The Chicago Lakefront Trail
North Ave Beach to Navy Pier

(Click on any image to enlarge)

A complete view of the John Hancock Building as seen from the Lakefront Bikepath.

This is the downtown section of the lakefront path between North Avenue and Ohio Street Beaches. You can also see the Navy Pier ferris wheel in the distance to the left (for perspective). Although this is a pretty wide strip of concrete, it is still pretty close to Lake Michigan. There was a news story a year or so ago that showed a bike rider on this part of the path at a time when there were very high winds and waves on Lake Michigan (and the path was supposed to be closed) when a huge wave came along, covered the cyclist and almost took him out to sea! He actually got back on his feet and was OK but it was a close one.

Lake Shore Drive and downtown Chicago are on the right. In my opinion, riding the Lakefront Bikepath is one of the best ways to see the city and really get a feel for how it is layed out. It is nice to actually see the main attractions of the city too but I even got a much better feel for where everything was from riding the bike path.

This is a very full rental "Quadcycle" just north Navy Pier. I have never actually ridden one of these contraptions but would really like to try sometime. They rent them out somewhere near Navy Pier (sorry I don't know exactly where or how much they cost).

This is a view of the Chicago Lakefront Path with Navy Pier in the background. Navy Pier is another major attraction in the city of Chicago. It is an actual pier that extends out into Lake Michigan and there are a number of large boat rental places (more like ships that accommodate large numbers of people) that take you out into Lake Michigan for some spectacular views of the city (don't forget your camera if you do one of those rides). They also have the huge ferris wheel and plenty of places for food, drink and entertainment. It is actually free to go out onto Navy Pier... but it gets expensive to do stuff once you are there.

An interesting (confusing) sign. The main path seems to go to the right here (over the Chicago River).

This is one of the Water Taxi piers at Navy Pier. The water taxis are another fairly unique way to see or get around the city.