Sledding Hills in Naperville: 8 Hills + 4 Ice Rinks

By Naperville Guide · Published October 30, 2026

There is no snow on the ground yet, and that is exactly when to sort this out. The Park District runs eight designated sled hills and four outdoor ice rinks, free to use with your own gear — but they open on the weather’s schedule, not the calendar’s, and the rules are easy to get wrong on a first outing. Here is the full map of sledding hills in Naperville, the test a hill must pass before sledding is allowed, and how the rinks decide when the ice is ready.

When sledding hills in Naperville are actually open

A hill is open only when both conditions hold at once: the soil is frozen and there are two or more inches of snow on the hill, with no visible grass showing through. If grass is visible, sledding is prohibited — that rule protects both the turf and the riders. Sledding is permitted only on the designated hills below, and conditions can change over a day or with heavy use, so the call is yours to make at the hill.

The rinks run on a stricter clock: 72 hours of constant temperatures of 15 degrees or below must pass before ice-making can even begin, and skating areas typically open on or after December 15, running through February 15, weather permitting. Before you load the car, check the District’s cancellations page or call the Rainout Line at 630-883-4242 — at the rink itself, a green flag means open and a red flag means stay off.

The one hill with lights: Rotary Hill on the Riverwalk

The seven neighborhood sled hills

Every hill below is unlighted, open from sunrise until one hour after sunset. Sledding and snowboarding are both permitted on all of them.

The sled rules, exactly as the District posts them

• Gear: inner tubes, snowboards, and plastic sleds only. Toboggans and sleds with metal runners are prohibited.
• Two people per sled, maximum. No jumps, ramps, or similar devices on the hill.
• No pushing or any other way of speeding up another sledder’s descent.
• At the bottom, move quickly out of the way, and climb back up along the side of the hill.
• Children under age 8 must be supervised by a responsible adult.

Outdoor ice rinks: three lighted, one not

The three lighted rinks stay open until 10:00 p.m.; the lights work by a push-button at each rink. The rinks are natural ice, designed for recreational skating — not maintained to professional or competitive standards.

Hockey has exactly one home here: hockey and broomball are allowed only at Centennial Park’s two boarded rinks. Its third rink is free skating only, and no pucks or sticks are allowed on any free-skating area. Centennial regulars should also know the District explored replacing the basin rinks with a refrigerated system in 2025 and is not moving forward with it — so plan around natural ice, which has averaged about 11 usable skating days a year over the past five winters.

And the District’s standing warning: Naperville has more than 500 retention ponds, and it is never safe to go out on one, frozen-looking or not — District ordinance prohibits skating on District waterways outright. If it is not one of the four rinks above, it is not a rink.

Before the first snow: a five-minute checklist

• Check your sled now — metal runners are banned on every Park District hill. Plastic sleds and inner tubes are the safe buy.
• Bookmark the cancellations page and save the Rainout Line (630-883-4242) for rink status.
• Pick your hill by sunset: in December the unlighted hills close about an hour after a roughly 4:20 p.m. sunset, so Rotary Hill is the only real evening option.
• Still in fall mode this week? Our weekend guide for Oct. 30–Nov. 1 covers Halloween and Día de Muertos, and the full list lives on the Naperville events calendar.

Frequently asked questions