Best Campgrounds near Ava, IL

Hawn is a one of the best fall campgrounds close to the St. Louis area.  There are a number of hiking options around the campground in the park and nearby nature reserve.  

It is a smaller campground with a good mix of electric and non-electric sites.  The restrooms were clean and they also have some vault toilets in the park for convenience.

Hawn is a lovely park just south of the city a few clicks.  It's tucked away into the trees with ample shade and options for backpacking, backcountry hiking.  The park is nice and sites are spaced out enough.  Not sure about cell service but had a site in the 2nd campground in the middle where there's a break in the trees.  I was able to use Starlink.  People were friendly and overall lovely park and experience.

We’d seen signs for Shawnee Forest Campground (CG) many times as we headed out and back from our St. Louis home base and wanted to check this CG out. We followed our GPS to the clearly marked CG entrance but our GPS showed we still had about a half mile to go. We checked in at the little office and were given the choice of pull through sites with FHUs 12 or 21. We chose site 21. The gravel roads are slightly narrow with some trees but we did not have any issues getting to site 21. The water and electric(50/30/20 AMP) are at the back of the gravel pad. There are two sewer hookups, which was nice. The water pressure was good around 50 psi. Their WiFi was very good. There are mature trees here and there in the CG, so satellite should not be an issue. We got two bars on Verizon. Each of the bath houses have a washer and dryer. Our site was not level and with all the rain we had, there were water puddles at the steps. There are some nice sites in this CG but we were not offered one of the better ones even though there were plenty of sites open in the upper 26- 50 site area. If we come back, we’ll know where to ask for a site. They have a small lake and two ponds for fishing. There's no formal dog area, but there are paved trails around the large CG area, which made it nice to walk our dogs.

Plenty of space and nicely maintained Porto potty

Tent camping back away from the RVs & we were the only people. Gorgeous river to view just a few steps away & the night sky view was fantastic. LOVED the bathroom & shower facilities!

This campground provides large spots, drinking water, vault toliets, dumpsters, picnic table, lantern hook, fire ring, and contactless check in. I also appreciate the value of these sites. It really is a reasonable rate for forest camping.

Hosts were friendly, but didn’t brief us on information such as where is the trash bin, what is the WiFi password. Restroom was old but relatively clean. There’s only one valve in the showers so all you get is lukewarm water. Not good on a cool or cold day. Some of the long term people have too many dogs, one had 6 little yippers, kind of annoying. And I’m not against dogs

Great little spot right off the interstate. Lots of nice scenery and decent fishing.

Very quiet and secluded. Campsites are roomy and some firewood is supplied.

Nobody here. Bring a fishing pole. No services except a porta potty.

Stopped here for the night driving through the area. Nice campground, clean, safe, and right off the interstate.

There are only two camp site at this location and they are very close to each other. The camp sites are also very narrow. We camped in the lower site and had a difficult time getting everything out of the road.

On the positive side, the site was clean, there was nobody there over the weekend and there was a humming bird. The pond had lots of frogs and and a few fish.

We stayed 4 days and had a great time. The camp was clean and well maintained. The staff are very friendly and helpful and was more than happy to offer places to visit in the area, places to eat and provide assistance as needed. The trails are paved so we had a nice area to walk (twice around the lake from our site was 3 miles). :) We plan to visit again!

Beautiful spot with easy access and not far off the highway

1 side is directly on the freeway VERY loud, the other is in between the sewer treatment plant and municipal airport. If you're a light sleeper might want to stay away Full video review on YouTube https://youtu.be/QpuNpA7UVZI

Great little stop, everything is clean and a fresh shower was refreshing.