Moraine Hills State Park

From angling to hiking, from viewing rare plants to observing migratory waterfowl, Moraine Hills State Park offers you a recreational bounty. Located in the northeast corner of Illinois, the park is 3 miles south of McHenry in McHenry County. McHenry Dam, on the Fox River, is on the park's western border. Roughly half of the park's 2,200 acres is composed of wetlands and lakes. The 48-acre Lake Defiance, located near the center of the park, was formed when a large portion of ice broke away from the main glacier and melted. Lake Defiance is gradually filling in with peat from its unstable shoreline. The lake is one of the few glacial lakes in Illinois that has remained largely undeveloped, maintaining a near-natural condition.Pike Marsh, a 115-acre area in the southeast corner of the park, is home to many rare plants. Its outer fen area (a very rare marsh wetland) includes Ohio goldenrod, Kalm's lobelia, dwarf birch and hoary willow, while cattails and bulrushes grow in its interior. Pike Marsh also supports one of the state's largest known colonies of pitcher plants, which attract, trap and digest insects.The 120-acre region known as Leatherleaf Bog is an excellent example of kettle-moraine topography. In geological terms, a kettle is a depression formed when an isolated block of glacial ice melts. The bog consists of a floating mat of sphagnum moss and leatherleaf surrounded by a moat of water. Marsh fern, marsh marigold, St. John's wort and several species of willow put down roots here. Because both Pike Marsh and Leatherleaf Bog are dedicated nature preserves, they are protected by law.Moraine Hills offers three examples of wetland enhancements. Yellow-head, Black Tern and Opossum Run marshes are samples of what can be accomplished with a little help from man.