A Local's Summer In Lake In The Hills: Two Weekends At Sunset Park, 240 Acres Behind Barbara Key

If you live here, you already know the village runs on two clocks in summer. There's the loud one, set by Sunset Park and the fireworks that close it. And there's the quiet one, set by whichever Fen entrance you use in the morning and whether the splash pad is on when you drive past. The interesting thing about 2026 is how those clocks have drifted further apart, while the Randall Road corridor between them has finally caught up.

Two Sunset Park weekends, eight weeks apart

The July anchor is Rockin' Rotary Ribfest, which returns for its 20th year Thursday through Sunday, July 9 to 12, 2026 at Sunset Park. Two months later, Labor Day weekend belongs to the Summer Sunset Festival, Friday, September 4 to Sunday, September 6 at Sunset Park. Same park, same 5200 Miller Road entrance, two different moods.

If you've only been to one, here's the shape of the other:

The July fest leans into food and the main stage. Lineups this year include a Y2K and Too Hype Crew set on Friday, July 10 and Anthem at 4:15 p.m. Saturday, plus MR. SPEED, a KISS tribute, at 9 p.m. Saturday. September's is broader. Last year's edition included a classic car show, wine tasting, parade, a dog-friendly area, a bags tournament, fireworks, a 5K, and the craft and business expo, and the format returns with food and beer tents 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., the Sunset Market noon to 4, and axe throwing, an inflatable, and a 9-hole mini golf setup.

One practical note if you're bringing out-of-town family: the main parking entrance is east of Sunset Park off Miller Road, with a single exit back onto Miller Road northeast of the park. That funnels traffic tightly on Sunday night. Walk in from the north side of the neighborhood if you can.

Behind Barbara Key, the part of the village nobody photographs

The postcard version of Lake in the Hills is Woods Creek. The version residents actually use most weekends is behind the playground at Barbara Key Park, where the trail system opens into the Fen.

The Village lists 34 parks, with Kennedy Triangle at 0.13 acres as the smallest and Sunset Park Sports Complex at 125 acres as the largest. The largest natural resource is the 240-acre Fen at Barbara Key Park, and the park system includes over 5 miles of off-street bike paths. That Fen number is the one worth sitting with. Two hundred forty acres is larger than the entire Sunset Park Sports Complex, and it sits inside village limits, five minutes from a Costco.

A few notes on how residents actually use it:

• The east entrance is at Barbara Key Park, 9191 Pyott Road. The west entrance is through the McHenry County Conservation District parcel, and you can walk the conservation area on trails that connect from either side, watching for rare wildflowers, insects, and Ice Age fens, biodiversity hotspots of peat-forming wetlands that form over thousands of years.
• Ken Carpenter Park sits on the north edge of the village, and it's next to the Winding Creek Park and Bike Path in neighboring Crystal Lake, a relatively flat, well-paved path that runs about 3.5 miles to the north. That's your rain-recovery route when the Fen trails are soft.
• If you're at Sunset, Leroy Guy, Ryder, Plote, or Indian Trail Beach with kids and see an amber light or hear a 15-second horn, that's the Thor Guard Lightning Detection System indicating conditions favorable for lightning. Pack up.

None of this is on any tourism list. It's the part of the summer residents get for free.

Woods Creek, Indian Trail Beach, and the resident-only version of summer

Woods Creek Lake is the village's biggest lake, and the beaches around it are a genuinely unusual local perk. Woods Creek Lake is open for swimming between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and non-residents can only visit the beaches as guests of a Lake in the Hills local, which has the side effect of keeping things from getting too crowded, though visitors can fish and picnic along the shoreline without a resident. If you own a home in the village and haven't picked up a beach pass in a few summers, it's the single most under-used piece of your address.

Goose Lake, Larsen Pond, Turtle Pond, and Fen Lake all offer fishing too, and LaBuy Park sits along Woods Creek Lake with a picnic area, playground, and shade for families that want a lower-key morning than Sunset. If your kids are older, the Sunset Park splash pad, tennis and basketball courts, football and baseball fields, playground, and skate park stay open all summer and are the reliable rainy-Sunday backup plan.

The Randall Road corridor grew up while we weren't looking

Two years ago the food conversation in Lake in the Hills was mostly about where to drive. That's shifted. Here's what's actually landed inside village limits recently, and where.

The most visible change on Randall is at 320 North. Jack in the Box officially opened in August 2025 in the former Arby's location at 320 North Randall Road, after the village received a building permit application from the company in the previous November. The Lake in the Hills location runs 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., though many other Jack in the Box locations operate 24/7 and it is unclear if this one will move to the same model. It's the first Jack in the Box in Illinois in roughly forty years, and worth knowing about mostly because the Randall traffic pattern near Polaris is still adjusting to it.

Beyond the drive-thru side of the corridor, the sit-down list has quietly become dense enough to plan a week around:

• The Annex Restaurant & Lounge, 2104 W. Algonquin Road, opened in March 2024, bringing made-from-scratch upscale small plates, soups and salads, sandwiches, steaks, seafood, chicken, and pasta to the community of Lake in the Hills. It's the closest thing to a date-night default the village has produced in years.
• Lake Roots, which one Yelp reviewer described as quickly becoming the spot in Crystal Lake, for a town built around the lake that had been missing a place that really captured that fresh feel. Close enough to count.
• Stix and Noodles for Filipino comfort food, and Pierogi Jo's, a pop-up pierogi stand that has become an unlikely favorite for takeout.
• Huntley's Deli, Smash'D, UpRooted, and The Black Bear Bistro round out a Yelp top-ten that in 2019 didn't exist in anything like this form.

The pattern is worth naming. The village used to send its restaurant traffic south to Algonquin Commons or north to downtown Crystal Lake. In 2026 there is enough range inside the 60156 to plan a Friday, a Saturday brunch, and a Sunday takeout without leaving.

A weekend plan for residents who forgot they had this much on their doorstep

If you want a template for the next free Saturday:

1. Morning: Fen loop from the Barbara Key trailhead at 9191 Pyott, about an hour if you take the east-to-west connector partway.
2. Late morning: Splash pad or skate park at Sunset if you're with kids. Coffee and a walk along Woods Creek if you're not.
3. Lunch: Pierogi Jo's for takeout by the lake, or Stix and Noodles if you want to sit.
4. Afternoon: Beach at Indian Trail with a village pass, or a slow drive over to LaBuy for a shadier picnic.
5. Evening: The Annex if you booked ahead, or the Ribfest carnival in July, or the Sunset Festival fireworks over Labor Day weekend.

None of that requires leaving the village. Two years ago at least half of it did.

The reason to write any of this down is simple. Homeowners here often tell us they didn't fully appreciate what they had until they started thinking about listing. If you've been in your Lake in the Hills home long enough that the Fen and Sunset Park feel routine, it might be worth a fresh look at what your address is actually worth in the current market. When you're ready, the Alice Picchi Team is happy to walk you through a no-pressure home valuation and share what recent buyers in the village have been paying for homes like yours.