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The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) does not charge an Entrance Fee to any state owned or operated land with the exception of Wildlife Prairie Park. Sites with Beaches charge a $1 a day per person for beach use only. The fee schedule listed on the right navigation bar is for all sites with camping.
Mississippi Palisades State Park – Savanna, IL. The Mississippi Palisades is a great location for outdoor adventure; 2,500 acres are available for exploration. The campground contains 241 sites, some with access to showers and electricity. This area is in decently high-demand, but it is not hard to see why.
- Starved Rock State Park
- Volo Bog State Natural Area
- Chain O’ Lakes State Park
- Illinois Beach State Park
- Buffalo Rock State Park
- Matthiessen State Park
Location: 2678 E 875th Rd, Oglesby, IL 61348 Carved by eons of glacial runoff, Starved Rock State Park is a geological wonder with steep sandstone canyons, several of which have seasonal waterfalls. The park is an hour and a half drive southwest of Chicago and worlds away from the hubbub. Besides hiking, there is an excellent view from Lover’s Leap...
Location: 28478 Brandenburg Rd, Ingleside, IL 60041 If you have never seen a quaking bog, here’s your chance—Volo Bog State Natural Area is about an hour northwest of downtown Chicago. Initially, the bog was a deep 50-acre lake formed long ago when a gigantic residual chunk of glacier ice became embedded in the landscape. The lake, with poor draina...
Location: James Rd, Spring Grove, IL 60081 Head about 60 miles northwest of Chicago, and you are in the area of Illinois that is home to the highest concentration of lakes. The Chain O’ Lakes State Park is in the middle and is a series of 15 connected kettle lakes formed by calving ice blocks when glaciers retreated eons earlier. With 6,500 acres o...
Location: 1 Lake Front Dr, Zion, IL 60099 Head an hour north along the Michigan shoreline, and you’ll run right into Illinois Beach State Park, the only remaining beach ridge shoreline in the state. For those of you who don’t know what a beach ridge is, it’s a wave-swept deposit of sand that makes a ridge that runs parallel to the shore. The park’s...
Location: 1300 N 27th Rd, Ottawa, IL 61350 An hour and a half southwest of Chicago, you’ll find the compact Buffalo Rock State Park—it may be small, but it packs a mighty punch. The park is a bluff with a sheer and jagged sandstone dropoff with a magnificent panoramic view of the Illinois River. It’s named Buffalo Rock because it’s thought that the...
Location: 2500 IL-178, Oglesby, IL 61348 Matthiessen State Park is in the same part of the state as Starved Rock State Park; it is about 15 minutes further south as the crow flies, making it an hour and 45 minutes southwest from the Windy City. Picking between two parks is difficult, each as visually beautiful as the other—it might be best to plan ...
Jul 18, 2022 · Big Foot Beach State Park is a 271-acre park located about a 1 and a half-hour drive from Chicago. The park is popular among families and nature enthusiasts. The park is situated along Lake Geneva and so offers beautiful sandy beaches along with wooded campgrounds, forest hiking trails, and more.
- Illinois Beach State Park. Set on 6.5 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, you can enjoy picturesque stretches of sand, dunes, marshes, forests and hiking trails before heading to the campground in the southern portion of Illinois Beach State Park to get some rest.
- Starved Rock State Park. Although most people head to Starved Rock to walk among the park's winding sandstone canyons and snap photos in front of its seasonal waterfalls, it's also possible to spend the night.
- Indiana Dunes State Park. To most Chicagoans, "a weekend at the Dunes" means a trip to this popular Indiana State Park, about a half-hour drive from the Illinois border.
- Devil's Lake State Park. A fan favorite for Chicago-based weekend adventurers, Wisconsin’s Devil’s Lake State Park is just over three hours outside the city.
Jul 25, 2019 · Walk through the cattails, thin sedges, and big bluestem grasses to get to swimming beaches and hiking trails. There are campgrounds, but also the only hotel in Illinois right on Lake Michigan’s ...
Sep 27, 2018 · 1. Starved Rock State Park. Image by The Dyrt camper Daniel S. Starved Rock State Park was voted the number one attraction in the state of Illinois. As for campgrounds in Illinois, it’s also a favorite. It’s only about 90 miles from Chicago, but it’s a stark contrast from the bustling city. The ancient sandstone landscape was carved by ...
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