Be a Trailblazer: Hike O'Hara 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 |}

^4/28/2025

We’re going to let you in on a little secret. O’Hara Woods Preserve is the best place to go to see Virginia bluebells in all their glory. Don’t just take our word for it. Go and see for yourself.

To see O’Hara Woods looking its best, you have to time it just right, and that can be tricky because the peak season for the bluebells changes a bit from year to year. Our recommendation would be to plan for a visit in late April or early May. That was what we did, and we were not disappointed.

On our hike, the bluebells were not quite at their peak, but they were close — close enough that we felt like we were getting the full experience. It’s not an exaggeration to say that bluebells blanket the forest floor. At O’Hara Woods, they really do.

We started our hike on the west side of the preserve, following a sidewalk and then paved path that leads into the forest, where the path meets a dirt trail. As you enter the woods, you’ll start to see wildflowers — pockets of bluebells and mayapples and patches of toothwort and violets and more. Don’t be deceived by this. The flowers are impressive here, but it’s just a warmup to what you are about to witness.

Shortly after starting down the dirt trail, you’ll turn, go around a slight bend and the magic of the woods will open up right before your eyes. It’s bluebells as far as the eye can see.

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The bluebells steal the show at O’Hara Woods — and rightly so — but it’s a top spot for wildflowers in general too. There are large clusters of mayapples and cut-leaved toothwort scattered throughout the preserve, particularly on the western end. We also saw plenty of delicate spring beauties showing off their pale pink blooms, plus Dutchman’s breeches, false rue anemone, Virginia waterleaf, prairie trillium, trout lily and violets — both yellow and purple.

As you walk the trail, it’s the bluebells that catch your eye at first, but then you start to notice other wildflowers. Once you do, they keep coming. We walked quite a ways before we first saw the mottled leaves of white trout lily, but then suddenly they were everywhere we looked. The same was true of prairie trillium and Dutchman’s breeches.

Our hike at O’Hara Woods was not a fast one by any stretch. It might have been among the slowest hikes we’ve ever taken. It’s hard to keep any sort of pace when you’re stopping every few steps to check out a flower or leaf.

It wasn’t just the flowers slowing us down, though. The birds were also getting plenty of our attention. As we started, we could hear many of our common neighborhood birds, like robins and cardinals and mourning doves and black-capped chickadees, singing their hearts out. As we got into the woods, the symphony had many more singers. We could still hear the robins and cardinals, but they were joined by blue jays and gnatcatchers and red-bellied woodpeckers and — to our delight — warblers.

Many birders eagerly await the arrival of the warblers each spring. Dozens of species arrive each April and May, but many don’t stick around long, only making a pitstop here on their way to their breeding grounds in Canada.

At first, we just heard the warblers — yellow-rumped, yellow-throated, palm and pine warblers. Warbler songs can be hard to discern from one another, so we were happy to have the Merlin Bird ID to tell us whose songs we were hearing. 

As we got farther into the woods, we could see many warblers flitting from branch to branch. The birds are so small we couldn’t get a good look to see which species they were, just catching occasional flashes of yellow — a color common among many warblers.

Pro tip for visiting O’Hara Woods: If you plan take photos or use apps like Seek and Merlin Bird ID to help you with species identification, make sure your phone is charged up. We started our hike with a nearly fully charged phone, but the battery drained quickly as we snapped flower pics and recorded bird songs so we knew who was nearby.

The dirt trail at O’Hara is a nice one by dirt trail standards. It’s wide and mostly free of tree roots and other obstacles. We visited a day or two after heavy spring rains, and the trail was damp but not muddy or covered in puddles save for one or two spots that were easy to get around.

As you walk, you’ll see plenty of fallen logs here. In some spots, they perfectly frame clusters of bluebells and other flowers, making for excellent photo opportunities. Some are mossy or covered with fungus and lichen, and many serve as small superhighways for squirrels making their way through the forest. These logs themselves are part of the beauty of old woodlands because they provide for so much of the life we see all around.

In the spring, the wildflowers and the birds make O’Hara Woods a must-visit preserve, but it’s a nice place to visit any time of year. We often see quiet and curious deer watching us watch them in the woods, and there are always squirrels scurrying about. A small creek cuts through the preserve, and there you might see ducks or frogs in and around the water.

On our visit, the tree canopy was still mostly bare, and sun filtered freely to the forest floor. Looking out over the landscape, it almost seemed flipped from what we expect in the forest. It was the forest floor that was carpeted in green; up above was just bare branches and blue sky.

By summer, the tree canopy will be full once again, providing a break from the relentless sun. As summer fades away, the oranges and yellows and reds of fall begin to creep in, and it’s a whole different experience than the spring color show. In winter, a light blanket of snow transforms the space yet again.

A few notes about visiting: The Forest Preserve’s O’Hara Woods Preserve is adjacent to O’Hara Woods and Nature Preserve, which is owned and managed by the village of Romeoville. The Forest Preserve portion is 54 acres, and Romeoville’s is 70 acres. There is no dedicated parking lot for the preserve as there is with most other improved preserves. Parking is available in the Romeoville Village Hall and Police Department parking lots off Romeo Road on the west side of the preserve and in a lot off of Arsenal Road on the east side of the preserve.

_{(Photos by Glenn P. Knoblock and Anthony Schalk)}