Best RV Parks & Resorts near Kampsville, IL

I wanted to escape the house and go camping while on the work from home order (Covid-19 happening at the time of this review), so I headed to a very local park and campground to pitch my tent. I've been to 370 Lakeside Park many times to walk around the huge lake and to hear concerts in the summer, but I had never camped there. Still haven't. I'll explain. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they were not so keen on having tent campers. But they were very nice and gave me the general lowdown on this "in the city" campground. Since they opened the campground, most of their campers have been RV owners, and so it is really designed for the RV camper. There is a small primitive section for group tent camping, but the majority of the sites are full hookups for RVs. Some sites are pull through and some are back in. All have picnic tables and fire pits. The park has planted some trees, but they are really just saplings, so there is no shade yet. There is a nice bathhouse with free showers for the campers and pay laundry. If you are lucky, you can get a site close to the water, but it means the walking trail is right next to your unit. Trade offs, I suppose. One couple I talked to was camping long term (I think they are permanent RV'ers) and they got a free membership to the St Peter's RecPlex recreation center with their long term spot (they said something about having to book a least a month out to get this perk). One of the downsides to this location is that it is prone to flooding. It was out of commission for most of the summer of 2019 as the entire area was flooded. But the City of St Peters did a great job getting this place back to usable with new sod, a new bathhouse, and some general sprucing up. The lake is great to walk around, about a 3 mile walk or bike on a paved trail. You can see all kinds of wildlife in and around the lake- deer, bald eagles, pelicans, ducks, snakes. In the summers they have live music in the large pavilion, and you can rent kayaks and other small boats to take out on the lake as well as bikes to ride around on. The office told me that they have 24 hour on site security also. If I really wanted to tent camp, I could rent a section of the group camping area, but $30 seemed pricey for just me, and it was very soggy to boot. Or I  could rent an RV spot, but $45 was silly when I don' t need hookups.

This park has great hiking for Illinois. The campground has 88 sites total1-85 are either 30 amp or 50 amp electric sites. These are the class A sites $20 a night, they also have about 15 Class C sites for tents with no electric for $8 a night. The campground is doing some upgrades as of October 2017 and probably will be adding more 50 amp, water and sewer to some sites. There is also intel that says they are adding more sites plus more tent camping sites.

I camped in a motorhome and did not try to fight the crowd for the shower house. It is a busy campground, but I did visit in the summer busy season, so it may have less traffic in the fall. There are great hiking trails and the scenic drive to the park by the Mississippi and Illinois rivers is worth the trip alone.

I will return here for hiking for sure! I had some good luck fishing in the river near here too.

No frills camping on the edge of the fairgrounds, there are campsites mostly for RV’s (full hook ups- 50 amp and 30 amp, and sites with sewer), and space for tents on the margins (might be why tent “sites” are free). The bathhouse was locked when I passed through, and no one was camping here, but there is an emergency number to call, so I guess if I had wanted to camp here I could have had someone come out and unlock the bathhouse for me. The town is a short walk away with a convenience store and not much else, but still cute. Don’t expect any privacy or shade here as there are no trees.

Currently this is an RV only campground due to Covid restrictions, but there is ample space for tent camping when they return to allowing tents. So, RV sites include pull through and back in with water and electric hookups, and a dump station on site. There is a nice bathhouse and super clean laundry with a little lending library. Also on site is a community room(currently closed due to covid restrictions), an outdoor pavilion, and a miniature golf set up. The campground is wedged between the highway and a cow farm, so expect some noise, especially with few trees or landscaping to absorb the sound.