Searching for the perfect place to pitch your tent near Johnston City? The Dyrt helps you find campsites with tent camping near Johnston City. Whether you're looking for a quiet, dispersed site or an established camgpround with amenities, The Dyrt makes it easy to find the perfect place to pitch your tent.
Turkey Ridge is for campers who want a serene outdoor experience. It is a Class C walk-in campground that includes camp pads, picnic tables, cooking grills and showers. Drinking water and toilets are located near the parking lots.
$18 / night
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.
Backpackers enjoying their commune with nature will appreciate the solitude of the individual campsites in the Class C Backpack campground. Located a half-mile from the Turkey Ridge primitive campground parking lot, these woodland sites have cooking grills, toilets and showers. Water and trash receptacles are available at the Turkey Ridge parking lot. You're reminded to be careful with your fires and to pack out what you pack in.
$8 / night
This campground is the site of an old Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) work camp. Somewhat off the beaten path Camp Cadiz is usually quiet and rarely do the campsites fill up; with the exception of turkey and deer hunting seasons. The campsites are level and each has a fire ring with grill and picnic table. __Equestrian camping is allowed.__Recreation Area brochure/map
Located along the banks of the Ohio River, Tower Rock Campground offers beautiful scenery and close proximity to water activities like fishing and boating. The 1/4 mile trail can be accessed near the boat launch. Be aware this area is prone to flooding when river levels fluctuate.
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.
Legend
Stopped at this campground on the way to St. Louis. It is remote with several trails to explore. The sites were level and good for tent camping.
Legend
Primative camping at its best. This is heavily used in the summer and early fall. Picnic tables and fire rings, vault toilets. Go in the off season and you will have plenty of privacy. Fairly level tent sites , some with nice trees for hammocks. Close to Little Grand Canyon, a really neat natural bridge, and Illinois wineries.
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!
Guide
I actually didn't end up camping here because it looked like a rock site. I maybe saw two tents, everyone else in big RV's. If you are doing tent camping I would look elsewhere. I might've missed an area that was more tent friendly but I didn't see it. I would do primitive with a tent probably.
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.
Legend
We stayed here on our way to St. Louis and found it to be average. The campground was clean and run of the mill. The tent sites were adequate and semi level.
RangerNot big by any means but we'll kept and cozy. Primitive with water and restrooms. Worth the stay for thise wanting a small area and tent camp.
Plenty of hiking trails with a lot of information about the area. Pretty close to convenience stores for your needs.
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.
GuideWe found this little gem at a last minute camping adventure on the way home from out of town. It was one of our first tent camping experiences. Nothing fancy, but the pit toilet and water supply worked just fine for us and our kids. We found some beautiful hiking and water holes.
Traveler
There are a lot of hiking trails and we really enjoyed them all! The tent camping accommodations were less than stellar, simply because of the “outhouses “. There was a ton of wildlife though and it was really neat to listen to all the different species throughout the night. Overall the grounds are quite nice.
ScoutVery clean, level sites, large lake with a well maintained walking trail. Lake side sites, wooded sites and regular sites in the middle. Water, 30 and 50 amp, shower house, small laundry facility. Wifi fiber being installed, boat ramp, primitive cabin, tent camping, large childrens playground. Very nice, quiet, clean. We come here often. $25.00/night.
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.
Scout
Not a lot of tent sites, but enough. Nice wooded primitive sites with easy access to water and toilets. Had my pups with, and no problems at all. Nice trails for different hiking skill sets. Only issue I found at all was firewood is surprisingly difficult to come by.
Traveler
CG offers sites with electric and water and then sites with no hook-ups. The electric/water sites were much better than the “tent” sites. Tent sites were closer together and not very level. The “RV” sites, however, we’re pretty level and well spaced out. We’d recommend sites 20-24 for their lake views. There were two bathroom buildings both with flush toilets and showers. We only used the smaller one. They were pretty clean. CG sold firewood for $4 a bundle or 3 for $10 and 22 lbs ice bags for $5. Staff were friendly. $22/night is a great price though I wish they’d take reservations. We went during Spring Break for a long weekend and CG didn’t fill up, still a bit chilly to camp for some I guess! Roads in the Glendale Recreation area are in need of repair. Trail around the lake was a nice 3mi hike and is easily accessed directly from a number of the sites, including ours. This CG provides a great base to explore the surrounding area’s many natural wonders.
Guide
There’s not a bad campsite here. There are sites with electric, water, and sewer. Several sites are right on Rend Lake. Most sites have concrete picnic tables and fire rings. The bath houses are really nice, they are individual shower houses that are clean and well lit. The grounds are very well maintained. The park was full while we stayed there, but was really quiet. You can tent camp or use a camper.
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!
Guide
I am tent camping as I travel westbound. This is primarily a RV park near I-64 and on a highway. Noisy!! Bad noisy. Camp site was nice. Grassy, level, near a picnic shelter with tables. Shade trees. But only about 2-3 such sites. No on sight water or electric. There are 2 private room restrooms with showers & sink. These are shared by all. Basics. Lots of stores & restaurants nearby.
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.
GuideOnly stayed here for 1 night. Pit toilets were dirty even for pit toilets. Decent primitive sites, not very level though. Good for tent camping or small camper. Unfortunately some other “campers” showed up late in the evening, played music, yelled and partied until around 3am. It seems to be an ongoing problem at that campground. The only plus is the amazing rock formations, good trail system and great little swimming hole. Great place to spend the day and maybe the night if you can sleep though all the commotion.
GuideMy brother and I camped here in September on a weekday. We were the only tent campers, so it was nice and peaceful. The sites are large and include a cooking grate. It was easy to find firewood with out having to go very far, becareful there is a good amount of poison ivy. The only trail I hiked was Happy Hollow. A large portion of it is an equestrian trail, so the path was very wide. The veiws on the trail were amazing.
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.
Tent camping near Johnston City, Illinois offers a chance to immerse yourself in nature while enjoying various outdoor activities. With several campgrounds in the area, you can find the perfect spot to pitch your tent and unwind.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular tent campsite near Johnston City, IL?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Johnston City, IL is Turkey Ridge Campground — Ferne Clyffe State Park with a 4.3-star rating from 16 reviews.
What is the best site to find tent camping near Johnston City, IL?
TheDyrt.com has all 17 tent camping locations near Johnston City, IL, with real photos and reviews from campers.
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