If you're looking for a place to pitch your tent near Chester, look no further. Finding a place to camp in Illinois with your tent has never been easier. Search nearby tent campgrounds or find top-rated spots from other campers.
Apple Creek Conservation Area is located in northeast Cape Girardeau County, three miles east of New Wells on Route CC. The Missouri Department of Conservation created Apple Creek Conservation Area in 1986 with the purchase of 2,100 acres from several landowners.
Steep hills and narrow valleys characterize this area, and approximately 2.5 miles of Apple Creek stream frontage forms its northern border.
The Conservation Department has created watering ponds and planted food plots and agricultural crops within the forest to provide additional food sources for wildlife.
Congratulations! Youve just discovered the perfect place to enjoy a wide variety of activities, events and nature at its best. Even a short visit to Rend Lake will impress you with the versatility of this magnificent area. Whether youre looking for high adventure, a peaceful retreat, or something in between, youll find it here.
North Marcum Day Use Area sits along the banks of Rend Lake in the heart of Southern Illinois. Plenty of shade and a large sandy boat in are, make this day use area desirable for a day on scenic Rend Lake. Rend Lake is made up of 18,900 acres of water and 20,000 acres of land.
Wildlife in the area includes white tailed deer, wild turkey, fox, raccoon, opossum, waterfowl, and others as seasons change throughout the year.
Take a leisurely morning stroll, ski or sail lake waters, spend the afternoon viewing inspiring art exhibits and end your day by the warm glow of a campfire under starry night skies. The fields, forests and waters of Rend Lake provide a natural haven for wildlife and an outdoor wonderland for you. Boat, hike, fish, hunt, swim, and explore at your leisure. If you prefer a little less nature, visit one of the resorts around the lake and delight in superb lodging and dining. Just minutes away youll find golf, trap and skeet, arts, antiques, museums, wineries, and more.
North Marcum Day Use Area features two large picnic shelters with tables, grills, and drinking water. The shelters can accommodate up to 75 guests each, and the area has a boat ramp, playground, and dock all within walking distance.
Tent only camping. Deep in 300 million years old Carboniverous sandstone spring bed valley with fossils. Place to relax & take in the nature of this hidden gem in the city of Belleville, IL. No restrooms. No showers. Swimming in areas of spring is limited to shallow pools. But it is enough to cool you off.
$28 - $38 / night
Congratulations! You've just discovered Rend Lake, the perfect place to enjoy a wide variety of activities, events, and nature at its best. Even a short visit to Rend Lake will impress you with the versatility of this magnificent area. Rend Lake is made up of 20,633 acres of water and 19,523 acres of land. Wildlife in the area includes deer, turkey, fox, raccoon, opossu, waterfowl, and others as seasons change throughout the year. Whether you're looking for high adventure, a peaceful retreat, or something in between, you'll find it here int he heart of Southern Illinois..
Take a leisurely morning stroll, ski or sail lake waters, spend the afternoon viewing inspiring art exhibits and end your day by the warm glow of a campfire under starry night skies. The fields, forests and waters of Rend Lake provide a natural haven for wildlife and an outdoor wonderland for you. Boat, hike, fish, hunt, swim, and explore at your leisure. If you prefer a little less nature, visit one of the resorts around the lake and delight in superb lodging and dining. Just minutes away you'll find golf, trap and skeet, arts, antiques, museums, wineries, and more.
Spillway Group Area offers 10 acres for company picnics, weddings, church gatherings, family reunions and many other outdoor events. The area includes a large shelter (250 capacity) with electricity and overhead lighting, an amphitheater (250 capacity), and a small gazebo (30 capacity), a swingset, and direct access to the Rend Lake Bike Trail. The area also offers picnic tables, flush toilets, and drinking water in order to provide a comfortable experience for guests.
Spillway Group Area sits along the banks of Rend Lake in the heart of Southern Illinois. Situated to the North East side of the spillway, the spillway group area has one of the best views at Rend Lake. Rend Lake is made up of 18,900 acres of water and 20,000 acres of land.
Rend Lake Dam Rend Lake Visitors Center Rend Lake Project Office
For facility specific information, please call (618) 724-2493.
$150 / night
Legend
A great spot for a quick get away from St Louis. Beautiful park with lots to do not far from the campground. If you are tent camping you don't have to worry about generators from the RVs as there are two separate camping areas that share a really nice shower house, but have their own bathrooms as well. Be careful to not get a tent site in the middle, in the low area, as rain runoff will run down to the middle area. No tent pads, but plenty of grassy areas to pitch your tent. Activities in the park include swimming in the pool or the Big River, canoeing (rent at the Thunderbird Lodge), hiking, and petroglyphs.
