From sledding and snowboarding to skating – there are tons of winter activities this time of year that will get you off the couch and outdoors.
If you’re looking to take to the ice, the Naperville Park District has six ice skating rinks where you can. Five of those are for recreational skating while Centennial Park is the only rink that also has a designated area for hockey.
“Usually by like 8 o’clock Saturday and Sunday mornings the groups will start showing up. Most of the time on the weekends and late afternoons and early evenings both the hockey rinks are full of hockey players, and there’s usually a dozen free skaters out there,” said Chuck Papanos, park operations manager for the Riverwalk and the north division of the Naperville Park District.
But the rinks take a lot to maintain: six days a week from 5 to 9 a.m. a park district crew will clean and add coats of water to keep the ice at a safe four inches thick.
“The temperatures make so much of a difference,” said Papanos. “This past weekend with the temperatures that we had we basically shut the rinks down for two days because obviously the ice was melting, there was two inches of water sitting on it. So we’re so depending on Mother Nature. Our season we try to shoot for is December 15 to February 15th. Last year I think in total we may have had eight days of skating. We’re already into our third week now, this is a pretty good season on average for days and by the looks of the forecast, we should be able to keep this going for a while.”
But if you’re ready to slide, the park district also has six hills around town for sledding.
“There are times where there are 60 kids on Rotary Hill sledding,” added Papanos.
And if you want to take to the slopes for some snowboarding then Weigand Riverfront Park is your spot, as the only park district hill that allows it.
For information about rules and hours of the skating rinks and sled hills, check the Naperville Park District website.
Endless options for wintertime fun in Naperville.
Naperville News 17’s Christine Lena reports.
