Thomson Causeway

This is a beautiful spot on the outskirts of a small town. The train museum is open for a few hours on weekends. Other towns are nearby with more things to do. This campground has sites relatively close together. Some look out over the water for beautiful views. It was mostly full when we went. We enjoyed looking at the variety of campers. A Westy van was beautifully set up for last fe on the road. Water lilies are the natural decorations. The boat launch is among the campsites. It launches you right into the greenery on the water. It kinda looks like green hiking trails if you didn’t know the water was there. The recreation area is just outside of town. The paved bike route heads along the Mississippi and connects towns. We explored up towards Savanna. It’s a nice trail to explore riverside life. This campground would be better for us if there was a bit more separation between campsites. Otherwise we are happy we discovered this area.

Thomson: (Scale 1- bad, 5-Very good (70 yr olds in 17’ trailer) Overall Rating: 4.5. Some great water views. Some open water and some water covered w blooming lilies - blooming while we were there .
Price 2023: $12 per night w senior discount. Usage during visit: Very heavy. Site Privacy: Varies. Some lake sites become moderately to very private w trailer in the site. Site Spacing: Some lake sites are pretty close Site surface: Blacktop Reservations: Yes Campground Noise: Pretty quiet. There are children on bikes - Not a bother.
Road Noise: Far off main road Through Traffic in campground: Not in loops. Electric Hookup: Yes Sewer Hookup: No Dump Station: Yes, Belford entering the campground Potable Water Available: At the site. Bathroom: Pit toilets and flush Showers: Yes, not in every loop. Note, the one in the picnic area is only lightly used.
Pull Throughs: Some Cell Service (AT&T). Fair in our loop. Setting: Lakeside and along woods. Weather: Some lightening storms.
Bugs: Mosquitoes. Be ready.
Host: Around Rig size: Large rigs are there.
Sites:

On water or clear view- some of best: Open water.: 69, 68, 67, 65, 60, 59, 58 Lily pads: 54,55,56 , 46,47,49,51, 40,41,43, 34,36,38, 30,32,33( getting close to cg entry road. ) (Some inner loop sites have an obstructive water view. But, little privacy. These sites, I did not list. )

Back up to woods but no view of water: best of woods sites :9,11,13,15,17,19,8,3,5 Still good: 100,102,104,106,108,110 , 112, 126

I should’ve taken the other reviews, more seriously about the number of insects in this campsites (see pictures) there were hundreds of thousands  we couldn’t enjoy our stay. We just arrived late spent the night woke up and left because the situation was unbearable. The camp workers were scraping them with shovels. Maybe this site would be better during the colder months. This was one of the worst camping experience that I had so far. 

My family and I have been visiting this particular campsite for at least six or seven years. We keep coming back,because it is super clean. We’ve done tent, camping and camping in a pop-up at this particular place and my kids actually prefer the tents because you can get some sites that are closer to the water but honestly any of it is decent there. I wouldn’t say there’s one bad site and the facilities are very good. You have regular outhouse toilets near each grouping of campsites, and they need there is a shower house which is actually impeccably clean for what it is and I’ve never had an issue using it . We have absolutely gorgeous views of the Mississippi river from certain campsites my kids feel comfortable walking riding their bikes around the whole campsite and there’s some nice hikes to take around the area to.

View the Mississippi and all its natural wonders for 20.00 per night, electric included. 1/2 off with Senior National Park Pass

This campground has gorgeous scenery, since it is literally ON the banks of the Mississippi River. The campground is primarily concrete sites for RVs and there is a smaller grassy area set aside for tents only.

Pros: fishing, beautiful location, clean vault toilets and shower house, firewood on site for $5 a bunch, and sites aren't too crowded together. Lots of wildlife to enjoy- turtles, birds, muskrat, and fish.

Cons: Since it is right on the river and there is also lots of marsh, the bug situation was a bit much, especially when there was no breeze. Bring a screened canopy if you want to enjoy the outdoors without swatting bugs all the time. There is a single trail but the bugs made it unbearable. We hightailed it thru the supposed 40 mins trail in 30 just to escape them. The other con is that there are so few tent sites. If you are a tent camper, there are a handful of sites set aside between 2 big loops of RV spots (see red circle on map). The spots were hard to find on the map and we had to carry all out gear from the parking spot to our site so not ideal.

We enjoyed our weekend at Thomson Causeway with our popup.  We stayed at site 41.  Although I would have liked the pad to be a little longer, it was still a nice site.  Not a lot of privacy, but being right on the water was great.  Definitely need bugspray, but my boys LOVED catching frogs along the rocks.  Bathrooms are a short walk from this site and were clean.  Water pump was also a short walk.  We enjoyed bike riding around the campsite.  There is a longer bike path that will take you to Clinton.  We bought firewood right outside the park for $3 a pallet.  We will definitely add Thomson to our list to return for our next trip.  I made note that I would love to reserve site 60 or 69... great views of the Mississippi... I assume these are the most sought after sites.

We have stayed here often over the years as recently as last night. The sites are all level concrete and just about every one have a great view of the Mississippi. Quiet at night. The only improvement I would like to see is water hookups, but there are plenty of spigots scattered around the park.

This is a tidy COE Park right on the Mississippi River. Electric only. Very nice new dump station with a lot of spaces. The sites are spacious but a little tight to back in. Pit toilets in the loops and flush toilets and showers in central locations. Overall a decent place to relax. If there has been a lot of rain, or the River has been up a little, there will be an insect problem. There are biting flies that do not care if you are wearing repellant.

Mississippi River access, playgrounds for the kids, shelter house

We went August,nice view but there is not much to do.Is more familly campground

We went last weekend and got lucky with a primo spot. This is a really pretty area fairly close to home so it is a good option. There is a great bike trail to enjoy and the Mississippi Pallisades state park is close by for some excellent views of the river from up on the bluffs.

Overall Thompson was a very nice park. It was great to ride around on the great trail although we didn't make it the whole way. It was very easy to navigate around the campground on bikes. I personally don't like sites that are so open so I would not think that anybody who wants privacy would camp at this campground. Overall it was very well-kept and the hostess was very pleasant. Our sites didn't have the spring river flies but there were several sites closer to the Mississippi river that were covering their RVs intense with these big ugly flies. Our sites were behind the backwaters and we didn't have any flies.

1. Loved the beauty, biking and site. Tons of wildlife. The cement pad and picnic table were really nice. There was 4 dumping stations fast exit.

A young "officer" pulled me over because I drove to the right side of the road, while still staying on the pavement, and went over the speed bump with the left hand tires, but not the right hand tires. I was driving about 1mph. Then he tried to tell me that I was speeding. The limit is 10mph, and I definitely made sure I was not above that. He then wrote me a "ticket", meaning that if I had a 2nd one w/i 12 months, that they would issue a fine. I am a senior citizen in a Toyota RV...couldn't have looked like trouble. Now I know what happens to hall monitors after high school!