Escape into nature and disconnect from daily life with glamping near Woodstock. The Dyrt lets you enjoy a unique, rustic Woodstock experience while glamping. The Dyrt makes it easy to find glamping for your Woodstock adventure.
Thomas Woods Campground is in the Marengo Ridge Conservation Area and part of the McHenry County Conservation District. Spend a night in nature! We offer camping opportunities for groups and individuals. The District has five group campgrounds located throughout the county, one over night cyclist camping location, and one campground for individuals and families which accommodates both tents and RVs.
$20 - $35 / night
Enjoy a peaceful camping experience in a friendly and quiet country setting, with long, pull-through RV sites, shaded tent sites, rustic and deluxe camping cabins, and even fully equipped travel trailers for rent. Complimentary Wi-Fi is available throughout the park. There is a lot to do for families! Check out the Gem Mining, Jump Pad, Gagaball, Minigolf, Frisbee Golf, Polipong and huge playground! Join us for hay-wagon rides, face painting, flashlight candy hunt and more on weekends. Have fun at Onesti's Wild West Town next door, visit the Illinois Railway museum, Santa's Village Azoosment Park, Six Flags Great America and cool off at Magic Waters near Rockford or in our own crystal clear pool. Take the "Metra" train from nearby Crystal Lake or Woodstock to visit Chicago for sightseeing, festivals, and tours. We are also a convenient distance to the Woodfield Mall, Prime Outlet Discount Mall, and the Grand Victoria Riverboat Casino. Various local restaurants are within minutes. {Additional Info}: 2 Deluxe Studio Cabins with patios are set up next to each other in the RV park to facilitate families, that like to camp close to each other. All of our rustic cabins are equipped with an A/C unit. You will find us approximately 55 miles from downtown Chicago, 4.5 miles to I-90, in a rural setting of northwestern Illinois. Open from mid-April through mid-October. Gated campground 24hrs a day (after hour arrivals need a reservation) Dogs are allowed, but breed restrictions apply.
Fish Lake Beach is one of the largest, privately owned campgrounds in Illinois, with 580 seasonal sites occupying the majority of the 113-acre property along with 60 overnight campsites. Fish Lake Beach has been family owned and operated for over eight amazing decades. Our brief story in pictures and how we got started is just below. Fish Lake Beach has become a camping tradition or a home-away-from-home for generations of families. We take pleasure in providing a friendly and fun experience.
$43 - $73 / night
Ottawa Lake’s campground is located in the southern unit of Kettle Moraine State Forest, situated within half an hour’s drive from Milwaukee. Wisconsin campers of all ages love these grounds thanks to lakefront sites, modern facilities, and access to trails for hikers of every experience level. South Kettle Moraine is also home to over 160 miles of trails, including 87 miles open to horse use. Connect to the Ice Age Scenic Trail and various others within the John Muir and Emma Carlin trail systems.
Don’t forget to bring your rods when camping at Ottawa Lake! You’ll want to take full advantage of the boat dock and fishing pier where you can catch panfish, walleye, muskie, trout, bass, and northern pike – then you can grill them up at your campsite. Keep in mind, motorboats are not permitted on this small lake, which allows for peaceful wading and quieter camping all around.
Though Ottawa Lake is open year-round, it is recommended to check the weather in Dousman and Whitewater before planning trips in the colder months, as freezing temperatures and snow are common. Cold-weather campers who are willing to brave the Wisconsin winter will enjoy snowmobile trails, ice fishing, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. No matter when you visit, Ottawa Lake will leave you satisfied.
Snug Harbor is the place to be for Campgrounds in Wisconsin. At Snug Harbor you’ll find excellent fishing, boating and swimming on a private, clean, sandy beach.
