South Green Belt Forest Preserve, Tinley Park, IL

South Green Belt Forest Preserve covers 1,200 acres of oak-hickory woodland and restored prairie in southern Tinley Park. The preserve’s eight miles of multi-use trails accommodate hiking, jogging, and horseback riding, while the 3.2-mile crushed-limestone loop around Lake Sedgewick offers flat, accessible terrain for families and cyclists. Visitors can launch non-motorized boats from the gravel ramp and fish for bass, bluegill, and channel catfish under the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ catch-and-release guidelines. Two picnic shelters with grills and restrooms sit near the main parking lot on 175th Street, and a smaller shelter at the north end serves equestrian groups. Open meadows and boardwalks through wetlands provide year-round birding opportunities, with sandhill cranes and great egrets commonly sighted during spring migration. The preserve’s entrance lies less than two miles from the Tinley Park Metra station and the I-80 interchange, placing residents within a 30-minute drive of downtown Chicago and the Orland Square retail corridor.