Ranger
There are currently 25 equestrian camp sites in this park in a different area than the normal RV and Tent campground. The campground is being upgraded this year in which I belive they are adding 50 amp full service to many of the electric only sites. There is currently walk in only unless you are reserving a horse camp. There are fantastic hiking trails and equestrian trails here and you would think you are in the mountains here. The geology is much like the Missouri area near the other bank of the Mississippi river. I have tent camped here and camped in a pop-up camper in the fall both times. Hiking is the best activity here unless you ride horses and that is great here too. This one and Wolf Creek on Lake Shelbyville are the best parks in Illinois for horse trails.
Scout
Full hookups to tent camping and spacious sites. This is a Corps of Engineer Campground so bring your America the Beautiful pass! Well maintained on beautiful Rend Lake in southern Illinois. Reservations accepted on reservation.gov. Walk ins also welcome.
Guide
These sites are pretty run of the mill average camping sites. They're very close to the Illinois state fair grounds. There are tent sites as well as RV sites that are very close to the lake.
Scout
Plenty of tent camping sites. There are primitive also. Great Lake to fish and plenty of trails to hike. Looks like the rv site can get booked up on weekends.
TravelerTent sites with no electricity or water. Clean toilets and a covered pavilion for getting out of the rain when needed.
Scout
Camper area is well cared for but tent camping needed to be mowed desperately. Lots of bug spray required. the area is very hilly and narrow to drive through. Over all very nice place to camp!
ScoutTent 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!
GuideThis is a very basic campground with some shade. No hookups, really good for tent camping. The new picnic shelter is beautiful and there is seating around a fire pit. This forest does a great job of keeping restrooms very clean.
TravelerSmall lake. Has tent camping or cabins. All roads are gravel. We have stayed in the cabins. It was a double bed and also had a set of bunks. So plenty of room. Lake has sandy beaches. Small playset I the water for kids.
Guide
Great views and lots of waterfront sites. Stayed with family members who have a camper, some sites are on a hill so it makes it difficult to park an RV of camper. Tent sites around too. Lots of boats and fishing.
Traveler
We spent a Saturday and Sunday there camping in the electric site. They do have tent sites but we wanted to be closer to the river which was a 2min walk.
Great place, awesome people and kid friendly. Definitely will be back!
Guidethis ground is very well kept and is oerfect for tent camping. the only downfall is the amount trees. although the sites are very large, flat, and easy, you can see everyones business because there is maybe 1 tree in between each site. but there is a creek, trails, walk in sites, and lots of history to check out.
LegendSouth Sandusky campground is a Corps of Engineers campground on Rend Lake, just off I-57 in Southern Illinois. There are 8 tent sites & 119 sites with electric and full hook-ups. Most of the sites are wooded with space between them, and many have lake views. They are not very level so some adjustments were needed. There is a dump station, flush toilets, showers, a sand beach, boat ramp, 2 picnic shelters, a paved bike trail, and playgrounds. There is no internet. Sites can be reserved on the Internet at www.recreation.gov.
GuideThis is a very nice Corps of Engineers campground. The RV sites are paved and pretty level. Tent sites look nice too. Bathrooms are nice and clean. Didn’t use the shower facilities. The lake has a lot of boats flying around, but it’s placid after dark. Bugs weren’t bad at all.
No water or sewer hookups on Site 86.
Have fun!
GuideCamped here for a weekend and was not disappointed! There are multiple easy to get to "primitive" campsites for tent camping but all are within an easy walk of the outhouse, water hydrant, and parking lot. There are several easy hikes within a short drive to other areas of the park. The park also has a 6 mile hike-in campsite for backpacking and a lot of electrical hookups for RV camping. The trails are over cliffs and through gorgeous boulders.
RangerNot a huge campground but, Its a really simple beautiful place to enjoy Missouri's rolling hills. It is located 1 hour from St. Louis and 30 ish min from Elephant Rock State park. If your in the area check out the other amazing Missouri state parks while staying here. The Missouri Mines state park is maybe a 5 min drive and a neat place to see. Tent sites, Bathroom and some hammock spots.
GuideSo first of all- I think it’s fair to state before I leave a review that my husband and I prefer primitive and private camping. The fewer people we see while we’re out, the better. We live in a city so when we camp, we want the opposite. If you enjoy RV camping or don’t mind not so Private spots, this is a decent spot to spend the night. If you like primitive/private camping- il fill you in below!
We do tent camping and Saw there were walk-in sites and hike in sites at this campground. Usually walk-in sites are pretty private and dispersed well - atleast where we’ve been before. The 14 “primitive” camping sites were right next to eachothwr with little to no privacy at all. Good tree cover for shade but otherwise you’re basically setting up your tent and area in an open field. That was a little disappointing to us because it wasn’t what we thought we would find. The RV spots also seem super close together but again- we like things spread out so maybe it would be an OK place for some.