Our campgrounds offer three different options for today’s camping enthusiasts: Tent Sites, RV Sites, and Manufactured Housing. We have all the modern conveniences while allowing you to relax and enjoy majestic views from every site. Amenities include full hookup, laundromat, ice, firewood, bait, candy, and some fishing supplies. Rent one of our rowboats or canoes for a relaxing day on the lake, or join in a pick-up game of volleyball or horseshoes. Additionally, our RV sites have 30 and 50 AMP electric service and full sewer hookups.
Campsite rentals include sewer hookup. Reservations are recommended. Boat slips are available for a fee. We offer affordable rates for RVs and tent campers. We also have reasonable rates for pier rental, visitors, and our four-legged friends.
$15 - $45 / night
Camp just steps from the water in the heart of the vast, hilly Palos Preserves. Camp Bullfrog Lake offers year-round camping, group activities and water-based recreation such as canoe rentals and fishing. Just around the corner from Maple Lake’s boathouse and the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center, it’s also a perfect launching pad for hiking, mountain biking and birdwatching adventures on Palos’ 50-plus miles of trails.
$20 - $138 / night
Traveler
I biked to this campground from the Woodstock Metra station. While the highway riding was occasionally a bit harrowing, it was absolutely worth it for the beautiful views and camping here.
I stayed in one of the tent camping sites with a little walk up (parking for a car available about 50 feet away). Nobody else was camping within sight of me, which was nice, though 2 other sites were visible from mine.
The camp host delivered my fire wood right to my site (which was extra helpful because no car). There were lots of bugs, but not too many bitey ones. Pit toilets and well water a short way away from my site were helpful.
Beautiful woods and prairie trails around here. Some really spectacular views to be had. Plus they now have online site reservations! I would definitely recommend camping at Thomas Woods.
Guide
Typical KOA. Spots are close together but also close to Chicago. Next door to the Wild West Town, which is great for kids. Also close to Illinois railway museum. Locked gate, but keycards are available if you go out.
RangerIt’s a reasonably clean campground. The spaces are tiny, open and cramped. In the pull through spaces, where we stayed, the curb side neighbor’s sewer dump was about 10 feet from our fire pit. He didn’t hook it up tight, I had to fix it for him or suffer the smell. The campground is next door to a cheesy western town attraction with “shoot outs” and a restaurant. Also about a mile from the Illinois Railway Museum. The pool was not open for the season yet so can’t comment about that, exception say it could have been less expensive to stay before the pool opens. Not much to do in the camp spaces but look at the road side of the next camper about 15 ft away.
LegendWe had to leave a horrible CG to the south. Booked this site on app the day before. Which was a huge plus. This KOA has very limited full hook up sites. As far as KOA standards, it is not great. It is about an hour and half from Chicago and Milwaukee We paid for the deluxe patio site, which had no sewer. Site was not level but it had a lot of shade which was nice. Had horrible WiFi, no cable and limited reception. One bathroom and shower was nice, the other had disgusting showers. Pool was ok, but tons of kids. CG was very kid friendly, with tons for them to do. The people running the place were still COVID crazy with restrictions for check in and everything else. But what do you expect in crazy Illinois. Makes you insane, when you come from the free parts of the US.
Guide
Always full on weekends. Popular destination for locals and people from Illinois. 4 stars because it's not the camping in nature experience I am looking for. Lots of noise. Lots of kids. Lots of dogs. It's park area is very nice. Nice playground for kids. Volleyball nets. Lots of picnic tables and grills available. Dogs not welcome in most of the park. More of a party place. But the staff is very active. They clean sites quickly, clean the bathrooms regularly.
We stayed on site 50. We were closer to our neighbors than I'd like, including the campsite behind us. The campsite behind us had a path thru it to get to the bathrooms. There was a thin layer of growth between sites but not much. Our site had a nicely placed tree providing just enough coverage but nothing stayed wet in the rain. We camped in a popup, if we had a tent I think we would have been soaked. Lots of pooling water on the backside. The campground just added new gravel to the sites and asked that all trailers and vehicles stay on the gravel but the gravel doesn't go back far enough for both car and camper to stay on.
