If you’re looking for a great fall (or spring or summer) golf destination that’s somewhat of a hidden gem, Eagle Ridge Resort & Spa in northwest Illinois is definitely worth checking out, especially if you can get to the Chicago area fairly easily.

It’s 63 holes of top-notch golf, with exceptional dining, accommodations, and plenty else to do. In fact, if you’re a bit of a history buff, like to drink craft beer, and shop for unique gifts and keepsakes, it doesn’t get any better than the town of Galena, which is just a few miles from the resort.

Eagle Ridge Resort is located in the Galena Territory, which is a 6,800-acre semi-private residential and recreational lake community next to the town of Galena and about 160 miles west, northwest of Chicago, close to the borders of Iowa and Wisconsin. It sits in a region called the Driftless Area, also known as Bluff Country and the Paleozoic Plateau. It covers part of southwest Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, Northwest Iowa, and a little corner of northwest Illinois.

What’s unique about it is that unlike much of the rest of the state of Illinois, for example, there are steep bluffs, cliffs, and plenty of hills around the river valleys, much of it formed because it lacked the glacial deposits — or drifts — from the last ice age that covered much of the region. For our purposes, it translates into a spectacular outdoors scene, including a great canvass for golf courses, which is exactly what you have at Eagle Ridge Resort.

When you visit Eagle Ridge there are several options for accommodations. But if you happen to rent one of the homes in the Galena Territory, you can gain access to lake activities, and even an equestrian center. But even if you just stay at the Eagle Ridge Resort Main Lodge (where the excellent Woodland Restaurant and Lounge is located), you still have access to the most important amenity, the terrific golf – as well as some more great dining, and the full-service Stonedrift Spa.

I recently had a chance to visit Eagle Ridge, and not only take in a little golf but check out the town of Galena as well. Both are extremely enjoyable. Galena reminds me a little of Cooperstown, N.Y. While there’s no Baseball Hall of Fame, there’s a whole slew of interesting gift shops, ghost tours, terrific eateries, and lots of historical spots to check out. But first I had to play golf, and that started with The General, Eagle Ridge’s premier layout.

Start at the Top

All the golf courses at Eagle Ridge are enjoyable and in top condition, but The General Course (named in honor of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who lived in nearby Galena) is an exceptional experience.

The 6,800-yard par 72 designed by Roger Packard and Andy North, has been ranked among Golf Digest’s top 100 public courses. And it is plenty challenging with lots of bunkers, fall-offs, and large undulating greens. While there’s plenty of room in the fairways, wayward shots will be penalized, But if you hit the ball reasonably well, there will be opportunities to score and save par or bogey when necessary.

The signature hole on The General, which really exemplifies much of the course, is the fifth (it used to be the 14th before the nines were reversed a few years ago). It’s a par-4 with a 180 feet drop from the tee.

“If you’re on that back tee, you can look to the right, and there’s hole no. 8, and you can see Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin,” said director of golf John Schlaman, who is on his second stint at Eagle Ridge, having first worked there in the 1980s and ‘90s. It really is a tri-state kind of view.”

The General’s finishing hole is pretty dramatic as well. It starts from an elevated tee where you can see the clubhouse, then goes back up the hill for the approach on this 410-yard approach. That second shot can easily play a club or two longer.

Once you get done playing golf, you’ll want to grab a drink or a bit to eat in the beautiful, large clubhouse, which also has locker rooms available. The Highlands Restaurant and Lounge 289 are a great spot to hang out and watch the sunset and take in a great meal, whether you played golf that day or not.

The Rest of the Golf at Eagle Ridge

While I wouldn’t mind playing The General every day, you’d be selling yourself short if you went to Eagle Ridge and didn’t experience the other courses there. They are no slouches.

The North Course, another Packard design, opened on July 4, 1977. Like all the courses at Eagle Ridge, it has undergone renovations in recent years. The nearly 6,900-yard is a really good test and very enjoyable.

The most memorable hole might be the eighth, a par-3 that crosses a finger of Lake Galena. It’s also from an elevated tee, about 90 feet above the green. There’s also the par-5 11th, where the tee is 90 feet above the fairway, and there’s an old barn off the fairway.

The South Course, however, might be Eagle Ridge’s most difficult. It’s certainly the tightest. Designed by Packard, Bob Lohman, and Dennis Wise, the 6,800-yard layout opened in 1984 to positive reviews. It winds through a wooded valley where streams come into play on 11 holes. And the signature hole here is undoubtedly the par-4 18th.

The finisher goes down and back up to the clubhouse. Most players will lay up to a creek at the bottom, then be presented with an approach of 150 yards or more back uphill. It requires two well-struck shots to reach the green. Best of all, at the end, you can get a drink and a bite at the back porch of the clubhouse.

“The view from the clubhouse of the South is as nice as any of the views out here because you sit on the patio or inside and see the entire 18th hole and watch people come in,” Schlaman said.

Finally, don’t dismiss the nine-hole East Course, which was right next to where we stayed at one of the condos.

The East is a par 34, featuring a 500-yard par 5 (the No. 5 hole), so it’s real golf. The half-track is well-conditioned with some decent elevation change as well, especially on the par-3 second hole.

Head into Galena

Again, while you stay at Eagle Ridge, never leave, and have an enjoyable golf vacation, you definitely should spend some time in Galena. Main Street looks a bit like a movie set. In fact, several town scenes from the movie, Field of Dreams, were shot there.

But what this former boomtown is best known for is being the home of our 18th president, Ulysses S. Grant, who moved there in 1860 to help his father run Grant & Perkins Leather Store on Main Street.

Some 85 percent of the downtown buildings, by the way, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the town’s best known, the DeSoto House. Opened in 1855, this hotel, which still operates today, is where Abraham Lincoln gave a speech from a balcony in 1856. And Grant used a couple of rooms there in 1868 for his presidential campaign headquarters.

This is just the beginning, however, when it comes to the history trail in Galena. There’s the Belvedere Mansion, Grant Park (where you can see cannons and monuments), the Dowling House, and The Galena & U.S. Grant Museum, just to name a few.

There’s a haunted pub crawl you can go on, and several great locations for libations, including the Galena Brewing Co., which produces some very fine craft beers to go with its jumbo salted pretzels. The restaurant scene is also diverse. If you want great Italian food, for example, it’s hard to beat Fried Green Tomatoes.

But the experiences in this area can even go beyond Eagle Ridge golf and the town of Galena. You can go ballooning, hunt and fish around the Mississippi River, and check out some of the other villages in the area, like Elizabeth, Apple River, Stockton, and Woodbine. The last one has a pretty decent golf course, Woodbine Bend, if you didn’t get enough at Eagle Ridge.

For more info, go to: EagleRidge.com and/or VisitGalena.org