Illinois is the Prairie State. Rockies are far west, much closer to the west coast, and Appalachians are to the east. There is the Fox River Valley about an hour west of Chicago but a river valley is not mountains at all. The biggest change in elevation you’ll see in most of Chicago is highway on/off ramps and the train going from the subway to elevated tracks. There is at most a staircase to go from downtown city streets to Lake Michigan(Great Lakes). Sometimes that staircase is just a pedestrian bridge to walk over or under Lake Shore Drive to the lakefront.
There’s an area north of the airport(northwest side) that is unusually flat and is a meteor crater under 100ft of sediment called the Des Plaines Disturbance. It is a 2-280 million years old meteor crater and the informational sign for it features a picture of the much more famous Meteor Crater located in Arizona(worth a visit). The Des Plaines crater is not famous enough to be pictured on it’s own sign and probably unknown to most people living in it.
That said, Chicago metro area certainly isn’t known for natural hills. A sledding hill in nearby Evanston is called Mount Trashmore because it was formerly a landfill. Walter Payton trained on an old landfill. If you’re on a hill and can see Chicago it’s probably an old landfill.
Illinois is the Prairie State. Rockies are far west, much closer to the west coast, and Appalachians are to the east. There is the Fox River Valley about an hour west of Chicago but a river valley is not mountains at all. The biggest change in elevation you’ll see in most of Chicago is highway on/off ramps and the train going from the subway to elevated tracks. There is at most a staircase to go from downtown city streets to Lake Michigan(Great Lakes). Sometimes that staircase is just a pedestrian bridge to walk over or under Lake Shore Drive to the lakefront.
There’s an area north of the airport(northwest side) that is unusually flat and is a meteor crater under 100ft of sediment called the Des Plaines Disturbance. It is a 2-280 million years old meteor crater and the informational sign for it features a picture of the much more famous Meteor Crater located in Arizona(worth a visit). The Des Plaines crater is not famous enough to be pictured on it’s own sign and probably unknown to most people living in it.
That said, Chicago metro area certainly isn’t known for natural hills. A sledding hill in nearby Evanston is called Mount Trashmore because it was formerly a landfill. Walter Payton trained on an old landfill. If you’re on a hill and can see Chicago it’s probably an old landfill.