## Overview

 Thomson Causeway provides the unique experience of island camping on the great Mississippi River and it\'s well worth a try! The western edge of the recreation area offers visitors an unobstructed view of the widest spot on the Upper Mississippi River Basin, 3.5 miles from shore-to-shore. Here, campers can enjoy memorable views of the river and the valley, and partake in plenty of great water activities. 
## Recreation

 Popular activities include fishing, hiking, hunting,\_\_biking and boating. Common fish species include the channel catfish, bluegill, walleye, large mouth bass,\_\_and northern pike. The Central Trail section of the famous Mississippi River Trail passes beside the campground, offering visitors miles of walking and biking trails along the river bank. 
## Facilities

 Of the 125 reservable campsites, 120 have electric hookups and 5 campsites do not have electric hookups and are for tents only. Campsites in the Hickory, Potters South, and Potters North camping loops have water available at each individual campsite. Thomson Causeway provides the comforts of modern camping, including drinking water, an accessible flush toilet, electrical hookups, shower house and boat ramp, while still providing visitors with an authentic outdoor experience. This park also offers 2 reservable picnic shelters for day use. 
## Natural Features

 The campground is built mainly on an island in the backwaters of the Mississippi River. Slow moving water on the eastern edge of the main recreation area creates a rich environment in which wildlife and fish abound. 
## contact\_info

 For local information, please call (563) 362-8839 or call (815) 259-3628 for general information. 
## Nearby Attractions

 Head northbound along the river to see the Ayers Sand Prairie State Nature Preserve or the Mississippi Palisades State Park. Visit the Ingersoll Wetlands Learning Center and Fulton\'s Dutch Windmill. Or watch a minor league baseball game at the Clinton Lumberkings stadium.

Thomson Causeway

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. 

Great riverside spot

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.

Beautiful area

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.

Nice park, open sites. Spring river flys! 

Mississippi River access, playgrounds for the kids, shelter house

Very clean, affordable, camping sites are nicely spaced.

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. 

COE campground 

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. 

Great place to camp!

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.

Great weekend to start Fall Camping

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.

Beautiful scenery,  very RV friendly, but lotta bugs

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.

Quiet, safe and beautiful camping close to home

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.
￼

Spacious campsite, beautiful place but insects everywhere Spacious campsite, beautiful place but insects everywhere

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&amp;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


Beautiful Mississippi Views

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. 