Campgrounds in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois

[Ruthe]

Terry and I have started our journey to the August solar eclipse and have stayed in some good campgrounds.

In Ohio we were in Geneva State Park and Maumee Bay State Park. Both had electricity -- Maumee has a few miles of paved bike paths and a beach on Lake Erie, which unfortunately seems to have a continuous high bacteria count. But they also have inland lakes (large ponds) where you can swim and rent kayaks. The campsites are large with bushes between many of them for privacy. Because they are are so large we ended up being half a mile round trip from the bathroom, but that was fine for us. There are sites that are closer.

Geneva State Park also has generous size siteis but was a bit more compact. The beach there was safe for swimming, there was a two mile paved bike path that took us to the lodge where we had lunch.

In Indiana we stayed at Potato Creek State Park -- We had a great campsite -- The best bathrooms yet, plenty of trees, perfectly level pad, electricity -- there are a lot of walking paths, paved bike paths, gravel mountain biking paths and a swimming beach. We only wish we could have stayed longer.

We only stayed a couple nights at each, but would have liked to have stayed longer, particularly in Indiana. Now we're in Illinewik Forest Preserve on the Mississippi River. We're resting up from our day's travel, sitting at our picnic table and watching the boats go by. Here there is a 65 mile paved bike path leaving right from our campsite. We have electricity and water hookups here. We'll be here three nights but they're expecting tornados tomorrow so we're packing in what we can today.

[Ruthe]

View from the lawn in front of our campsite

[Steve Clark]

Beautiful, Ruthe! Got Wine?

[Greg A]

Originally Posted by Steve Clark

Beautiful, Ruthe! Got Wine?

How about a boat and wine?

[Ruthe]

No boat but the compartment under the passenger side dinette seat has more than a case of Terry's finest picks. And just in case we run out there are wineries and distilleries and breweries in St. Claire, across the river.

[float5]

Guess you are past but Indiana Dunes near Michigan City has a huge beach and great swimming if you go that way later.

[Mob2014]

Ruthe,
Thanks so much for posting the campgrounds. We often travel from MA to MI to visit family and got into a habit of staying in the same campgrounds time after time. I'm looking forward to trying your recommendations.
Thank you,
Maureen

[mcdonner]

West Branch State Park in Ravenna is A+. All types of hook-ups. Great staff, nice sites, lots of shade and very clean bathrooms and showers. Been camping there for many years.

[Ruthe]

Thanks for the recommendations. We'd thought about the Dunes but then read that it had a problem with sinkholes. However, in Potato Creek, a couple from Indiana told us the problem was over and we were thinking about stopping there on the way back. This is the first time we've gotten off the road in Indiana. It's kind of like NJ -- people who pass through think that the NJ Turnpike is representative of the whole state when of course there are beautiful spots. I'm glad we're getting to see Indiana's beauty.