
Hannaford Woods - Nickels Farm Forest Preserve
Merrill Rd., 1 mile east of Rt. 47 | Sugar Grove, IL 60554 |
Merrill Rd., 1 mile east of Rt. 47
Sugar Grove, IL 60554
Hannaford Woods is considered as part of Bliss Woods-Waubonsee College, open space assemblage lying just west of Aurora's expanding boundaries and partly within the rambling borders of Sugar Grove. Here, Blackberry Creek is a clear rippling, gravel bottom stream, where it flows along the western edge of these fine woods. The Virgil Gilman Bike Trail, which extends some eleven miles from the Fox River in downtown Aurora to the Waubonsee campus, generally follows Blackberry Creek. There are a number of rich meadows and wetland pockets along the creek and some attractive shrubbery patches of Hazelnut and Dogwood. But the woods, which occupies over half of the land contain magnificent Red Oak trees, that hearken back to the specimens of pre-timbering days in Kane County's woodlands, giant White and Bur Oaks, a towering Butternut, and many Walnuts, Hickories and Lindens. Hannaford Woods is located on Merrill Road, approximately 1 mile east of Route 47. (Photo by Randy Schoof)