Starting Friday, Oct. 30, Stickney Run Conservation Area closes to the public for three straight weekends. It closes Oct. 30 through Nov. 1, Nov. 6 through 8, and Nov. 13 through 15. The trails and the parking lot reopen on Monday each time. Stickney Run stays open Monday through Thursday. On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays it belongs to bowhunters.
For Prairie Grove, this is closer to home than a closure notice for some preserve across the county. The trails it closes are the ones the village was built beside. This November, the hunting calendar sets the weekend walk more than the weather does. And several of the preserves that stay open are hunted too.
The preserve inside the village line
McHenry County and the City of McHenry adopted a Fox River Corridor Plan in 2022. It describes Prairie Grove as sitting about a mile inland from the west side of the Fox River. It also says the village's eastern edges take in parts of Stickney Run Conservation Area. The village has parkland of its own next to Village Hall on Barreville Road, bought in January 2001. According to the Village of Prairie Grove, that land is still unimproved because of funding limits. So the conservation district's land does a lot of the work a village park might otherwise do.
Stickney Run is small. The McHenry County Conservation District site page lists 1.25 miles of trail and an entrance at 3216 West State Park Road, McHenry. The preserve also holds Mosgrove Cemetery, a pioneer family cemetery that dates to the mid-1800s. A loop that short fits easily into a Saturday morning, which is why losing three Saturdays in a row matters.
Nine days, every one of them on a weekend
The closures come from the district's 9-day Special Season Eastside Archery Program for deer and turkey. The 2026 Deer Hunting Program sets its dates as Oct. 30 through Nov. 1, Nov. 6 through 8, and Nov. 13 through 15. Five sites are in that program: Fox Bluff, Hickory Grove, Lyons Prairie, Silver Creek and Stickney Run.
So the closures cover more than Prairie Grove's own preserve. Fox Bluff and Silver Creek, two of the closer preserves to the south, close on the same weekends. The district's closures and alerts page, last updated Oct. 14, 2026, lists each one:
| Preserve | Entrance | What closes Oct. 30–Nov. 1, Nov. 6–8, Nov. 13–15 |
|---|---|---|
| Stickney Run | 3216 W. State Park Rd., McHenry | Pedestrian trails and parking lot |
| Fox Bluff | Cary-Algonquin and Cold Springs roads | Pedestrian trails |
| Silver Creek, main entrance | 1009 Rawson Bridge Rd., Cary | Pedestrian trails and parking lot |
| Silver Creek, Prairieview entrance | 2112 Behan Rd. | Trails south of Behan Road only |
| Lyons Prairie & Marsh | Hickory Grove area | Pedestrian trails |
| Hickory Grove Highlands | Hickory Grove area | Pedestrian use and parking lots |
At Silver Creek, the Behan Road entrance at the Prairieview Education Center stays open on those weekends, and only the trails south of Behan Road close. The Rawson Bridge Road side closes entirely. Fox Bluff has its own wrinkle. The district's site page labels its entrance as Cary but lists the address as 1300 Cold Springs Road, Algonquin.
Why the district hunts these weekends
The district has offered recreational hunting to the public for 24 seasons, counting the 2025–26 hunting year. Interest keeps climbing. The district's 2025 Hunting Program Report counts 913 applications, up from 775 in 2024. Hunting is by permit only, and the district's 2026 program document says participants are picked through a live, weighted lottery. The district describes the program as deer management at high-quality sites, where it would otherwise need contracted or staff culling.
The same report says why the posted closures matter. Hunters told the district that some visitors missed or ignored closure signs and barriers, and that more visible signs were needed. On a closure weekend, a barrier across the Stickney Run lot means the trail is closed.
The preserves that stay open are hunted, too
Several of the preserves that stay open on Eastside weekends are archery sites as well. The district's full archery season runs Oct. 1, 2026, through Jan. 17, 2027. The full-season sites include Boone Creek, The Hollows, Silver Creek and Stickney Run itself. These preserves stay open to the public while bowhunters work assigned zones. The district's 2026 hunting rules require hunters to keep deer entrails at least 100 yards from trails and parking lots. The nine Eastside days are when the district closes certain preserves so hunters can use them alone. The rest of the season, walkers and hunters share the land.
With that in mind, these are the open options for a closure weekend, all listed open on the Oct. 14 update:
- The Hollows, 3804 US Highway 14, Cary. A one-mile loop circles 22-acre Lake Atwood. A 1.3-mile woodland trail and the 2.5-acre Little Atwood Lake give the visit some range. Both lakes are open for fishing.
- Boone Creek, 916 Cold Springs Road, Bull Valley. About 2 miles of hiking trail, plus an observation deck and wildlife-viewing scopes.
- The Prairie Trail. The district describes it as a 25.5-mile route connecting eight McHenry County communities. Access lots include Hillside Road, just west of Terra Cotta Road in Crystal Lake, and Petersen Park, south of McCullom Lake Road in McHenry. The trail and its lots are listed open.
- Moraine Hills State Park, 1510 S. River Road, McHenry. This state park is a separate property from Stickney Run, run by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Its trails include the Fox River Trail at 2 miles, the Leatherleaf Bog Trail at 3.2 miles and the Lake Defiance Trail at 3.7 miles. Hunt Illinois says all trails stay open to hikers during archery season, and stands must be at least 75 yards from designated trails.
For anyone bringing a dog, the district's dog-walking rules allow dogs at open sites on a leash no longer than 10 feet, kept under control and on the trail.
After Nov. 15, the state firearm season sets the calendar
The Eastside program ends on Nov. 15, but the hunting calendar keeps going. The district's program rules bar archery hunting at its sites during the first firearm season, Nov. 20 through 22, with Glacial Park as the exception. Glacial Park and the Lost Valley Visitor Center close to the public for hunting that weekend.
Moraine Hills follows the statewide firearm calendar. The state's closures page says the park closes the Friday, Saturday and Sunday before Thanksgiving weekend, and the Thursday through Sunday after it. On this year's calendar that would be Nov. 20 through 22 and Dec. 3 through 6. The region's listing was last updated in January, so check it before driving over. IDNR also lists shotgun deer hunting on 1,400 acres northeast of River Road, and the park closes to the public during that hunting.
Put together, the quiet stretch for Stickney Run comes after Nov. 15. Its archery closures end then, and it is open on Nov. 20 through 22 while the state parks and Glacial Park close. That makes the weekend before Thanksgiving a good one to return to the trail closest to home.
Two more dates are worth marking. On Sunday, Nov. 8, the district hosts its free "Harvest Time in 1858" event at the Powers-Walker House in Glacial Park Conservation Area, Ringwood, from noon to 4 p.m. That falls on the second Eastside weekend, and Glacial Park isn't part of that program. Then on Dec. 1, seasonal parking closures begin. Fox Bluff's lot closes, along with the Hillside and Meyer Drive lots on the Prairie Trail, and those lots stay closed until April 1.
The district's closures page changes through the season, so the simplest habit is to check it on Friday morning before heading to State Park Road.
Knowing how Prairie Grove's seasons actually run, down to which weekends Stickney Run is open, is part of how Mandy Montford works with neighbors across McHenry County. If you're thinking about how the land around your street gets used and managed, or what that means for a future move, I'm always glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
