Nice trail close to the city! Lots of wildlife at Skokie Lagoons.
Starting at Tower Road, the path follows the bridge east to Forest Way Drive. The path mostly follows the road, and the shoreline of the lagoons up to Dundee Road, where you turn back West. Once across the bridge, you then head south on the paved trail back towards Tower Road. The Route is marked as the "Black Loop Trail" and is 4.4 miles total. Parking available on Tower Road and also at the boat launch.
This is a paved bicycle trail, which can be crowded with bikes on summer weekends. As you can see from the photos, we had it to ourselves on a winter weekend day! (Could have used Yaktrax, though!)