The vault toilets near the tent sites were...as clean as vault toilets get! And we did not use tje shower facilities so can’t speak on that.
If we had been just the 2 of us, we would’ve hiked in to do our camping along one of the hiking paths but we were meeting two other friends and were unsure if they would want to hike miles to a spot so we opted for the tent spots just after the RV campground. If you want more privacy for an evening of camping, you’ll need to come with your gear packed up decently enough to hike it out atleast a mile onto the trails. There is camping allowed along the trails as long as you are 100 ft from the trail so that was an option, but in certain spots along the trail it’s challenging to find a clearing (hammocks would be great along the trail). There is also an official primitive camping site halfway through the 12 mile loop of the Red Ceder Trail. We day hiked almost the whole loop but made a Weird little detour so we didn’t get to check these spots out.
We were hoping to find a campsite that- as get as difficulty of accessibility level- was in between a 6 mile hike and the tent spots in the field but there isn’t any official spot like that even tho there’s tons of space and potential for it. Rant over about the campground. Let’s talk about the hiking! The hiking was truly awesome and felt like it balanced out my disappointment with the campground. Doing the whole 12 mile loop of tje Red Cedar Trail was a challenge for us! We really enjoyed it. In some spots, the trail markers are a little confusing, but overall it’s decently marked and the map is somewhat helpful just to kindve know vaguely where you are. The 2nd day, we went back and did about half rhe loop and also checked out the more popular section of the trails back there that include Giant City Nature Trail, Devils Stand Table, and a few others. Very cool rock formations. Pretty busy in the weekend over there but the test of the trails away from that area with those big landmarks was completely deserted and there are some super cool rock formations not on the map at all.
Over all, this was a fun 4 days. We would return and plan on hiking out into the trails to camp for our evenings. If you like privacy around your campfire at night, I can’t recommend the campground.
TravelerWe love tent camping at South Sandusky. many of the site are right on the lake and the sunrise and sunsets are always gorgeous. they have quiet hours from 10-6 and the bathrooms and showers are always really clean (but there are still usually lots of small insects). It’s also just a short drive from the South Sandusky swimming beach. It’s sometimes pretty rocky in the water so we usually wear water shoes. If you camp for the hiking though this isn’t my favorite site. There are lots of bike trails but for just hiking there are much better places.
Guide
Really great campground. Good mix of tents and RVs. Bath house was very well kept and clean. Showers ran cold at first but after a few mins it gets warmer! There were plenty of pit toliets through out the campground and trash cans. My tent site was clean, good flat spot for tent, picnic table and fire pit with attached grill.
The Concession building in the park is closing. No boat rentals, selling everything he has on the shelf.
Caught a few bass and and good amount of hiking. Large trail around the whole lake, smaller trails lead to sites around the different campgrounds.
RangerLots to do for all ages, including swimming and hikes of any difficulty/length. Famous for petroglyphs and other history too. Green rolling hills that would be ideal to visit in the fall. The electrics sites are closer to the river, the tent sites are more private in trees in a separate area.
Yay: Rent a canoe/kayak/tube to enjoy the river (on site!).
Nay: Make sure to get away from the developed part of the campground to enjoy this nature. Surprise: Petroglyphs are the icing on the cake here!
Traveler
Took the youngest kids for their first camping trip, and it could not have been better. Plenty of space, site was level for our tents and had a nice, soft carpet of pine needles, facilities in great shape (didn't use the showers, but they looked decent and were fairly popular), nice sink in the laundry room we used to fill our dish-washing tubs, good neighbors, nobody too noisy and folks generally kind and friendly. Really enjoyed being on the tents-only side of the campground--allowed for a clear, wide view of the landscape and the fall colors. Hiking is some of the best in Missouri.
I will say that the "walk-in" sites didn't seem to have much privacy and weren't very far from the parking lot, if that matters to you.
All in all, you can't get much better for tent camping.
Legend
Fort Kaskaskia State Historic Site is located on the remains of historic Fort Kaskaskia, constructed by the French in the 1700s to defend the town of Kaskaskia. Founded in 1703, the town was a central commercial center. The fort was periodically occupied by French or U.S. troops until 1807.
The remnants of Fort Kaskaskia include long earthworks forming a rough square. A footpath leads to the Pierre Menard Home State Historic Site, located at the bottom of the bluff.
Near the pavilion, which was recently rebuilt after being destroyed by a fire, you can get sweeping view of the Mississippi river below. The overlook area includes picnic shelters with tables and grills.
