Warren Township Skate Plaza & Trail - Gurnee, Illinois, U.S.A.

Pictures are by Nate Mollison

Here's the info on the skatepark in Gurnee, Illinois. The official name is the Warren Township Skate Plaza & Trail. It opened back in the late fall 2002. The park is gated, so check the hours before going there, they have a few "bike" days a week too. The park is made up of four areas (so to speak). From left to right as you enter the park, you have the main "big" bowl, which ranges around four feet deep, there are a few extensions around the bowl. There's lots of flat, so bring your skate legs. It's possible to ride the entire bowl, but you gotta work it. The island thing has jacked transitions and is lower than the rim of the bowl. One really screwy feature id the huge stairway on the far wall... yeah let's break up the flow with a nice stair set!! Most kids use this big bowl to get speed and transfer over to the smaller bowl. The small bowl is maybe three feet deep? Of course they had to throw in a ledge to break up a corner... This bowl is good for learning new stuff mostly. This bowl tends to be the most crowded whenever I was there. The next area has a pyramid/rail gizmo, again placement makes no sense and gets a little use. The final area is a really odd bank to round wall bowl that has a odd shaped pyramid that is over sized in the middle of course tucked in there to halt all hopes of flow. I rarely saw kids in this bowl. There is another feature here that is outside the gated park called the skate trail, a path that has various obstacles along it, rails, fun boxes, etc. I always saw kids sessioning this path so it seems to be a good hit for the street skaters.

The concrete at this park isn't bad, the main bowl is actually really smooth, just lots of flat. By far this park should only earn a visit if you live in the area. Go to the Wilson Ave. park in Chicago if you really want to skate some roundwall.