Everyone seems to think this is the Gurnee, Illinois skatepark, but I think it technically belongs to Warren Township, which is adjacent to Gurnee, home of Six Flags Great America and the lovely accompanying ditch. What’s the scoop on this park? Keep reading.
The Warren Township skatepark is made up of three shallow bowls and a small street area with a pyramid and a cool u-shaped bench with a tight tranny.
This is the nicest bowl. It’s a little spread out, but you can build up some speed pumping off that island in the middle. Those extensions are the height of a curb, making them essentially useless.
The whole thing is pretty small, but would have been more fun if they had not put some stairs and ledges right in the middle of it. I didn’t really pay attention, but it doesn’t look like there’s much of a run up to actually use this feature if you wanted to.
Here’s a slightly deeper bowl that is a little more compact.
I could have been fun, were it not for the fact that on the longest side there is a bank with the bare minimum of transition. It is essentially a speed killer unless you are dropping in.
And again, there’s the curious placement of the half pyramid with the ledge, right in the middle of the bowl. Check out the extra large expansion gaps!
Here’s the lone street obstacle that isn’t in the middle of a bowl… and easily the place that gets the heaviest traffic.
This is a super shallow bowl that is still alot of fun. It was probably meant as a place for real beginners to learn how to skate transition, and it’s pretty much the only bowl in this park that wasn’t screwed up by the addition of a ledge or stairs in the middle of the flow. There’s a bit too much flat in this bowl, but it still works. If anything, it kind of corrals the kids inside, keeping them out of the way.
There is a small ledge, but the bowl is so spread out and shallow that it doesn’t really get in the way.
A view from the balcony of the teen center, looking to the west.
Here’s a shot of a really cool curved bench with a tight tranny. It’s actually the best feature of the whole park, that is If you can get the kids off of their asses so you can skate it. Yes, those are rollerblades. Apparently they aren’t extinct in northern Illinois after all.
Another shot. Where did the kids go?
I’ll tell you where the kids went. I asked this kid if I could take some pictures of him. After one shot he got kind of creeped out when I started talking to him, and he soon left. All of the sudden the whole park was almost empty. Everyone seemd a bit ill at ease to see someone skating who was over 20. I did have one very polite young man/lurker of about 10 years old who asked how old I was. I told him to guess and he came up with 23!. When I told him I was 43, he replied that I was doing a very fine job and didn’t look my age at all. I think he was dead serious too. This is Brian or Ryan or someone with a Polish last name. Not a big surprise in the Chicago area…
Reverse view from the balcony of the teen center that adjoins the park. Abandon hope all ye who enter here…
Here’s the floorplan.
Final thoughts:
It’s kind of sad, but this is one of the better cement parks in the Chicagoland area. The cement is finished smooth, but teh expansion gaps are ridiculously large, and the design has obvious flaws. It was clearly not designed or built by anyone who actually skated. Still, it has the potential for a lot of fun, especially if you are already in the neighborhood.
Coming soon: The Waukegan Illinois skatepark.
Here’s a Google maps embedding of the park. Six Flags is essentially a mile or so due east and a city block north if you want to check out the ditch that runs on along the perimeter.
13 comments
john
the trail is there but all the ramps and rails are removed for now. idk what there doing. they will be back i assume otherwise they poured alot of prefect concrete for nothing.
try transfering from the bowl with the stairs to the small bowl, that was always what we would do as kids. and the pyramid bowl that we called the “titty bowl”
cause the two “tits” look at arial we would try to transfer from one tit to another over the flat part next to the pyramid. wicked hard to do though.
did you try the grayslake skate park?
curtis
I like the idea of “skate trails”. like some bike path with obsticles to hit and occasional bowls, hopefully all going down at-least a slight grade, it sounds fun. even for the working stiffs, interesting comuter trails could be the part of future urban planning. hey Gurnee or Warren Township locals , let’s see some photos of the skate trail from the ground.
tnjeff
The Skate Trail runs along Almond Rd. Zoom in to see more…
tnjeff
Oops, fixed the Skate Trail link:
LINK HERE
Kilwag
F-WORD!!!! I cant believe we were essentially across the street from the skate trail and missed it!
sea cliff vert ramp
CAD design run amuck! Wormhout would be proud.
poopbreak
what is this skate trail? that sounds cool.
Matt Wes
i learned rock n rolls and stuff there… fun park… the supervision there is kind of lame… they’d be yelling at me all the time for stuff but alot of the time i think it’s because i’m usually older than most of the kids there and because i have full sleeves and my hands tattooed… gotta love that suburban fear/hatred of anyone different.
i think the stairs and ledges were put in when rollerblading was big… i’d see bladers doing whirly twirls or whatever down those stairs alot…
waukegan park is a disaster… got banned from there for jumping the fence and skating it while it was under construction… haven’t been kicked out since though.
houseofneil
Seriously, Kilwag’s not joking. When we got there the place was packed. Packed. Mob scene, with teenage kids hanging out, little kids skating etc. After 15 minutes of us lurking and Randy taking pictures they all fled. Some were found in the parking lot, some were just gone. Maybe to the skate trail whatever that is.
So if you have a lot of lurkers hanging around after a party who won’t leave, invite Kilwag. He’ll clear them right out of there.
Kilwag
jh – I missed the skate trail, didn’t know there was one. Bummer.
skaterhusseindave
looks like a Wormhoudt affair maybe
Simply Stupid
I would be pissed if I helped raise money for that park.
jh
You’ll love the broom finish on the Waukegan Skatepark… The Warren Township skatepark is where I head when visiting home in Waukegan. The local kids think I’m nuts but are usually nice enough. I’ve learned many little tricks in the shallow bowl, these 47 yr old bones aren’t what they used to be. The place used to have a entry guard that checked your name and equipment. No longer. Kilwag, did you check out the skate trail? Lots of the locals hit that. Lots of obstacles along a paved trail.