Be a Trailblazer: Hike Messenger Woods

Editor’s note: We want you to Be a Trailblazer this year, so we will be hiking at various preserves throughout the year and documenting it for you. Journey along with us as we blaze a trail through the preserves and hopefully encourage you to do the same.

^{|  Story by Meghan McMahon |}

^5/11/2025

Some preserves really sing in the spring, and Messenger Woods Nature Preserve is one of those spots.

Sometimes the songs are literal — like the chorus birds filling the forest with music. Such was the case on our hike. On a sunny May morning we expected to hear a symphony, but it even surpassed our expectations.

We used the Merlin Bird ID app to “listen” to the birds, and it identified 39 different species — 39! — on our hourlong hike. We know the app isn’t always 100% accurate when it comes to identifying songs, but what we heard was certainly a cacophony of bird songs, including everything from tiny warblers to ducks, a pair of which we startled in the creek.

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Many of the birds we heard were treasured favorites, like indigo buntings and rose-breasted grosbeaks — birds people look forward to returning each spring. We also heard quite a few warbler species and some of our common year-long residents, including cardinals, blue jays and robins.

In addition, we heard nearly our full complement of woodpeckers — all but the yellow-bellied sapsucker. It wasn’t just the songs that alerted us to woodpeckers’ presence. The first sound we heard when getting out of the car was a woodpecker hammering in the distance, and the sound continued on and off for our entire hike.

As usual, we heard far more birds than we saw, but we did catch a glimpse of a few impressive birds as well. In addition to the sparrows and warblers, we got a flash of bright red as a scarlet tanager flew in front of us on the trail. And then a few minutes later, we saw a pileated woodpecker flying just below the tree canopy. The pileated woodpeckers made their presence known in other ways as well, with their loud, jackhammer-like drumming ringing out around us in several directions throughout our time there.

Messenger Woods is certainly a top spot for birding in spring, but that’s not all. It’s also a top spot for wildflowers, which was on full display on our hike. We saw wildflowers in every stage of bloom, from bloodroot past its bloom time to milkweed and coreopsis that won’t show off until summer.

The list of what was in bloom is a long one. The first flowers we spotted were pockets of purple wild geraniums dotted with bursts of yellow in the form of bristly buttercup. Spring beauties were scattered through the preserve, and blue phlox and common blue violets were in abundance too. Prairie trillium, with its small maroon flowers and mottled leaves, was peppered in across the landscape, and we saw one lone red columbine bloom in a sea of geraniums.

What Messenger Woods is probably most known for in spring is Virginia bluebells. On our visit, the bluebells were still in bloom, but they weren’t the star of the show because they were already starting to fade. What did stand out were mayapple and large white trillium because this is probably the top spot to see both in the Will County preserves.

Large colonies of mayapple can be found across Messenger Woods, visible from a distance with their tops looking like clusters of bright green umbrellas covering swaths of the forest floor. If you look under those large leaves, that’s where you’ll see the white blooms. Once those blooms fade, green apples will appear.

Large while trillium is indeed large, especially by trillium standards. Whereas many of spring’s blooms are small, the flowers on these plants are large enough to see at a distance. The large white trillium isn’t as abundant here are some of the other spring blooms, but there are many pockets scattered near the trail where you can get a good look at these beauties.

On our hike, we traversed both of Messenger Woods’ trails, starting with the shorter North Loop Trail and then continuing to the South Loop Trail. The full length of the trail mileage here is almost entirely natural surface except for a few short stretches of wooden boardwalk. We found the birding and wildflower viewing to be better in the North Loop Trail, so if you only have time for a short walk in the woods, that would be our pick.

No matter where you start your hike, you’ll soon take notice of the trees. Messenger Woods is Will County’s oldest preserve, with the first acreage of what is now a 441-acre preserve being acquired in 1930. That means many of the trees here are old — and they look the part. The old oaks tower overhead, some gnarled with burls on their trunks. If trees could talk, these trees would have stories to tell about the things they have seen. It’s not just the Forest Preserve that is impressed with the trees here. Two of them — a black maple and a black pine — have been added to the Illinois Big Tree Champions list. 

If you’d like to experience Messenger Woods at night to see what creatures join you in the woods, consider an overnight stay. Messenger Woods is one of five Will County forest preserves that offer overnight camping. It has four campsites, including two that are ADA accessible. Each site can comfortably accommodate two four-person tents.

Campsites are $20 per night for Will County residents and $40 for nonresidents and are available first-come, first-served. They must be reserved in-person at a Forest Preserve visitor center no less than two business days prior to the reservation.

An important note about hiking here: After heavy rains or prolonged wet periods, conditions are often not optimal, particularly along the South Loop Trail. Stretches of the trail can be underwater or extremely soggy and difficult to pass through. The small foot bridge that passes over Spring Creek at the start of the North Loop Trail can also be partially underwater, making that trail impassable.

It had been several days since any rain had fallen on the day of our hike, and while most of the trail was dry and easily passable, there were a couple of squishy sections where we had to walk slowly and step carefully. We also noticed dog paw prints and bike tracks in the muddy sections, which provides us an opportunity to remind people that dogs and bicycles are not permitted at Messenger Woods because it has been designated an Illinois Nature Preserve. Certain activities are restricted in nature preserves because they are high-quality natural areas, and many protect rare and endangered plant and animal species and uncommon habitat types.