Walmart — Belvidere Supercenter

This standard issue blue box value retailer is one of the newer varieties and the parking lot itself is incredibly large – about the size of 2 football fields – and offers up tons of space even on the busiest of days. You’ll be surrounded by just a handful of other shops, retailers and restaurants like Taco Bell, Starbucks and Dunkin’. If you want to load up on anything else that you can’t find here at this oversized Walmart, then you’ll have to head back closer to the town of Belvidere or even further west to the big city of Rockford. This Walmart features very good and clean bathrooms along with access to drinking water to refill your water bottles and firewood plus ice for sale, should you need to replenish your supplies before reaching your ultimate camping destination.

While scoring criteria may vary from one person to the next, here are the 5 most important criteria that informed my rating of this overnight location: convenience (EZ on- and off-access), safety & security, quality (of facilities), peace & quiet and amenities (either on-site or nearby). Here’s how I ranked this particular overnight spot:

Convenience: 4 

Safety & Security: 5

Quality: 3 

Peace & Quiet: 4 

Amenities: 4 

Overall, I scored this location a 4.

Happy Overnighting!