Turkey Bayou Campground​

Located in Oakwood Bottoms, Turkey Bayou Campground is a great location outdoor activities including waterfowl hunting, deer hunting, trapping, fishing, nature watching and bird watching.  The campground is next to a 20-acre lake on the Big Muddy River with close proximity to the Big Muddy boat launch and the Oakwood Bottoms Greentree Reservoir. There is no charge for camping at Turkey Bayou, but there is a 14-day maximum stay. The campground does not have water or toilets. The site frequently floods during heavy rain periods.

Our partner, Friends of Turkey Bayou helps maintain Turkey Bayou Campground. 

A favorite with waterfowl hunters, Oakwood Bottoms offers so much more from excellent bird watching to fishing opportunities and primitive camping at Turkey Bayou Campground.  Picnic with your family or youth group at Oakwood Bottoms picnic site and take a short walk into the bottoms on the wooden boardwalk trail that loops back to the picnic area. The site also has a large picnic shelter next to a large pond, where you can enjoy watching ducks and other birds visit the pond in search of food. 

Turkey Bayou Campground

This simple, FREE campground is in a beautiful location by the Big Muddy River. It is volunteer run and relatively well-kept up, but there are not many amenities. It's like front country, back country camping. There is no toilet and or water spigots, so bring your back country shovel and fresh water.

What this campground does have is beauty, a lake, and the Big Muddy River nearby. There are wooded areas in the campground, but the sites near the water are wide open with not much privacy. Many fisherman and hunters use this campground during the season, but when we camped in the early spring, there were only 2 other campers in the whole campground.

My husband and I camped here on a whim while traveling through southern Illinois. While cooking dinner over the campfire, the sun was setting over the lake and caused us to stop what we were doing just to enjoy the show that Mother Nature was providing for us!

Simple & Free

I went camping alone and there weren’t too many people here but I know if I screamed there would be people that heard me lol spectrum Mobile works out here and the lake is beautiful. 

Peaceful

Perfect campground. Clean, right next on the water, only 2 other groups (~20 sites total), and FREE. Though no trash or showers--only porta-potty.

Feels criminal this is free

We pulled in to see many of the large sites available and picked the one with a tree for shade looking over the river. We pitched our tents and then drove to the Little Grand Cayon for a quick hike before dusk. 

Huge site, only 3 others there

This is a beautiful location. Straight off the main road, it felt like 3 miles, but I'm not sure. It was really late when I rolled in. Porta potty, low bandwidth LTE AT&amp;T service. Lots of people staying but plenty of sites. Most were fishing. Check out the awesome hike a Little Grand Canyon. It was one of the best I've done.