Best Campgrounds near Elmhurst, IL

This campground was easy to access, clean, and had a very easy going vibe. The camp hosts were really fantastic and made it feel like family.

The sites are straightforward and vary quite a bit: some are huge with open green space and others I feel like just for a car and a tent. Our site was perfect with trees to hang a hammock on and for the kids to run around.

The shower house was good. We went during July 4th so it was busy (the toilet paper was completely out when I stopped by and it looked like some kids had a water balloon fight in there) but the team came out to clean up promptly. There are vault toilets, water, and trash cans in each loop.

The river was nice to visit and we were able to take the kids to some knee deep water to play (swimming is NOT allowed in the river). Playgrounds are unfortunately exposed so it was not suitable for the 100 degree days we had.

We did have a really awesome time at the main office/nature center, where my kiddos got to feed and hold a variety of reptiles!

Very solid, basic campground.

Really great park! It had a lot of really nice trails that were fairly easy to follow for being sand. The beach was well maintained, and had lifeguards during certain hours, which gave me a little bit of extra comfort in bringing my kids to the lake. It had really nice bathroom facilities, and changing room facilities there. There was also a café, but I did not go into that.

The visitor center is nice, fairly large and the workers were very friendly. They had one of the nicer programs that I have been to in the state.

The park sites were nice, most of them had grass and trees, but a few of them like sites 98 through 102 did have sand on them, which is kind of cool. It was also the nicest showers that I’ve been to to date.

The only reason I rate this park a three is that it’s very close to train lines and the trains going through and blasting their horns all night long. If you’re a heavy sleeper and can deal with that, you’ll be just fine but us tent camping there was nothing to block the sound, and it kept waking me up. Nothing the park does wrong, clearly, but something to think about.

The lake and dunes are spectacular and live up to the hype. The 3 dune challenge is not really a challenge if you are moderately healthy but it is fun and scenic! The cool soft sand feels fantastic, definitely best hiked barefoot. The campground itself is pretty typical of a state park- decent spacing, level sites and well kept. It is electric only but that didn't really bother us- we just showed up with the water tank full and other tanks empty and enjoyed ourselves. Our site was right between the playground and beach trailhead, but still private. The best sites are the ones on the outside from the beach trail to the nature center. These are up against the dunes and have some shade. The middle sites are more exposed and much less private. The campground was pretty full but had a nice communal family feel to it. The beach and dunes are the star of this show, but the campground is a good supporting actor.