Illinois trails · Yellow Unpaved Loop
Yellow Unpaved Loop
A 7.2-mile out-and-back in Illinois, with 143 ft of climbing. Reaches Horsetail Lake. Managed by Forest Preserve District of Cook County.
Elevation profile
The climbing is spread fairly evenly along the route. It gives back about 223 ft along the way, so it rolls rather than climbing steadily.
3-D terrain
USGS 3DEP ELEVATION × ESRI WORLD IMAGERY · VERTICAL ×1.5
Reaches
- Horsetail Lake (lake)
Daylight at the trailhead
On August 31, 2026 — the day this page was generated — first light reaches this trailhead at 5:47 a.m., the sun rises at 6:16 a.m. and sets at 7:26 p.m., and the last usable light fades about 7:55 p.m. (CDT) — 13 h 11 min of daylight. At about 2.7 mph plus 30 minutes per 1,000 feet of climbing, the 14.4-mile round trip takes roughly 5 h 28 min, so leaving the trailhead at sunrise puts you back around 11:43 a.m. — 7 h 43 min before sunset.
Loop options
- Yellow Unpaved Loop + Purple Unpaved Trail + Yellow Unpaved Trail — 6.0 mi loop, 385 ft gain
- Yellow Unpaved Loop + Purple Unpaved Trail — 2.7 mi loop, 232 ft gain
Nearby trails
- Tan Unpaved Trail — 1.6 mi
- Tan Single Track Trail — 2.2 mi
- Black Single Track Trail — 2.2 mi
- Blue Single Track Trail — 3.2 mi