Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Chicago
Millennium Park to the Museum Campus in six hours
The Bean, the Art Institute's Seurat and Hopper, Buckingham Fountain and Sue the T. rex.
Chicago kept its lakefront free of building by a law of 1836 and the lawsuits of a mail-order millionaire, and the result is a string of parks along the water. This route runs down it from Millennium Park to the museums on the Museum Campus, ending where the skyline is best seen from.
The route, stop by stop
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Cloud Gate
Anish Kapoor's polished steel bean, finished in 2006. Stand underneath it to see yourself reflected many times over.
15 min here Walk here → -
Crown Fountain
Two glass-brick towers by Jaume Plensa that show the faces of a thousand Chicagoans, who spit water on you in summer.
10 min here Walk here → -
Art Institute of Chicago
Seurat's Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Hopper's Nighthawks and Grant Wood's American Gothic are all here, among some of the finest Impressionist rooms outside Paris.
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Buckingham Fountain
One of the largest fountains in the world, opened in 1927. In summer it sends a jet 46 metres high every hour.
15 min here Walk here → -
Field Museum
Sue, the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found, has a room of her own upstairs.
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Adler Planetarium
The first planetarium in the Americas, at the end of the Museum Campus peninsula. The lawn behind it has the best view of the skyline across the water.
20 min here Walk here →
More walks in Chicago
More in Chicago
Every walking route in Chicago, the full Chicago guide for where to stay and what a day costs, or walks in other cities.