It stretches westward from Chicago Heights to Joliet, serving suburbs such as Frankfort and New Lenox.

[1] The Old Plank Road Trail occupies the western half of a plank road right-of-way acquired about 1850 and improved in 1855 into a railroad line, chartered as the Joliet and Northern Indiana Railroad.

Soon this section of roadbed was called the Joliet Cutoff and was operated by the Michigan Central as a spur line of its primary right-of-way from Indiana into downtown Chicago.

[1] Starting in 1977, local residents organized to preserve the historic right-of-way for trail use.

The trail is served by numerous cross-streets adjacent to US 30, and by the Matteson stop on the Metra Electric north-south commuter train line.