In my opinion, it’s just not really winter without the snow. The cold I could do without, but there are so many great things to do in the fluffy white stuff – and we have plenty this winter! My favorite snow activity is taking my kids sledding. Some of the best memories I have as a child are when my older aunts and uncles would take me with them – that was great!

My son had a day off school and we went to try out the sledding hill at the Lakewood Forest Preserve. The sledding hill is located in the Winter Sports Area just south of 176 on Fairfield Road in Wauconda. We arrived about 10:30am and we were the only ones there. We did see some people getting ready to cross country ski – the trails looked in prime shape and I can bet the scenery is awesome. The sledding hill was looked good too, there was however a lot of ice on the sidewalk which makes it kind of tricky carrying a huge snow tube, but it’s not too bad. My son, the daredevil, just couldn’t wait and flew down the hill and I could hear him laughing the whole way down! I then went with my daughter, she loved it! What a great hill for sledding! Steep enough to really get you going but not too steep where you would lose control. There is also plenty of room at the bottom for slowing down and stopping. It is a pretty fast hill and well packed. The ride down is so worth the walk up the hill. We went a few more times before we were tired. I would recommend a huge snow tube on this hill - that by far was our favorite. No toboggans, snowboards or metal runner are allowed, for obvious reasons. There is also a bathroom at the top of the hill, which is very nice to have. The scenery is beautiful, especially after a snow fall.

My advice when sledding at Lakewood, get there early on the weekends when it can get pretty busy. We were the only people when we got there but as we were leaving we could see sledders arriving. Lakewood is one of the better sledding hills we’ve tried, good size hill and well kept. I will definitely return before the snow melts!

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