Best Cabin Camping near Scales Mound, IL

We visited on July 4th weekend.  This campground is very clean and both shower house and  vault toilets are as well.  Sites are well spaced and each have fire pit/grill and picnic table.  Some are electric and map  shows them as numbered  E sites.  

This campground has a nice playground, hiking trails both short and longer and bike trails.  It is a bit hilly and there are several mountain bike trails.  The pool is very nice and very clean.  There  is a pool section and a splash section.   There are chairs and lounges around both and shade awnings.  The cost is $3 for and adult and $2 for child.  Near by is Blue Mounds Caves.  We did not go, but there is much on the internet about the caves and they are recommended for even young children.   Internet signal at the campgrounds was good.  We have Verizon and could stream movies.  We also have AT &T and could access the net but could not stream.   This is one of the nicer WI campgrounds I have visited.

We came here to enjoy some river tubing! Free shuttle takes you up river for a 3 hour float trip. We reserved one campsite for 2 couples. There was a picnic table, fire pit and electric hookup onsite. Port o potties and spigot nearby and a dumpster for trash. They have non electric camp sites along with RV sites and cabins with everything you could need including kitchen and tv. Seems like a lot of people stay there for the long haul as there are some trailer homes with heavy decoration.

The general store has everything you would need available for purchase and there's a large bar/restaurant attached. We were there the same day of a wedding reception. Free mini golf and swimming pool for campers. Bugs were a bit of an issue but thats expected. The river is clean with a shallow sandy bottom which attracts many parties and fun times. Not exactly the place for a quiet getaway.

This campground is tucked into a little area next to a Walmart, Culvers, and Mini golf course. It sits between east Dubuque and Galena. When we stayed they had a dirt bike rally. They have a lot of property you can't see from the road, and honestly we had driven by this place many times but just never stayed. 

The staff in the store was great and very helpful. They have a ton of sites (125) that range from tent all the way to full hookup. If you get along the outsides you have a lot more privacy and better chance they will be level. If you aren't worried about sharing a conversation with your neighbor then you can pick anything. We were up the street from a "girls" weekend where they had turned the bed of a pickup into their own pool since the properties pool was closed due to the pandemic. 

Lots to do here with the ability to play mini golf on a very nice course, walk through the trees and property, and get ice-cream from culvers. I imagine this place is a great place for group sites. 

They also had some cabins to stay in but we chose not to stay there. Instead we found a partially shaded area at site 109.

The sites are very well isolated and shaded, and have a well maintained gravel and packed earth surface. Not great for staking a tent, but doable. Excellent for RVs but some sites are non-electric. There are no other hookups, but there is a dump station. Every site has a fire pit and a picnic table. Many sites have a slight slope. Trail access to both the state park trails and to the Military Ridge Trail which runs nearby.

I stayed two nights in a tent and really struggled to find an ok spot on my site to pitch it, between the slope and the occasional roots and rocks. I managed to get stakes in but only at great effort. It looked like some other sites may have been better suited.

There is a raccoon problem here. They were definitely snooping through my things on the first night. Heard coyotes during the night in the distance.

Overall I'm pretty happy with my stay due to the location in the park, and most of the issues I had would be moot with an RV.

Tl;dr: shower house is great. Nice campers, rangers and camping vibes. Go to Blue Mounds Grocery on the way in. easy access to hiking, mountain biking, and running trails - including Military Ridge Trail.

Camped here with 2 friends during a cross country road trip. We had site 5 and were tent camping. When we showed up it was raining and it was unseasonably cold, but other campers in adjacent sites looked like they were having a great time - lots of family groups. This kept our spirits high as we set up camp, made a fire, and made dinner. The site was standard with a big picnic table, tent platform, fire pit, and room for our car. The bathroom and shower house was a really great amenity and there were spots for cars to drive over there if their spots were far. A very nice camp ranger came by to say hi and let us know that campers are expected to quiet down at 9ish and not be cognizant of that. Campers were being respectful of socially distancing and wearing masks for the most part. Seems like there is a great bike/hiking trail network all around. A couple of us are runners also a friend from Madison met us and we ran on the military ridge trail in the morning. There is very easy access to that. Also, insider note, on the way in, go to blue mounds grocery for anything you need (esp firewood). The cash register gave us some great camping advice.