Best Tent Camping near Nauvoo, IL

We tent camped here a few weeks ago and it was pretty nice. You self check in and cost is only $10/night for primitive. They don’t have electric or water hookups for tent camping which was ok for us. It was easy to find and quiet. The only downside is the lake was filled with algae. So if you’re wanting to fish or swim, this isn’t the place for you! There’s a gun range, horse farm, playground, bathrooms, and even a place to use a few telescopes to see the stars!

This campground has the best tent camping sites we have stayed at. It also has great hiking! We have been 2 times and plan to go again!

Snively Access Campground is located off of County Road X61 in Wapello, IA. The access road is a steep, well-maintained, gravel drive that takes you directly to Lake Odessa and the campsites. Note: the entrance sign to the campground is a little difficult to see from the road, and the campground does sometimes close due to high water. Gates will be shut with a High Water sign on them if that's the case. It's best to call ahead to Louisa County Conservation if you're planning to camp in the spring/summer when flood season tends to be most prevalent in this area.

There are two separate campgrounds, all are electrical sites, (no dump station) except for one tent-only site which is situated up on a hill by itself with a round about road off to the right as you drive down the main access road. The second campground is to the left, with no bathrooms, and also butts up to a community of seasonal/year round cabins. This means it may be a bit more noisy during the warmer months. We chose the second campground and only one other site was in use. All was quiet by 10:00pm. We did wake up once or twice to the sound of barred owls calling back and forth in the night which only added to the ambiance of tent camping. This area is known as a hub for migratory birds, so if you're a bird person, it's a prime location. We saw red-headed woodpecker, yellow warblers, and a handful of other birds. About 5 minutes north of the campground is Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge which offers an interpretive center, modern restroom facilities, hiking trails and bird watching.

Each campsite has a graveled drive, picnic bench, fire ring and garbage can with lid. There is a public parking area and dock to put in boats on the lake and fish. All campsites have a lake view, and several are in shaded spots along the timber line. This is a dog-friendly campground and dogs must be leashed at all times. These sites are first-come-first serve and are $12/night. You are required to self-register within 30 minutes of your arrival time. There is a registration kiosk to the right, at the bottom of the main access road.

This was a nice, smaller campground with a water front view that felt secluded and slightly more primitive.

Wildcat is a very nice campground operated by the City of Hamilton, Illinois. Campground has only 17 RV slots of various sizes. We had room to put our 32 foot fifth wheel and room to park our truck alongside. Ours was one of a couple of sites large enough to handle our size.

Their website says the nightly fee is $15 for tents and $25 fir RV. When we arrived we were informed that it had gone up to $20 fir tent and $30 for RV.

Service excludes electricity of 30 and 50 amp. Water is also available at each site. A dump station is on site.

Also on site is a very nice public pool and interesting Disc Golf course.

Very quite and peaceful surroundings. Just a half mile off of the Mississippi River.

We will definitely return here when we get back to the area.

Campsite is directly next to the river. Most sites have power but there are a few tent sits as well (those are right on the river). We'll maintained vault toilets. Site has a shared spicket.

We visited in October so the campground was not very crowded. The park itself is gorgeous, especially in the fall. Lovely fall foliage. The hiking trails are challenging for 2 middle aged folks- lots of climbing up, then down, at some pretty steep inclines. And the trails don't loop around on themselves so you come out a mile or more from where you started and just have to hoof it along the road to get back.

There is a boat ramp and fishing available, if that's your thing. There's no differentiation between RV camp spots and tent spots so if you are tent campers, like we are, you might end up next to a HUGE RV in the spot next door.

Boulder Lake is the larger of the two campgrounds here at Wakonda State Park. It is also crowded with RV and campers in the main part of the campground, with a small loop that is sort of tent only. The tent part is a loop with sites in the middle (37-50) having the best trees for hammocks and the sites on the outside of the loop having the most level places for pitching a tent. If you can get site 44, you have probably the best site in the campground as it sits at the end of the loop with no close neighbors, close to the lake, and backs to nice trees. None of the other sites are as private. This site is the furthest from the bathrooms and shower house, however. You can purchase ice and wood, and there are laundry facilities. All of this is located near the shower house. There are a couple of water spikots scattered around the campgrounds, and there is one hiking trail that heads out of the campground near the woodlot. Elsewhere in the park is a nice swimming beach with a place to shower off the sand, and some interesting cement tunnels/bunkers that kids might have fun exploring.

