» View from the top of the Nickol Knoll Sled Hill
Sledding
Unsupervised sled hills are located at Heritage, Green Slopes, Sunset Meadows, and Nickol Knoll Parks. Only plastic sleds and tubes will be allowed. Use of sleds with wood or steel is prohibited. Snow boards are not allowed at these sled hills. Parks staff inspect sled hills on a daily basis when snow is present and hills are usable for sledding. Sledding at all sites is at your own risk.
Ice Skating & Ice Hockey
The Park District warns everyone that neither ice skating nor sledding is allowed at Arlington Lakes Golf Club or at Lake Arlington. Ice skating is not allowed at Lake Terramere or Nickol Knoll Golf Club. Conditions are never safe, regardless of extremely cold weather. The constant flow of water in these lakes does not allow them to freeze solid enough for skaters. No sledding near ice rinks.
The Park District provides unsupervised ice skating and ice hockey rinks throughout Arlington Heights. Rinks are maintained at Arlington Ridge Center/Legacy Park, Camelot, Frontier, Heritage, Hickory Meadows, Pioneer and Recreation Parks. Parks staff inspect rinks on a daily basis to determine if they are safe to open. Free skate locations are ARC, Frontier, Heritage, Pioneer and Recreation. Hockey rinks with boards are located at Camelot and Heritage. Hickory Meadows has hockey goals but does not have boards.
The ground has to be frozen prior to beginning the process of making ice. Park District personnel usually start making ice after the first prolonged cold spell (22 degree highs for four to five days). Historically, this is around December 15.
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.
Note: If the temperature and/or wind chill factor reaches -10° or below, the rinks will be considered closed.