We highly encourage you to have a picnic and some play time at all of the Kankakee-area parks listed here.
Nothing beats a relaxing picnic in the great outdoors, and Kankakee County offers plenty of beautiful spots to spread out a blanket and enjoy a picnic in nature. Whether you’re looking for a riverside retreat, a quiet woodland escape, or a family-friendly park with playgrounds and trails, there’s a perfect picnic spot waiting for you. In this post, we’ll highlight our five favorite places in Kankakee County to enjoy a homemade alfresco meal.
Kankakee River State Park
Kankakee River State Park boasts 10.5 miles of trails, where locals and out of town visitors can enjoy the peace of nature alongside a beautiful extension bridge and scattered playground equipment, including swings. The Rock Creek extension bridge is right next to the trading post, near mile-marker 6. Between mile markers 4 and 6 are several pavilions, lookout points, swing sets, and play sets. Picnic tables are scattered throughout the state park, but it’s always nice to bring a blanket on a picnic, as well.
Island Park in Momence
Momence is a quaint, quiet town, situated just a few miles from the Indiana border. If you are trying to see Kankakee County’s most interesting parks, then Island Park should be at the top of your list. Route 17 crosses the Kankakee River in Momence, and halfway across the river in Island Park.
Island Park’s playset is a log cabin style playset with a bridge, climbing wall, and 5 slides. The park is on an island, so you will be surrounded by water on all sides, but the island is large enough that kids aren’t too close to the water when playing. There is a pavilion and picnic tables, guaranteeing shade and a place to sit.
Perry Farm
Perry Farm is the crown jewel of Kankakee County parks. Few towns have 170 acres in the middle of everything, where you can be surrounded by multiple trails, playsets, farm animals, and a children’s museum, with regular deer sightings to top it all off.
A centralized gazebo and large pavilion both have picnic tables year round. There’s also picnic tables near the playground equipment. You could always spread out a blanket in the field near the alpacas, pig, chickens and ducks, and other barnyard animals. Older kids will have a great day, and more importantly they will get worn out, if you take them down to the river to run around near the Indian Caves.
Willowhaven
If you are looking for a quiet, secluded picnic spot, then Willowhaven is your jam. The several-dozen acre park is surrounded by cornfields, and due to it being semi-remote, there’s usually only a few other groups in the entire park at any given time, even on the weekend.
The ponds have bass, bluegill, and crappie, there is a nice wooden playset for the kids, over a mile of trails, and 9-holes of disc golf. On your drive in you will also notice the 3-acre dog park, which is the largest dog park in Kankakee County. Heads up, for safety reasons you must register your dog ahead of time to use the dog park.
Bird Park
Situated between the Kankakee River and an old quarry, Bird Park is the City of Kankakee’s most historical park. It has an old quarry build and other really neat historical buildings on-site. Several large playsets and two large pavilions will allow your kids to play for hours, all while you can sit in comfort in the shade. We have an agreement with the geese, as long as we don’t bother them they generally leave us alone as well.
