Salt Creek Water Trails - Dean Nature Sanctuary to Plank Road Medow

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Skill level: Beginner to Intermediate depending on water levels & deadfall

Length: 9.25 miles

Directions: Enter the Dean Nature Sanctuary on the south side of Canterbury Lane approximately 1/3 mile east of York Road just west of where it dead-ends at the Tri-State Tollway.

Approximately 0.4 mile downstream of the 31st Street Bridge, is the Possum Hollow dam.  This low dam is visible only in low water conditions. Paddle through the canoe chute on the river right side of the dam.

An alternate put-in is at the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s Bemis Woods unimproved launch site.  This can be accessed from Wolf Road approximately 0.2 miles north of Ogden Avenue.  The Bemis Woods parking entrance is on the left.  Follow the road to the western end of the parking lot near the creek and put in by the foot bridge.

An alternative take-out is at the Brookfield Village Hall Canoe Landing.  This small minimally improved landing is about 1/3 mile downstream (south) of the Washington Street Bridge on river left.  Parking is available in the lot behind the Village Hall.

The Plank Road Meadow Boat Ramp take-out is on river right of the Des Plaines River approximately 200 feet south of the confluence of Salt Creek with the Des Plaines River.

Note: This trip passes through Cook County Forest Preserves nearly all the way to where it passes through the west side of Brookfield Zoo on the south side of 31st Street.  There is no access to the zoo from the water trail. 

Do not continue paddling past the Plank Road Meadow Boat Ramp!  Approximately ½ mile downstream is the 12 foot high Hofmann Dam.  There is no legal take-out on the Riverside bank and no possible take-out on the Lyons bank.

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