The campground includes tent-camping and RV sites, 32 are electric sites. There is a bathroom and shower building.
Guide
This camp site has RV hook-ups and tent camping. There are trees throughout the campground if you're looking to set up a hammock. Each site has a fire ring and picnic table and is a mix of grass and light gravel. Pit toilets, no showers. Water spigots throughout the camp ground. Keep an eye out for snakes though! I nearly stepped on a copper head in the outhouse! Camp sites are a 2 minute walk to the St. Francois River. Great hiking along the river and good fishing, swimming and kayaking in the river! Also not to far from the Castor River Shut-ins if you're looking to pack two rivers into one trip. We just celebrated my husband's birthday here last weekend, though we have been a few times before. Always a blast!
LegendThis is a great little campground with a fishing lake. Sites are gravel but well maintained. Sites are fairly close with most shaded. Getting around is a little right for bigger rigs but still doable as long as you’re careful. Make sure you fill up at the dump station before you get to the campground because there’s no easy way to turn around if you miss it. It’s approximately a mile before the campground on your left. Be aware that there are no showers though, only bathrooms. Fifty-one Class BE campsites, 95 Class C campsites, an equestrian site with eight stalls for horses, and four Class D (primitive) campsites are available throughout the area. A group camp area has its own shelter, stone fireplace, electricity and tables. Some campsites at Randolph County SRA can be reserved online through Reserve America at www.reserveamerica.com Randolph County State Recreation Area is a mecca for outdoor recreational activities. Fishing, hiking, picnicking, boating, hunting and camping are just a few of the choices on the 1,101 acres at the site. Located five miles northeast of Chester, Randolph County SRA lies in the rolling hill country of southern Illinois. Offering a cool retreat from hot summer days, well shaded picnic areas, hiking trails and scenic forest stands await park visitors.
Park Information:
West Central Illinois
4301 S. Lake Drive Chester IL 62233
618-826-2706
N: 37.968 W: -89.802 History In 1958, land was purchased and plans started to build a dam and spillway for a 65-acre lake. The lake was completed in 1961, and since that time, recreational facilities have been added to provide picnic shelters, toilets, a boat ramp and a concession stand at Randolph County SRA..
Directions All access to Randolph County SRA is from the west entrance off Palestine Rd. Coming from the North on Route 3, visitors will turn east on Shawneetown Trail south of the town of Ellis Grove. At Palestine, turn south on Palestine Road and proceed two miles, then turn left at the entrance sign. Coming from the north on Route 150, turn west on Shawneetown Trail and proceed to Palestine, then turn south on Palestine Road and proceed to the entrance sign and turn left into the area. Coming from the south from Chester, head north on Palestine Road to the entrance sign and turn right into the area.
Scout
Visited crab orchard campground for the first time ever for labor day weekend. We had a pretty good size spot with a few trees where we hung our hammocks! We did a tent site right on the water. It was absolutely gorgeous. Very quiet area too. Quiet time starts at 10 or 11pm but actually you don't hear anything after 830pm. Very friendly. Bathrooms and shower were decent for what it was. It was nice to have it then not. Only 1 spider in the shower otherwise clean and good water. If you hate bugs I reccomend bringing an electric bug zapper as there is ALOT. Esp being by the water. Also keep in mind there's many spiders if you pick a spot with trees. But they're only out from 2am-5am.
GuideSaint Francois is a tent and rv campground just 1 hour south of saint louis, MO in Bonne Terre. It also along a river which allows swimming at your own risk because there is no real entrance site. But plenty of gravel bars. I personally enjoy this park and its sites. The rvs and tents are separated which i love. And the tent sites have plenty of room for 2-3 tents plus games. They provide individual showers, out houses every 6 sites, flat areas for tents, ice, wood, and activities. Trails, parks, and lots of fields to play in.The only downfalls are (1) entering the park. You enter on a dangerous highway where you need plenty of room and stopping to enter but there is none. Getting out is the worst especially if you have a trailor and move slow. There is no lane for you to pull out. Cars are fine. (2) the river is monopolized by 1 company for rafting/kayaking/canoing. You have to make an appointment, they only accept cash, and the websites dont show correct equipment. But it gets the job done.
Tent camping near Chester, Illinois, offers a variety of experiences for outdoor enthusiasts looking to immerse themselves in nature. With several campgrounds nearby, you can enjoy fishing, hiking, and the tranquility of the great outdoors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular tent campsite near Chester, IL?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Chester, IL is Apple Creek Conservation Area with a 3-star rating from 1 review.
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TheDyrt.com has all 8 tent camping locations near Chester, IL, with real photos and reviews from campers.
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