Even the word “twilight” has a magical ring to it. It conjures serene images of lengthening shadows and gentle breezes, sunsets and fireflies. In the summer, it’s a particularly comfortable, tranquil time, arriving after most people have completed work for the day and bringing with it cooler evening temperatures.
Several local parks and forest preserves are taking advantage of our beautiful summer evenings by offering garden walks, hikes, horse-drawn wagon rides and other programs at twilight. Even with a wealth of programs offered in June and July, there are still many opportunities to enjoy the lingering summer evenings of August and early September.
“The garden takes on a nicer atmosphere at twilight than in the high point of the day when the sun is beating down on you,” noted Bob Waterman, director of the gardens and grounds at Cantigny Park in Wheaton. “The timing is better for a lot of people too. We may get the after-work crowd, who may not normally get to come to Cantigny.”
When Waterman, who serves as tour guide for the twilight walks, describes the gardens at day’s end, he waxes positively poetic: “The way the sun falls, you get long shadows that enhance the garden and views. . . . The evening has a sound, a quiet, and the garden takes on a different attitude.”
In contrast with midday, when Cantigny attracts a large lunch crowd, a tour group often comprises the only people in the gardens at twilight, able to stop and listen to the active bird population, the chirping of tree frogs, or the fading buzz of heat-inspired grasshoppers. Even water bubbling in the estate’s fountains takes on a more prominent, tranquil sound in the quiet of early evening.
Cantigny, which was the estate of Col. Robert R. McCormick, former editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, sits on 500 acres of land. When McCormick died in 1955, he indicated in his will that his land and estate should be used “for the recreation, instruction and welfare of the people of the state of Illinois.” Today, the public can tour the 35-room McCormick mansion, built in 1896 by McCormick’s grandfather, or visit the First Division Museum, with exhibits following the First Division from World War I to the Gulf War. The Cantigny Golf Course takes up 300 acres. The formal gardens, which cover 10 acres, were designed in 1967 by Franz Lipp, a famous landscape architect.
On Thursday at 6:30 p.m., Waterman will conduct the sixth and final Cantigny twilight tour of the summer, titled “The Gardens in Summer: Twilight Walk and Refreshments,” at a cost of $10 per person. (Reservations required; call 630-668-5161.)
Along the tour, Waterman points out the myriad tree varieties, including mature American elms that are diligently guarded against the ravages of Dutch elm disease, and 300-year-old burr oaks. Visitors are led through a fountain garden encircled by hostas and brightly colored annuals like impatiens, past a rock garden surrounded by evergreens and into the Idea Garden, enclosed by a wood fence just high enough to discourage deer from leaping inside.
“We call it the Idea Garden because the intention is to give the public as many ideas in gardening as we can,” Waterman said. The area features an herb garden, gardens with vegetable-flower combinations, and creative container gardens, one of which features a plant growing in an old workman’s boot. Here also is the Children’s Garden, a whimsical place where a lawn chair sprouts real grass and a flower bed is a wooden bed frame that houses a collection of flowers.
After the tour group visits the elegant rose garden, featuring 800 rose plants, they mount a grand staircase to the McCormick mansion’s large screened porch, where they conclude the tour with wine and cheese or enjoy their refreshments outdoors in the shelter of a peaceful grape arbor.
“There’s a lot of horticultural conversation,” Waterman said. “People enjoy walking along and talking about the trees and plants in their own back yards.”
If they’re lucky, the group might even catch a glimpse of the fox family — mom, dad and three kits — who live on the grounds, or see a raccoon amble by. The land is also home to many deer, woodchucks, a pack of coyotes and skunks, although “we have never run into a skunk during a tour,” Waterman pointed out.
Not that it couldn’t happen, mind you. “You’ve got to be careful. Nature will upstage you,” observed Tom Pray, a naturalist at the Fullersburg Forest Preserve in Oak Brook. During outdoor presentations in the past, many a deer, raccoon or skunk has drawn attention from his informative talks. On one occasion, a hawk settled down directly behind a group of school children to devour a squirrel dinner. Pray, however, who is passionate about educating the public on the importance of preserving natural resources, doesn’t mind being upstaged by nature and uses the instances to embellish his presentations. When flooding conditions created a significant surge in the mosquito population two years ago, for example, the naturalists used it as an opportunity for an educational twilight program on the pests, including an experiment testing the effectiveness of various bug repellents.