Nice campground, we have camped there on several occasions. Tent, pop up, and travel trailer. Shower house is a little bit of a walk but not terrible. Bout a 3 block walk to several bars/restaurant a caseys gas station. Everyone was friendly. Would recommend.

We were hoping that this would be a great find but it turned out to be not our camping preference. The lake is beautiful. Bring your own boat or you can rent one at the camp store. There are a series of fishing docks too. 

The campground itself was a crowd of big RVs. The road kept splitting and opening up more areas of RVs. Golf carts are a popular means of transportation. We found a few grassy spots for tents that looked nice. This turned out to be too much stimulation for our dog so we moved on to another campground.

Lacey-Keosaqua State Park is a gem located in Southeast Iowa in Van Buren County. It is off the beaten path but it is one of oldest Iowa State Parks. The Park and campground are well maintained and clean. We visited over Labor Day weekend and the park was only two-thirds full. It was a variety of Tent campers and RV's. The camp sites are spaced really well so you don't feel like you are on top of one another. They have electric and non-electric sites and the shower is very clean. There are almost 80 sites in the campground.

Don't miss the hiking trails and the Beach House and swimming lake. Don't miss lake Sugema, the Indian Mounds or the Ely Ford Mormon Trail crossing.

I tried to camp here, but it was closed temporarily due to high water on the Mississippi River. In fact, part of the the campground road was under water. However, I was able to check it out and talk with a city worker who was mowing the empty campground. This is a primarily RV campground next to the Mighty Mississippi, with all spots having nice gravel parking pads, hookups, and great views of the river. The worker told me that tents are welcome, but not what they usually have show up. There is no dump station. Bathrooms were porta-potties (it wasn’t clear if this was the permanent bathroom situation because of the river flood potential or temporary), and there were no showers. There was a nice playground in the middle of the campground. Just up the road a short walk is the lock and dam that you can visit with interpretive signs and nice benches to sit on while you watch the barges go through the locks.

We were surprised to discover this state park in Illinois but searching on the Dyrt App helped us have a great visit. There are 4 different camping areas within this park. There are electric sites near the showers. Another loop of electric sites is down the road. Keep going and you find a small loop of nonelectric sites ($8! It’s hard to beat that price). A mile further and there is a gravel road where you can find walk-in sites (some didn’t look cleared but others were stunning).

In our loop of rustic campsites, it filled up on the first night. There isn’t as much greenery between sites so this was a bit of a struggle noise wise. The rest of the weekend only had a couple other sites filled. We were well distanced and this ended up being a really enjoyable campground. There are vault toilets near the road. Garbage cans are almost at every other site. While they weren’t emptied out while we were there, they didn’t really fill up with just a few of us.

Recent storms brought trees down and even damaged the road around the lake. Cars are only able to go halfway around - but you can go halfway and then drive back around to see it all. The camp host recommended hiking the road. The 5 mile journey was popular even though it is a series of steep climbs and descents. We loved it and our dog loved meeting all the other dogs walking their owners around the lake. This hike became our morning ritual as it was cooler temps and shady.

There is a small restaurant at the lake. It’s near the boat launch. We saw many boats and even people fishing from shore. This man-made lake is a popular spot.

Having looked at some other campgrounds in the area, this one appealed to us the most. Even hearing a train once or the sound of distant shooting didn’t take away much from our experience. We’re glad we discovered it!

Lots of shade, mostly wooded spots. There are a couple of close playgrounds you can walk to. Right across the street from the historic sites, if you're up for it it's just a little further to walk to main street. Downfalls are no on site water, some of the sites are small and they didn't enforce keeping semi size trailers out, blocking other sites. The main showers and flushing toilets are not by most of the main sites and the outhouse are not lit, so at night it's really dark to see to go! All in all a great place to camp. There's even a lake to walk to.

We like primitive camping, there are only reservations for hookups, not primitive.

There are no camping sites for primitive camping, just drive to a spot you like, put your money in an envelope into a mail box.

The park was clean and the staff was friendly. There are grills and toilets and trash collection. There were ample camping sites. We just got a permit on walk-in. There was a trail that was under two miles called Locust that my wife enjoyed for birding. There is also a loop trail near the campsites. It is along the Mississippi River so its hard not to like a place with that type of water feature!