica of Wrigley Field that’s totally free and open to the public. The ivy was planted by the daughter of the man who planted the ivy at Wrigley Field in 1937. There is even an actual ivy plant transplanted from Wrigley- but it’s a secret which one it is. When you walk around the grounds of Little Cubs Field, you’re actually walking on Wrigley ground too- since the Cubs donated dirt and grass in 2007.
There is a gift shop that’s open during weekends in the summer, but wasn’t open the day we were there. Other features include a statue commemorating Chicago sportscasting legend Harry Caray, 46 different replica features based on Wrigley, and dugouts stocked with bats and balls that are free to use.
@roamingnelsons One of my favorite road side attractions ever #illinois #chicagocubs #roadsideattraction ♬ Go Cubs Go – Steve Goodman
Bonus fact: Look for Billy Murray in the spectators of the replica left field bleachers.
We couldn’t resist taking turns running the bases pretending we were at Wrigley. We left with the biggest smiles on our faces, it’s clear that the Field brings so much joy to people in the community and visitors too.
Stop 5: Krape Park
https://freeportparkdistrict.org/krape-park/
1799 Park Blvd, Freeport, IL 61032
You could spend a whole day exploring everything Krape Park has to offer. One of the first sights you’ll notice when you come into Krape Park is the iconic 44 foot waterfall by the entrance.
The Krape Park Carousel is open daily from May 27-August 20th, and Saturdays-Sundays from August 21-October 1. Rides cost $1. A Park Comissioner donated the carousel to the Park District and it opened on July 4, 1959. The Park District refurbished the carousel twice- once in 1995 when they also named the 20 horses then (look at the back of the saddle to see name of the horse you’re riding and which school department painted it) and once in 2018 when it was completely taken apart and reassembled. The artwork in the upper part of the Carousel was also revamped in 1995 and now features 12 paintings showing local landmarks and historical people from Freeport. In 2018, the Carousel was once again refurbished- this time it was completely taken apart and put back together, with a focus on enhancing safety.
Other features of Krape Park include:
- 5 miles of trails
- Duck pond
- Tennis courts, disc golf, sledding hill
- Rental canoes and paddle boats
- Mini golf
- Fishing pier
- Kids’ Kastle playground built by volunteers
- Little kid playground
- Outdoor band shell
Stop 6: Lincoln-Douglas Debate Square
114 E Douglas St, Freeport, IL 61032
Celebrating Lincoln is like a religion in Illinois,we just love our honest ol’ Abe.
Illinois towns love to brag about their Lincoln connections, and one of the big ones is if they were a stop on the Lincoln-Douglas Debate tours. At the time, US Senators were elected by state legislature instead of popular vote. As part of of the 1858 campaign season, Lincoln and Senator Stephen Douglas agreed to seven debates around the state- one in each Congressional District.
The Freeport debate happened in August and had anywhere from 15,000-20,000 people in the crowd. The night before the debate Lincoln and Douglas both spent the night in a Freeport hotel (towns LOVE to be able to say Lincoln spent the night in them). The other claim to fame from the debate was “The Freeport Question” which was when Lincoln asked Douglas, “Can the people of a United States territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a state constitution?” Douglas’s answer, “…the people have the lawful means to introduce [slavery] or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations” also became known as The Freeport Doctrine- giving Freeport a double claim to fame in history.
Freeport commemorates this event at Lincoln-Douglas Debate Square, with a statue of the debate and a series of informational signs. There is also even more public art commemorating the debates, which you can find at https://lincoln-douglas.org/freeport-debate/public-works-of-art/
Right next door to the Square is the Freeport Public Library which has a Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area National Parks Passport stamp.
Camping: Apple River Canyon State Park
We did one night of tent camping at Apple River Canyon. I made our reservation ahead of time on the IDNR reservation website https://camp.exploremoreil.com/. There was no one on duty to check us in, and we never saw anyone come by either. The campground features 49 Class C sites and a dump station. There is also a youth camping area with 6 group sites.
Our site was very roomy and felt pretty private. We had a fire pit and a picnic table, and had picked a site not far from a pit toilet outhouse.
We did a little hiking both in the evening and morning. When we first arrived we hiked the Primrose Nature trail, which is accessible by foot from the campground. In the morning we drove over to near the park office and hiked the Tower Rock Nature Trail. It was a very leafy time of year, so we didn’t get a good view of Tower Rock, but it was still a nice hike along a ridgeline. There are 5 different trails in the park.
There was some really nice scenery along the river, which is lined with limestone bluffs. Apple River would make for great paddling, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s weirdly designated “non-navigable” by state law. This means you can only legally paddle if you have permission from each landowner who’s section of river you’ll be passing through.
Stop 7: Illinois’s Champion Tree
https://www.byronforestpreserve.com/preserves/bald-hill-prairie-preserve/
5502 North Silver Creek Road, Mt. Morris
We were tired by Day 2 of the trip, so we did just one stop to break up the drive going home. Bald Hill Prairie is home to Illinois’s largest tree. The eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides), nicknamed simply The Big Tree, is 122 feet tall with 116 foot spread. From the parking lot there are signs pointing you towards The Big Tree and it’s just under a half hour walk. The preserve does also have 5 miles of trails to explore the 380 acre site. It’s important to note, though, that due to its status as a nature preserve, dogs are not allowed at Bald Hill.
