A wide variety of specialty gardens display native and exotic plants, all attractively arranged on several islands in the Skokie Lagoons. The trail circles through rolling terrain, occasionally passing ponds, marshes, and steep ravines. Woods alternate with prairie and overgrown fields. Starting at the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center follow a bridle path through woods dotted with meadows, marshes, and ponds. The trail explores the bluff and wooded highlands that overlook the Sag Channel, through which lake Michigan once drained to the southwest.
Sand ridges rise nearly two hundred feet from the southern shore of Lake Michigan.
Cross the high foredunes and follow the beach to the Big Blowout, then return through sheltered woods behind the dunes. In a series of segments, this excursion passes through several different dune environments. After a walk along the beach, cross the high foredunes, then circle the flats where the sand has been strip mined. From a ridge overlooking Long Lake, return through the wooded hills and hollows of the backdunes. Several access points are described, making possible a series of shorter trips.