A little road that I’ve made a point to ride the last couple of years when I do my DuPage loops is Indian Knoll Road between Winfield and West Chicago.
It’s just a mile long, and it’s not something that comes naturally on longer rides. I only noticed it on my Garmin while riding the north-south throughway Prince Crossing Road.
Prince Crossing is lovely enough, but Indian Knoll is a secret respite. It’s a heavily tree-lined street that takes you by homes with their lovely lots. This would be part of a ride best suited to serious cyclists, maybe to casual bicyclists.
The trees form a canopy most of the way, and away from the traffic of the main roads, Indian Knoll is quiet. You can hear every bird in the spring, cicada in the summer.
Then in the fall, this is one place to get a colorful show.
I access Indian Knoll Road from the south. I come from downtown Winfield and ride High Lake Road — granted not always the most comfortable with its lack of shoulder — and turn into the quiet residential area closest to Prince Crossing as soon as I can. The first street is Morningside Avenue.
This neighborhood is lovely itself, also full of trees and lacking traffic. There is the tiny High Lake within it, a little to the west of Morningside.
At a certain point you must turn left onto another street, Main Street (nothing like the typical small-town Main Streets), to get to little Lake Drive and cross the Illinois Prairie Path. After crossing, turn right again and either turn left at Morningside, or if you want to defy the “Do Not Enter” sign past that, keep riding east to the curve, which is where Indian Knoll begins.
You take that until Geneva Road. It’s a four-lane road but not hard to cross before the afternoon rush hour. Then the real Indian Knoll Road begins.
It’s only slightly hilly, with one fun downhill heading north.
There’s one little curve, then the bigger curve at its end as the road becomes Hawthorne Lane. Hawthorne Lane takes you to Prince Crossing Road.
Traffic resumes there, and going north on Prince Crossing you’ll encounter the merging of the Prairie Path and the Great Western Trail on the right.
But Prince Crossing will take you to North Avenue; a traffic light can help you cross. You can proceed to St. Charles Road, make a left, then encounter the great Klein Road, another favorite of mine that offers pretty views of the West Branch Forest Preserve. Or you can turn right on St. Charles Road to get to Fair Oaks Road in Carol Stream, with its handy off-road path.
I found making a good video of Indian Knoll Road difficult in the summer, with the sunshine peeking through the trees at different parts, so it’s been hard to capture the peacefulness of the road. But the fall segments aren’t bad. Take a spin.
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