Best Campgrounds near Marengo, IL

Management (owners Ed and Coleen) are two of the rudest people I have ever met, with Ed fabricating outrageous, completely inaccurate stories highlighting either his "heroics" (like when his personal fire truck he has was working people would call him before 911) but more often how he has been slighted because of other's inadequacies (local grocery store doesn't like him because "his campers buy all their food leaving none for the locals), and also falsities behind his rules (the U.S. Postmaster does not allow anyone else's packages/mail to be delivered to the campground).  They are completely intolerant of kids/teenagers (and, heresay from conversations with seasonal residents, special needs kids) - rules for use of the pool is that it is open after a certain time and if the air temp is above a certain level - we personally witnessed 3 young teens ask to get into the pool an hour after the pool should've been open and it was 5 degrees over Ed's stated temp, but no one else was using the pool and Ed turned them away - told them to swim in the cesspool... I mean, pond.

Ed constantly creates new rules on a whim and is exceedingly selective (read: biased) for whom those rules are enforced. If you have a problem with the campsite (water, electricity, dead trees, ground hornets, you name it) - it is because YOU did something wrong, and if you disagree he will harass you to no end and may even kick you out. Some of the seasonal campers are nice, others (those "in" with the owners) are not. I would not recommend this campground to anyone unless/until it is under new ownership.

Horrible customer service from the start. We registered online with a 35" 5th wheel for 2 nights. On checking in, we wouldn't fit in the site so the girl at the desk put us in a different site saying she couldn't escort us to our site. This was our first time being there and her excuse was they were short staffed. The street signage was very small and hard to read. Site numbers were said to be on every pedestal but they were not visible from any drive. After only a few minutes of driving around, we were astonished by all the trash and junky trailers on site. Note that if your camper is more than 10 years old, they want to first see a picture of it so as to keep their place classy. Not the case here once you have paid and are here. We call back to the office for assistance finding our site and the girl said she would have to lock the office and was hesitant about doing so but she would come out to hep us find our place. We simply asked for a refund saying we were very disappointed with the situation so far. When she told us they don't give refunds, we asked for a manager to call us back. At this point we left to find another place which we did and were at in about 30 minutes. The manager called us back offering us drinks at the bar, a premium site, tickets for kids in the bounce house, and free water craft but I and the wife were only there for 2 nights. We were not going back to that dump. She said she would have to speak with the owners about a refund but never called us back. Five days later I called several times to speak with the manager again but no call back. She did however text us saying they will not issue a refund saying the girl in the office could not leave the desk because her coworker was using the restroom. Then why did she say she couldn't leave because they were short handed? Long story short, think long and hard before you visit this trashy place. Showers were dark and dingy and smelled. The beach looked more like gravel and not pleasing. Just walking around, I couldn't get away from the awful smell of people smoking and vaping and a strong smell of pot smokers everywhere. Not at all the place we would take our grand kids ever.

It's a wetland, mosquitoes are happening, but the trade off is just about worth it. If you enjoy bird watching or rabbit spotting, this is a great place to go. 

We're from the south, so we are used to mosquitoes, but I have seldom been around so many all at once. Thankfully we had a pop-up screened gazebo that made sitting outside our tent much more enjoyable. I will say this though, even with there being more mosquitoes constantly attacking, I did not have the reactions to them like I do the mosquitoes back in Alabama and Mississippi. I wasn't itching much at all.

But back to the fun part. It was pretty hot a couple days while we were there and to take a break from the heat, we enjoyed the ac in the car and drove around the recreation area and the campgrounds. I have seldom seen as many rabbits as we saw. There were relatively few campers during the week and just about every other campsite had at least a bunny or two. 

What drew me to this campground was how private the individual sites were. Each campsite is cut back into the trees so that most are at least semi-private. This was a nice feature given that many other campgrounds you are stacked in like cord wood.

Our first night there, we left the rain fly off of the tent and just enjoyed the stars and the satellites streaking across the sky.

Overall, it was a rather enjoyable week. The shower/bathrooms were nice and clean, though I will admit the shower got too hot even for my wife. It is an easy drive from the recreation area to Kenosha or other points of interest and Lake Michigan is worth a visit if you aren't from the area.

We would gladly stay here again!

Great campsite with the best staff ever! The sites are clean and very well maintained. We loved the staff patrolling the grounds. The trail system is great for walking the dogs. And I even grew to like the no alcohol in the preserve rule.

The vault toilets are clean but smell like vault toilets at 95 degrees. There is one very clean flush toilet building but no showers. They don't advertise showers, but this is the newest and nicest campsite I have seen without showers. There is some shade, but you have to search for it.