Winter FunSleddingSled hills are located at Heritage, Green Slopes, Sunset Meadows, and Nickol Knoll Parks. Only plastic sleds and tubes will be allowed. Sledding at Nickol Knoll is allowed only in the designated area: east side of Park near ball diamond. Look for the sign marking the proper location. Use of sleds with wood or steel is prohibited. Toboggans are to be used only in the toboggan chute located at Heritage Park. At Heritage Park, the sled hill features one toboggan chute in addition to an open sledding area. The hill is lighted. At Green Slopes, Nickol Knoll, and Sunset Meadows Parks, the sled hills feature large, open areas. The sled hill at Green Slopes is lighted; however there is no supervision and no warming shelter at the sites. Sledding at all sites is at your own risk. Please no sledding near the ice rinks. Ice Skating & Ice Hockey
The Park District provides unsupervised ice skating and ice hockey rinks throughout Arlington Heights. "A" rinks will be maintained on a first priority basis at parks where lights are available including Camelot, Frontier, Heritage, Hickory Meadows, Patriots, Pioneer, and Recreation Parks. Park District personnel will begin flooding these rinks during the first prolonged cold spell (22 degree highs for 4-5 days) after December 15. The rinks need to be flooded for a period of at least 4 consecutive days of temperatures of 22 degrees or below before they are ready for skating. If extremely cold weather conditions prevail over a long period of time, the Park District attempts to maintain "B" priority rinks at Centennial and Prairie Parks. All "A" ice rink locations except Hickory Meadows and Recreation Parks have two ice rinks. One rink is for ice skating only and the other rink is intended for playing ice hockey. At Heritage, Frontier and Pioneer Parks, ice hockey rinks with boards will be maintained. The Hickory Meadows’ ice rink is divided by orange cones to separate hockey play and the free skate rink. Recreation Park’s ice rink has only one free skating rink. No hockey playing is allowed. Why do park crews stop making ice on February 15th each year?Even on the coldest of winter days after February 15th, the sun's warm rays begin melting the darker colored ice. As the days get longer, the sun's angle becomes more direct and much warmer. Ice made during the overnight hours begins a slow and gradual meltdown and ice cannot be sustained. Hockey rinks are most vulnerable to this melting because the dasher boards along the perimeter absorb a great deal of the sun's warmth. The sun warms the dasher boards and they radiate that warmth back to adjacent ground melting the ice adjacent to the boards. This heat buildup also prevents new layers of ice from forming adjacent to the boards. Finally, nighttime temps in late February are not typically cold enough to support formation of multiple layers of ice. While most late February evenings are below freezing, ice making at temperatures just below freezing often requires several hours before the warm 55 degree water from the hydrants refreezes and forms a new layer of ice. Unable to make multiple ice layers nightly, ice making efforts become futile. Warming SheltersCamelot, Frontier, Heritage, Hickory Meadows, Pioneer, and Recreation Parks
Warming Shelters close at 2 pm on December 24 and December 31 and are not open on December 25. Note: If the temperature and/or wind chill factor reaches -20° or below, the rinks will be considered closed and the warming shelters will not be open.
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