The inner ring of the campground are smaller(shorter) sites. The outer ring sites are better for RVs. Except for site 70. That should be tent only because there are 2 trees right in the middle behind the gravel. 50, 69, 74 seemed the best for both shade and sun combo. Site 79 is paved but not marked as handicap because it isn't being maintained as handicap and is not close to the new bathrooms. Not enough sites with electric, however we didn't need it for the weekend.
Legend
We stayed in the Turner lake south loop, which has nice and private sites. This is in contrast to Honeysuckle hollow which is open and row after row of RV sites. Fox den and Prairie view loops are nice as well with mostly primitive sites. Be aware that the map on www.ExloreMoreIL,com(where you make your reservations) doesn't show where the restrooms are. In the Turner loop, the pit toilets are next to the path to the fishing pier, while the showers and full restrooms are between Turner and Fox den, there is a short path between sites 60& 61. Facilities are clean and well lit. Fire pits are slightly raised steel troughs with a heavy adjustable grill. This is a BIG park, the campgrounds are two miles from the front gate, and it's a drive to the main boat launch at Maple Grove, where you have access to the Fox River and Grass lake. This location has a huge parking lot for boat trailers, a very well stocked general store with fishing supplies, a cafe, boat rentals and good firewood. To get away from the crowd if you're a canoeist or kayaker it's nicer to leave the park and go back in at Oak Point picnic area and boat launch at the northern border. This will put you on the Fox river with developments to the north(including a bar& grill) or to the south which is all nature. I think the distance by boat between the two launches is 4-5 miles, but I'm not sure, Halfway there you'll meet up with the Goldfinch trail which is the shortest loop and the most diverse in term of flora. There are horse/ snowmobile trails, but no equestrian campground. Chain o' Lakes is one of the busiest waterways in Illinois, with motorboats everywhere in the height of the summer season. We canoe, and both times we stayed there it was October, so I can't tell you how crowded, but the vast number of picnic areas must be there for a reason. An odd thing is that you can hear a Steam Train whistle quite often, this is from Richardson's Adventure Farm in Spring Grove. We don't have kids so we went to Stade's Farm& Orchard(which is also large and kid friendly) because they have an orchard and vegetable market. One last thing, the gates close at 10:PM and there are tire shredders, you can leave but you can't get back in… unless you want to walk 2+ miles in the dark:)
GuideThe campground is small the rv sites are shallow and close to the road but otherwise most are fairly private. The staff was friendly all in all not a bad place
RangerLimited to weekend camping, but spread out private-like tent sites. Camp hosts are super engaged and seem to love being caretakers. Hand pumps for water and well-kept pit toilets. Hiking galore! My "leashed" dog loves this place, as do I.
RangerIt was damp and buggy when we were there. The check in person was terribly disorganized and dealing with several small children. One pulled off her diaper and pooped on the floor while we were waiting to check in and pay. The spaces are smallish but ok for most tents. We put two, a four person and a two person, and it was adequate. The firewood for sale was green and wet and they fervently insisted we only use their wood. In fact a park ranger was apparently visiting the camp spot near us, well after dark, and decided to barge into our space from the bushes unannounced. It could have gotten him seriously injured. He was inspecting our firewood. I explained to him, very clearly that he was being very risky barging into a camp spots like that. He got pissy and we left the next day. Paid for 3 days and used two. We haven’t been back. Could be a nice quiet place to relax if it were operated better.
LegendThe campground is set up nicely. Our site had the usual picnic table and a short walk to the restrooms and water. What we enjoyed the most was the variety of hiking trails. They aren't the longest but we were able to vary the route up to keep it fresh for our dog to sniff out her adventure. Some of grass and others were dirt. The wildflowers caught our eye and we enjoyed pausing to appreciate their beauty.
We would come back here to have a weekend getaway in the fall or spring.
