Vermilion County Trail Alliance

The Hills @ Harrison Park West

Check out The Hills at Harrison Park West on Trailforks for an updated trail map and trail reports. Feel free to submit your own report or report an issue! It’s how we know maintenance is needed.

Harrison Park is by far Danville’s largest park at ~235 acres. Currently, it is almost exclusively known for being a golf course. However, in times past, the west side of the North Fork river has been used for hiking and picnicking, among other activities. Today there are no functioning facilities of any sort on the property beyond , with the exception of some small bridges and other hardscapes from the mid-30s, and some structures in the old Girl Scout Camp Trefoil (and of course our new trail work). Some of these are from as far back as the 1940s, but some are newer and many are in good to great shape for their age and maintenance.

Harrison Park is centrally located and is already surrounded by all sorts of activity as recorded by Strava, for walkers, runners, and bikers. Affording these people an “official” path into and around the beautiful hills to the west is an obvious expansion opportunity. Attractions like this would invite more traffic to Harrison and raise it’s profile, even among potential golfers. Harrison is also located such that it’s development would impact a wide-range of households, and not just higher incomes.

Walking vs. Cycling activity as posted to Strava. Note the heavy activity in the Lincoln Park to Harrison Park area.

Additionally, Harrison Park West is quite close to Kickapoo State Park. This is notable because, according to Singletracks.com, the Kickapoo Mountain Bike Trails are already the #1 destination in Illinois for MTB, with estimates as high as 20k riders per year. By usage, this puts Kickapoo in the top 10% of trails worldwide. Installation of a bike park, skills facilities, and flow trails on Harrison Park West property offers a much needed complement to the current trail system at Kickapoo, and would make Vermilion County a true weekend destination almost immediately. Also important to note, the #1 MTB destination in Indiana is Griffin Bike Park in Terre Haute, a mere one hour away from Danville.

Vision

The vision for The Hills is to capitalize on the large influx of riders who already come to nearby Kickapoo State Recreation Area Mountain Bike Trails (3mi away), by immediately giving them a ride experience that is currently lacking, but greatly complements, the trails at KSRA. This way, we can encourage longer stays in the area, and hopefully, the spending of tourism dollars within the community. Currently, there is very little proliferation of these riders into the broader community. Often they come from Chicago or Indianapolis and stay only as long as it takes to ride at Kickapoo. The Hills will give them an opportunity to prolong their stay, perhaps overnight, leading to booking local rooms and visiting local establishments.

To do this, VCTA tapped globally-reknowned trail builder Global Action Sports Solutions to construct bike-optimized, gravity oriented “flow” trails at Harrison Park West. GASS was able to translate the IMBA provided Trail Accelerator plan into a full-scale trail center. After working out permitting details, the project was phased into 3 distinct phases. As of April 2025, Phase 1 has been completed, and VCTA has entered fundraising for Phase 2.

VCTA’s further vision for Harrison Park West and The Hills is wide-ranging and transformative. It includes restoring existing historical infrastructure, including the facilities of the abandoned Girl Scout Camp and the incredible cobblestone bridges and “100 Steps” staircase installed during the latter part of the 1930s under Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. Ultimately, we see potential for a lighted, ADA accessible section of walking path with stunning views of the ravine network to the north side of the property.

Furthermore, we envision the Valley Rim Trail, the main trail corridor along the hilltop of the North Fork River meander, to be surfaced double track and ADA accessible. This ridge path especially has potential for breathtaking views of the river and course below, and could be lighted as well at some point in the future.

New Trail

For new trail construction, we’ve already added a multipurpose perimeter path for hikers, runners, and bikers to get the project moving and seeing some use. Ultimately we envision being able to build ~3 trail miles at the site, the use of which would likely be mostly mixed, with some discipline specific sections as well. Prior iterations of Harrison Park featured up to 9 miles of trail, so we feel 3 miles is a reasonable initial goal.

Our primary attraction at this site (beyond the gorgeous scenery) is intended to be bike oriented. We want to build something a little different from Kickapoo; what’s known as “flow” trails. Flow trails are fast and jumpy, featuring interesting technical sections that challenge all skill levels. To do this, we plan to utilize the topography of the site, building this flow trail with the landscape using ravines and ridge lines. We also intend to make the main trail tread a little more resilient to moisture than nearby Kickapoo so that it can be ridden in a more diverse set of weather conditions.

Bike Park

Additionally, the hillside topography is such that we envision its use as a true “bike park” along the lines of nearby Griffin Bike Park in Terre Haute. While this use would be phased and not happen all at once, we anticipate the installation of pre-built wooden features, multiple “line” options, and much more. This would be guaranteed to make The Hills truly unique, and a much needed contrast to Kickapoo.

Hiking

We absolutely do not intend to neglect hikers/runners though, and these interest groups are absolutely essential to our long-term success. Therefore, a hiking/running path will be developed alongside and integrated with all of these bike specific plans so that we build something truly useful to a wide variety of trail users.

Status

As of April 2025, VCTA and GASS have completed Phase 1! GASS continues to be engaged, and is awaiting word from VCTA of Phase 2 funding secured. There are many, many different potential aspects of the overall site, which we will share. Hopefully, we can find and work with motivated local people who share our vision and are eager to get to work on some aspect of the wider project. VCTA remains commited to completing the site trail work. Eventually, there are other projects to move forward but Harrison Park West and The Hills will remain under our watchful eye for maintenance and further development. West Harrison Park has sit essentially idle for 46 years, so VCTA is aware of the potential timeline for the project. Public support would go a long way to move it along more quickly.

Action