Every Wednesday night through Aug. 12 from 7-9, Pray and his staff present a free twilight series called “Nature Quest,” which features activities for families and short nature hikes, followed by a campfire, marshmallows and stories. (Reservations requested; call 630-850-8110.)
A recent program on animal camouflage had children making little creatures that they hid from their parents in the woods. “I made mine with a leaf so it wouldn’t be seen,” said Kristian Madsen, 7, of Downers Grove. Sure enough, his mother, Nancy, and father, Jorn-Erik, and sister, Kamilla, 4, needed some help in the fading light to find the creature nestled among leaves in a tree. Camouflage is important, Kristian noted, “so you won’t get eaten by your predators.”
The Madsens, who were attending their second “Nature Quest,” have vowed to make the Wednesday night programs a regular routine. “It’s a nice time of day, and we can do it as a family.” said Nancy. Besides, they heartily recommend the quality of the programs. “They’re phenomenal,” she stressed.
As her three sons, ages 4, 7 and 10, munched on marshmallows roasted over the outdoor fire, Cathy Neilly of Villa Park said that she had come because “I thought it would be a nice activity to get the kids out of the house.” And in spite of her vigorous swatting against a cloud of mosquitoes, “we’ll come back next week,” she vowed.
On Aug. 19 from 7 -9 p.m., Greene Valley in Naperville will present “Wait Until Dark,” which invites people to explore the nighttime world through games and activities and with flashlights. “People cover their flashlights with red cellophane,” Pray explained, “which makes it easier to get close to night animals,” which could include the usual cast of characters — and bats. Participants will be encouraged to listen for animals as well, particularly the hooting of owls, howl of coyotes or sounds of frogs and toads. (Free; reservations requested; call 630-850-8110.)
Every Wednesday night throughout September, the Danada Equestrian Center in Wheaton offers horse-drawn wagon rides lasting about a half-hour through forest preserve trails. The wagons, which can seat about 35 people on hay bales, are pulled by two big Belgian draft horses, said Sandy Slazyk, staff assistant at the Danada Equestrian Center. As the guide “tells the group about what they’re seeing and the history of plant life and animals in the area . . . they’ll be there to see the sun set,” she added. The wagon rides leave at 5:30, 6:15 and 7 p.m. on Wednesdays, at a cost of $3 for adults and $1 for children 5 to 12 years old. Children under 5 are free. (For more information, call 630-668-6012.)
On Sept. 5, the Blackwell Forest Preserve in Warrenville will present the last of three campground hikes along the Egret Trail from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. The hike, often attended by people camping at Blackwell, is open to the public as well, said Michael Holan, west sector operations supervisor.
“Evening is a good time, after most campers have come into their campsite and are settled in,” he said. After viewing the 60-acre Silver Lake and passing Mt. Hoy, a landfill hill (used for winter sports), the guide leads groups on the aptly named Egret Trail along Springbrook Marsh, where they might glimpse the water bird as well as deer and other wildlife. (Free; call 630-942-6075.)
Although the area’s forest preserves can be considered a relaxing playground for suburban dwellers, it is clear that one needs to be careful when tramping through the woods, as a young couple discovered the hard way before stumbling across a recent “Nature Quest” group at Fullersburg Woods.
It apparently had seemed like a good idea at the time, when the elegantly dressed pair — he in a suit and tie, she in a fancy black dress — left the path at the forest preserve to stroll along a pond. Little did they know that recent hot, dry weather had caused the pond to shrink from its banks, creating what looked like a sturdy dirt surface at its perimeter but which actually concealed squishy mud more than a foot deep. This became clear moments too late, leaving them scrambling frantically to escape from the muck, which sucked their legs in to the knees, ruined their outfits and claimed the woman’s shoes. Clearly, this was not the way the young couple planned to end their date.
Blame it on the allure of a forest preserve at twilight.
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For more information about forest preserve programs, consult the free publication The DuPage Conservationist or visit the forest preserves’ Web site: www.dupageforest.com.