GuideI’ve been here two other weekends. Generally quiet and many of the tent spots are spaced out enough to provide privacy and quiet. Firewood is cheap on-site and delivered to your site on demand. Love this spot for proximity to my home so I can get out more frequently than a longer drive into Wisconsin and other more popular camping locales.
GuideLarger site for an RV but I used a tent only. I enjoyed the fact the site was further off the main road which allowed for more privacy. Most of the sites were right on the road and you’d need to position your car right for privacy. The tent sites are clumped pretty tight together with a couple exceptions. There were some loud families the Saturday I was there but got fairly quiet after 10. I did hear some nearby house party well into the night.
Overall nice spot not to far from my home for a quick getaway.
ScoutCamped here on a whim. Amazing area. Super friendly hosts. The only thing I wish was a little more accessible is the website. I didn't know what kind of site I was getting, what it looked like, or if it was a hike in site or not. Turns out mine was, but it was not an issue for me on this trip. Site 30 for anyone interested.
ScoutThe campground is beautiful wish it was open more than the weekend's. The campground host needs to lighten up and shes out on the gator every 30 minutes, that gets annoying, also since we have also worked as campground hosts you don't run around with the gator giving people rides. It is a shame but we won't camp here again.
They should check up on the campground host and hire one with a pleasant personality
TravelerStayed for 3 nights over 4th of July. Got spot 38. Was a good spot with access to the trails. Quiet and set back. The platform for tents didn't fit our 6 man tent but the 2 man fit perfect. Bathrooms were not to far. Beautiful trees. Not to buggy.
Legend We came across this one day during a day hike in the Marengo Ridge Forest preserve in McHenry county. It's about 90 mins NW of Chicago. The trails are both wooded and hilly, but there's also a large prairie nature walk.
The campground has many secluded walk-in tent sites and a variety of sites for other types of campers. Many with elec and some are ADA accessible. The county website doesn't have photos, but does describe the sites well (" suitable for truck camper" "up to 40' trailer") Maximum people per site is ten, so good for family gatherings. Sites are widely spaced, and even the most open ones feel private. The campground is heavily wooded and there is a nearby pond.
We camped here to spend time at the Railroad museum, 8 mi away, The weekend we were there, the museum was open till 9:30 PM, and the campground closes at 10, so it was perfect for an overnight stay. We had no problem reserving a space with just a few days notice (48 hrs min). There is a friendly host on site, and you can purchase wood in advance when you make your res and they will deliver it to your site. Good wood too, dry and easy to split.
Fire pits are low to the ground, except in ADA sites, so bring your own grill. The pumps have water with a strong iron taste, and the toilets are clean, but only outhouses. There is a dump facility.
Marengo and Union are both nice little towns with some good dining options; Niko's Supper club, Fire & Ice BBQ/Ice Cream and Clasen's a 120 yr old tavern. Cody's Orchard, 3 mi away, has Apple and strawberry picking, great fresh veggies, pies, donuts, cider and jams.
GuideHave stayed here a few times tent camping. Smaller campground in McHenry county. Good staff. Other campers relatively friendly and quiet. County police make a presence in the camp ground. Clean. Decent sites, some have hike in (kind of). Decent toilets.
GuideThomas Woods campground has some great sites, particularly the tent sites. Many of them are set off a short distance from the parking area. I stayed at site 30 which was less than a tenth mile from the parking spot. There are no trash cans at the site, the dumpsite is near the entrance. Most of the roads are one way so after dropping the trash off you must drive all through the campground to get back to your site. The site itself had plenty of room and privacy. The woods are dense and block all views of the neighboring sites. Unfortunately, I think some people think if they can’t see you, you can’t hear them. Every site has a raised pad for a tent. This was very nice. I did track in some of the small gravel into the tent, though. It looks like kitty litter. Not a big deal. It was nice sleeping flat and not sliding off my sleep pad.
