Best Tent Camping near St. Anne, IL

Great site, not far from Chicago, but feels well away from city life.

Tent sites around rim of a lake. RV sites and cabins as well.

Beautiful forest surrounds the lake, lots of hiking in the surrounding enormous forest preserve. Lake has fishing and boats as well.

We had four sites on Osage loop for tent camping.  Two were very small (14&15), and little grass for tent setup, fine for RV or trailer campers.  They were private with brush between sites.  16&17 were amazing for tents!!  Open, tall trees for our tight rope and hammocks and shade. Grass for tents  16&17 Osage loop also open to 9&10 on Hickory loop.  With a lot of space between so no site setup is on top of each other.  Wish we knew more about individual site layout.  Grills were new.  Bathrooms inclu vault were cleanest I’ve seen.  Bike path/hike path is long and wide and very nice.  We had kids under age 8.  River is fast, tried to fish.  Stars were out.  Had rain Saturday but we all just hang out and manage just fine.  Overall, where the loops get close on the map, the sites back up with good space without ground brush - if you’re trying to string together a few sites for a group where you can pass through - also fine for strangers.  Biggest spaces.  Can add that 13, 6, 5, ,4  Osage are good RV but not good tent.

I visited Palos early this week (mid-April) for a very very chilly three days. The tent sites are right next to the water which is beautiful but can get very windy. There is no privacy between the sites (no trees, etc). There are small and medium cabins, some heated with their own bathrooms, that feature bunk beds and are great for getting out of the cold. The central bathrooms are clean, heated and offer showers. The water is not yet potable so bring your own or check with the park team to ensure it's drinkable when you go. The hiking here is AWESOME with a bajillion different routes right from the campground. We hiked 10 miles and saw tons of animals and birds including a snake, loads of herons and songbirds, deer, a raccoon and a Cooper's Hawk. I will definitely be back!

Il start this by saying: we prefer tent camping/primitive/atleast semi isolated spots. If you’re looking for RV camping, this is probably a decent spot so read no further!

We drove in to the Middle Fork Forest Preserve looking for a place to camp same day on our way down to Giant City. We weren’t able to make a reservation less than 5 days in advance online so we tried to call. No one in the office except Th-Sunday and it was Wednesday so we couldn’t get in touch. All good. It happens and it did say that clearly on their website and on voicemail. We needed a place for the night so decided to risk driving over from I57 S. Rolled in around 5 and all the campsites were marked reserved but there were about 3 people set up to camp there. We didn’t end up camping the night 1. Because we didn’t want to be jerks about the reservations although it seemed like no one else would be arriving until at the earliest the next day and 2. All of the campsites were pretty tight together and surfaced with gravel. That’s a personal preference thing. We always look for primitive/walk-in/hike in sites to set up tents/hammocks. This spot was mostly set up for RVs.

The hiking looked pretty lovely and the grounds/facilities looked well kept! Just maybe not our preference.

Lake Alexander RV Park is a quiet, spacious, family owned and operated campground located near Momence, Illinois, within a 1-hour drive of Chicago. The camp is 120 acres of natural beauty on the banks of the Kankakee River. The wooded habitat abounds with fish, wildlife, and native plants, and they offer many amenities for recreation and relaxation.

They’re open from April 15 to October 15

RV Overnight (includes electric and water) • $38 (30-amp electric service) • $42 (50-amp electric service)

Tent Overnight • $32 (no electric) • $35 (incl. electric)

Camp sites are dotted next to the shore of the river, there’s kayak rentals, and there’s enough space for multiple tents on one site. If you forgot your tent they rent them out as well.

the map that shows the Peoria area is wrong. this campground is near Bradley-Bourbonnais Illinois.

If you like having access to a bathroom and shower its great and because no one really hd a tent here but us we had some privacy. It is next to a highway so be mindful of that. Its really not one with nature of you get my drift aha. But only down side beside that they have a three day limit for campers with tents. Very disappointed with that And its three days a month.

$20. Yes, it’s an hour from the city, but I’d take the drive over the bill at a nearby hotel. There’s an outhouse and plenty of places to plug in the RV, and cars/tents are welcome too. If you’ve had an expensive, fun day in the city and can stay awake for the drive back out here, it’s a perfect place to crash.

McKinley Woods offers me a lot of nostalgia since I grew up in the area. In McKinley Woods proper there is a large camping area and two of the sites have concrete pads for ADA accessibility. Further west along the I&M Tow Path is another camp site; that's were my friends and I stayed. Three of us biked in and two hiked. The spot is more secluded than the ones in the park proper, but it still receives a lot of visitors through out the day. A person could kayak in; there is a concrete boat ramp into the Illinois river. The main draw to this place is the tow path. I high recommend bringing a bike to enjoy the trail. The trail is also part of the Grand Illinois Trail network. Fire wood is scarce near the camp site, but we were able to find plenty further up the path.

For my write up on our trip click here.

For my video click here.

I'm from out of town and was unaware of the campsites lay out and relied on the information given by the forest preserve. Nothing was mentioned about this site being a flood zone. Our night went from on and off light rain to three hours of down pour rain. With that said our site was flooded once we woke up. We had three inches up the the fire pit. By the time we packed up it reached the side walk. A good three inches of water everywhere. The office isn't opened on the weekend to get approved to move to another campsite to unfortunately my two nights turned into one. We were rudely woken up by the Woodpecker Association at 7am. They walked onto our campsite and started to touch our belongings. The group of four of them stayed at our site and placed their bags on the ground next to my tent. They would not move away until all three of us said something to them. They relocated behind our other tent which was still way too close for comfort. I'm  very disappointed in this campsite. I didn't expect to feel so unsafe.

The sites here are pretty close together and not particularly private. The good thing is it wasn't particularly booked up the night I stayed there. No showers and the pit toilets exist. (I've seen worse, I've seen better, clean but doors are a bit hard to shut the door, no handwashing readily available). I'd recommend this for folks bringing a camper more so than planning to pitch a tent if you want to stay more than one night.  It's a good spot for a quick overnight just outside Chicago.