Running tour · Chicago

The Lakefront Loop

6.5 mi run

Open in Stride Stories

The stories on this route

1. Buckingham Fountain and Grant Park

   Look at the pink marble basins, three tiers high, and the words carved on the rim of the main pool: Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain.

2. The Art Institute lions

   Look at the two bronze lions guarding the Art Institute steps. The sculptor, Edward Kemeys, said the north one is "on the prowl". The south one stands "in an attitude of defiance". Officially, they have no names.

3. Cloud Gate and the rail yards

   Look at the giant mirror on the plaza, with Michigan Avenue bent across its surface and clouds sliding over the top.

4. DuSable Bridge and Fort Dearborn

   Look at the four stone towers at the corners of this bridge. This is where Chicago began. On the north bank, around the 1780s, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable settled. He was of Black African descent, married a Potawatomi woman, Kitihawa, and is regarded as the city's first permanent settler.

5. Tribune Tower

   Look up at the pale Gothic tower, with flying buttresses ringing its crown. That crown is modelled on the Butter Tower of Rouen Cathedral, in France.

6. The Water Tower and the Great Fire

   Look at the pale limestone tower, with its turrets, battlements and tapering spire. The architect was William Boyington. It went up in 1869, and its job was humble: to house an iron standpipe that evened out surges in the city's water pressure.

7. Navy Pier

   Look out along the pier, stretching 3,300 feet into Lake Michigan. It stands on 20,000 logs from Oregon, driven into the lake bed.

8. The river that runs backwards

   Look west, up the river toward downtown. The water is flowing away from the lake. It didn't always.

9. Soldier Field

   Look at the double row of Doric columns along the stadium's sides, and the curved steel-and-glass bowl rising above them.

10. The Chicago Marathon

    Look along the wide boulevard here in Grant Park. Every October, on the second Sunday, the Chicago Marathon starts and finishes in this park.

Stories researched October 2026 · every fact checked against a source