Near Marengo Ridge is a bike trail called H.U.M. Trail. It is only 3.5 miles long. From what I understand is they lost funding for the project. The path is paved and offers a scenic forested view. The hiking trails of Marengo Ridge are the true stars of the area. I walked for almost two hours and still didn’t see them all. Some of the trails have wide paths of grass while others are single-track dirt.
As other reviewers have written, the mosquitoes are insane. Bring plenty of bug spray!
My website: https://www.lost13.com/camping/2020/7/13/marengo-ridge
My video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh4TzLzf\_PY&t=1s
TravelerThis is the third time we have gone to this campground. It is close to Chicago, we can get there in 1 hour), it is clean, and has nice hiking trails. The sites are in the woods with plenty of shade.
The mosquitoes are unbelievable, it made hiking in the woods impossible, we have given it 3 tries now over a few years and the mosquitoes have gotten worse every year. There is a nice prairie trail that the mosquitoes were not as bad on. Once we had a fire going the mosquitoes were a little better but not much.
They list a fishing pond, but it is a shallow small pond with weeds, it would be hard to fish on with out getting eaten by the mosquitoes
There are no showers, no flush toilets, one of the hand pumps was infested with ants (we could not get water without ants or ant parts) which caused us to have to drive to another site to get water.
The camp ground is only open on the weekend, and normally has open sites if you just want to drive up, or you can make reservations.
ScoutThis was a well laid out campground, with some sites right on the roads and some buried back in the woods away from everyone (we chose the latter and felt like we had the place to ourselves). There are basic toilets (hole in ground style), a spigot for water, great trails (heavy on the mosquitoes, of course), and a very responsive team of folks running the campground. They were great about stopping by the campsite when we asked for more firewood ($5 / bundle). There is a two-tent limit per campsite, and parking for two vehicles (there is overflow parking very near the site).
We didn't go over but there was a separate area for RV camping, and a group camping area you could rent out (bunk-style cabins, I believe). Would come here again.
TravelerWe did our first (family of 5) camping trip at Thomas Woods. We were at site 4 which is electric hookup and it was a huge area! The kids had so much space to run around and explore. They loved the well pump. We explored the campground both tent and rv. Both areas were well spaced out with enough privacy. There was another 3 groups there but didn’t noticed everyone was quiet. We also went on walks within the conservation, the trails were very easy and was a nice walk. We will definitely be going back to Thomas Woods
GuideGreat hiking trails, a pond for fishing, private camp sites.
LegendLoved our site as it was a pull through but more of a half-moon style off the side of the road. Loved the privacy and the space. Saw a few of their “puppy sites” that included a private gated area for dog owners. It poured all weekend but we still enjoyed the stay. They accepted two packages for me while here and were waiting for me in their theater, which really looked like a storage building.
They are very big on hospitality here as they drive you to your site and will deliver anything you want from the store. My only suggestion is to include a list of things you can buy at check in.
ScoutThis campground has really grown on me a lot. My family and i have seen the newer owners clean it up, remodel sites, add new equipment for children and added more activities too! It’s really a fun time here OH and the bathrooms are really clean!
ScoutThat it is a very clean camp ground.My granddaughter loves it..There are a lot of activity for kids on the weekends .People are nice to you. Plus they have a quiet time at night.So people and kids can go to bed without a bunch of noise.
TravelerDid a quick stay with the kids for a Friday and Saturday night. A little bit smaller of a campground with regards to site space, but that's about the only thing 'bad' to say, and it's not really a bad thing at all.
Staff was very friendly and the facilities were kept very clean.
Plenty for the little kids to do, and the text message communication was great with regards to weather updates or any goings on around the campground.
We'll be back for sure!
TravelerWe stayed here for a weekend and there were plenty of activities for the kids...the staff was friendly and the bathrooms were clean...our camp site was near the bathrooms, pool, and store so we were nice and close to all the activities...our family will definitely be back!
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According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Woodstock, IL is Thomas Woods Campground with a 3.9-star rating from 17 reviews.
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