McKinley Woods: Frederick's Grove

I'm from out of town and was unaware of the campsites lay out and relied on the information given by the forest preserve. Nothing was mentioned about this site being a flood zone. Our night went from on and off light rain to three hours of down pour rain. With that said our site was flooded once we woke up. We had three inches up the the fire pit. By the time we packed up it reached the side walk. A good three inches of water everywhere. The office isn't opened on the weekend to get approved to move to another campsite to unfortunately my two nights turned into one. We were rudely woken up by the Woodpecker Association at 7am. They walked onto our campsite and started to touch our belongings. The group of four of them stayed at our site and placed their bags on the ground next to my tent. They would not move away until all three of us said something to them. They relocated behind our other tent which was still way too close for comfort. I'm  very disappointed in this campsite. I didn't expect to feel so unsafe.

 First off, we didn't realize this was a walk-in campground, the details on the Will county site were vague, and the satellite photo showed a paved road.  The road is a path, so the sites are ADA accessible (two of the four sites are paved as well). 
We have a small, motorcycle trailer so we ended up rolling down hill 100 yds. then back again after our 2 night stay, a bit of a hassle, but not a problem. Just be aware of it. 
Secondly, the park closes early, 8PM in summer, and earlier still off season. Check the fine print on your reservation!  Water is available by an old fashioned pump, and is drinkable, but cloudy.  There's only one pit toilet.
Having said all that, the park is lovely, the sites are far apart,  #1 is the shadiest and most secluded but uneven. #2 is wide open and in the sun, #3 &4 are shady and paved. All sites have enormous banquet sized picnic tables with cut-out in the bench for  wheelchairs. Firepits are 3' across, the steel rim is a foot above the ground, but the pit is 8" below ground level. There is a non-adjustable grill. But each site, (and all the picnic areas/ shelters) have the ubiquitous freestanding Pilot Rock standard grill.
 There is easy access to the I&M canal and bike trail with a dock, access to the Des Plaines river is and unofficial path from the overlook. The canal is navigable, but swampy with algae and some downed trees. The Chanahan state park website says you can paddle from there to Morris IL, 15 miles, but be aware this is best down in spring or fall. While it LOOKs like you can just cross over the trail to switch from the canal to the river, there is in fact, a 10' drop (another failure of satellite photos)  We canoed 3 miles up to the state park before we could cross over to the DuPage (a lovely river) and then back on the Des Plaines. There are also very nice trails through the woods in the area. 
 At night, you can hear owls and distant trains, but motorboats and jet-skis begin around 6:AM.

McKinley Woods offers me a lot of nostalgia since I grew up in the area. In McKinley Woods proper there is a large camping area and two of the sites have concrete pads for ADA accessibility. Further west along the I&M Tow Path is another camp site; that's were my friends and I stayed. Three of us biked in and two hiked. The spot is more secluded than the ones in the park proper, but it still receives a lot of visitors through out the day. A person could kayak in; there is a concrete boat ramp into the Illinois river. The main draw to this place is the tow path. I high recommend bringing a bike to enjoy the trail. The trail is also part of the Grand Illinois Trail network. Fire wood is scarce near the camp site, but we were able to find plenty further up the path.

For my write up on our trip click here.

For my video click here.