7 Most Breathtaking Towns In Illinois

The reasons to stop in these seven Illinois towns rarely announce themselves from the interstate. In Grafton, limestone bluffs rise directly behind a main street wedged onto a thin shelf of land beside the Mississippi. In Woodstock, filmmakers used the brick-paved square as small-town Pennsylvania in Groundhog Day, and neighbors still turn out there for a Wednesday summer concert. Nauvoo holds a rebuilt 1840s temple on a bluff above the river, and Mount Carroll's hillside of Greek Revival and Italianate storefronts earned it comparisons to New England. Each one rewards drivers who slow down, park, and stay past the first look.

Glencoe

Glencoe sits about 23 miles north of Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan, a North Shore village better known for its gardens than its size. The Chicago Botanic Garden covers 385 acres and nine islands here, with 27 display gardens and a model railroad whose trains loop past a miniature landscape of tiny buildings. Staff program live music through the warmer months and put on a summer series that lights the grounds after dark. On the eastern edge of the village, Glencoe Beach opens onto the lake for swimming, boating, and beach volleyball, and visitors keep the sand busy from late summer into early fall.

Downtown, the company at Writers Theatre stages musicals, dramas, and new plays, and its educators run workshops for both children and adults. A short walk away, the cooks at RDK Sushi turn out specialty rolls, lobster tacos, and hibachi fried rice from a small modern dining room.

Grafton

Grafton sits on a narrow shelf beside the Mississippi River, with limestone bluffs rising directly behind its main street. Families crowd Raging Rivers WaterPark on hot afternoons, where the slides and a lazy river make the heat easier to take. Down at the water, crowds gather at The Loading Dock for live music, dinner, and drinks along the riverfront, and the owners flood the outdoor space into a seasonal ice rink once the temperature drops.

Wine is the other half of a day in Grafton. At The Vineyards, the staff of the Grafton Winery pour locally made bottles in a quieter setting outside town, with tastings and food for anyone who wants to linger through the afternoon. Guests at Tara Point Inn and Cottages take in the same landscape from private decks above the river, and the property's gazebo looks straight down the valley when fireworks go up over the water.

Geneva

Geneva stands about 43 miles west of Chicago on the Fox River, a city of European-style storefronts and a downtown built for walking. Wheeler Park runs along the river, with disc golf, softball diamonds, a playground, and walking trails, and the city holds the Fox Valley Folk Music and Storytelling Festival there over Labor Day weekend. For a slower afternoon, the Herrington Inn and Spa overlooks the water, with a European-style spa and Atwater's Restaurant on site.

At the Oak and Rose Tea Room, guests take tea and dessert with close-up views of the Fox River. Farther into town, the owners of Stockholm's Restaurant and Brewery lean into the city's Swedish namesake, and regulars gather over wings and burgers to watch the big games. The name refers to the capital of Sweden.

Oregon

Oregon lies along the Rock River, with sandstone bluffs and open farmland on either side of town. A riverside observation deck at Carnation Park gives a quiet vantage over the water, and across the river, Oregon Park East faces the towering Black Hawk statue with room to spread out for an afternoon. Every October, organizers fill the downtown with parades, crafts, and vendors for Autumn on Parade, one of the region's larger community festivals. River's Edge Experience, an indoor-outdoor venue, looks onto the river and its small wooded islands, and back in the center of town, the crew at The Tipsy Hog pour craft beer and book local musicians for a livelier evening.

Woodstock

Woodstock retains its 19th-century architecture and brick-paved square largely intact, which is why its downtown looks familiar to first-time visitors. Filmmakers used the Square as Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania in the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day. At the heart of the Woodstock Square Historic District, residents still gather in Woodstock Square Park, where the city runs a summer concert series on Wednesday evenings and community events such as Family Fun Day in late August.

The Woodstock Opera House, an ornate building from 1889, still fills its calendar with live theater and music, and Groundhog Day fans will recognize it as the film's Pennsylvanian Hotel. Nearby, the kitchen at BratHaus Woodstock cooks bratwurst and schnitzel, and its basement bar, KellerHaus, draws a livelier evening crowd with cold drinks.

Nauvoo

Nauvoo, a Mississippi River town of roughly 950 people, is best known for the temple on its bluff. On Mulholland Street, the Nauvoo Temple House Hotel has 14 guest rooms within sight of the Nauvoo Illinois Temple, and the same building holds Zions Mercantile General Store and the Temple House Art Gallery. The temple itself is a Greek Revival building, rebuilt in 2002 on the site of the original, which an arson fire gutted in 1848 and a tornado ruined further in 1850. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worship there today, and staff at a visitor center cover the site's history for everyone else.

Just south of downtown, Nauvoo State Park spreads across 148 acres around 13-acre Lake Horton, where anglers cast for largemouth bass, channel catfish, and bluegill from the bank. Trails circle the lake through prairie and timber, and hikers spot deer, opossums, and raccoons along the way, plus a long list of birds. The park also takes in the Rheinberger House Museum and Illinois' oldest vineyard. Back in town, cooks at Lock 19 grill fresh, never-frozen smash burgers and round out the menu with falafel, fries, shakes, and hot dogs.

Mount Carroll

Mount Carroll earned the nickname "New England of the Midwest" from its hillside setting and its dense stock of Greek Revival, Italianate, and Victorian buildings. The county seat of Carroll County, this town of about 1,480 people set most of its downtown and older residential streets inside the Mount Carroll Historic District, roughly 118 acres added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The Carroll County Courthouse stands at the center of the district, and a slow walk down Market Street takes in brick pavement and century-old storefronts.

The town's cultural life outpaces its size. At Timber Lake Playhouse, the oldest continuously operating professional summer stock theater in Illinois, the company stages musicals and plays from June into September just outside town. On the former Shimer College campus, instructors at the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies train conservators from across the country. For something stranger, a family runs the Raven's Grin Inn as a year-round haunted-house tour that locals treat as a landmark in its own right, and organizers bring classic cars and food vendors downtown for Cruise Nights on summer Saturdays.

Seven Towns Worth the Detour

What links these towns is not scenery alone but the way residents put local history to use. People in Woodstock still gather on the same square that filmmakers turned into Pennsylvania, Grafton's businesses still depend on the river at their doorstep, and Mount Carroll's neighbors keep up a hillside of 19th-century storefronts that would look at home much farther east. None of them takes long to reach from the interstate, and each is worth stopping the clock for an afternoon.