About an hour south of Chicago, a former military ammunition plant is slowly becoming something remarkable: a sprawling tallgrass prairie where bison once again roam behind a fenced pasture. Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Will County gives hikers miles of open trail across a landscape that looks nothing like the cornfields surrounding it.
You cannot actually walk among the bison, but you can hike out to the pasture boundary, scan the rolling grassland with binoculars, and sometimes catch a glimpse of the herd grazing in the distance.
Walk to the bison pasture, not among the bison
Right away, one thing deserves a clear correction: the title oversells the experience in one specific way. Visitors at Midewin do not walk freely among bison.
Public access brings you to the outside of a fenced pasture, where designated overlooks give you a place to stop, look, and wait. Entering the bison enclosure is prohibited, and for good reason…