Crab Orchard Lake Campground

As of August 2023 - this campground is now reservation only via Recreation.gov. Even if you show up for a walk-in site, the ranger has you pick out an available site and pay online. And there's a $8 additional fee for each reservation - which makes a one night stay actually $31 for W/E. After you pay your site, you do have to check in at the ranger office before setting up.

Still, we had our choice of waterfront sites just showing up mid-week in late August. B-7 was our choice after looking at several, which was pleasant. All of the sites are basic gravel sites, and there's no vegetation between them for privacy. The bathhouse was on B-loop was nice and clean with individual shower suites. There's quite a bit of road noise as well, as the campground isn't too far off the main road.

Not much to do at the park itself however if you don't have other transportation. We took the bike trail to Logan College campus a couple times, and walked the campground loops.

After our visit here, we enjoy starting the Shawnee Wine Trail, Giant State Park and Boo Castle.

Nice campground, our first site was E12, no shade and high temps made it tough. Too much wind for the awning. So we moved over to a shady A23. It is first come first serve and there are many open spots as of now. The beach being closed for covid is ridiculous, come on IL, SMH.

If you have kids, anywhere from 4 to 14 you must check out Castle Park, it’s based on the Dungeons and Dragons theme, 15 min drive, free, it’s so neat. Look it up on FB. Just amazing.
Safe travels!

We stopped here for one night. Sites are first come, first serve with a variety of hookup options. We camped in Loop E - the road was pretty narrow and needs repaving. The actual site was gravel/dirt and fairly unlevel. A dump station is available on site.

The view is great and being able to get lakeside sites without reservations is awesome.

Note:
Because of a storm a few years ago the original road into the CG has been removed but ALL GPS try to send you to it. The removal of the road also pushed the entrance from Carbondale into Carterville. Garmin calls it Carterville and Google calls it Carbondale. In either direction you will turn off IL Rte 13 onto Greenbriar Rd and then right onto Campground Rd. Once you enter the campground the roads are not as well paved and a bit narrow but we had no problem getting around in our 33' MH and saw several larger ones.

OK so this is a nice campground on a large lake in southern IL. Access, aside from the GPS issue, is easy. It's a first come first serve park and if the camp manager is in the office he'll drive you around the loops to choose one before you register and pay. Otherwise you'll be asked to drive around, choose one, return to the office to register and pay and THEN set up. We paid 50% with the Senior Access card, although the few FHU would have been $12.50. Sites: are quite large in general but how level they are varies greatly. We tried 2 before settling on the third which was level. There is water and electric (20/30/50) at each site in the A and B loops and some of the sites in the E loop with others only 20A and a few dry camping sites. Water is high pressure so make sure you have a regulator. We set our adjustable one to 50 down from above 60. We ended up in the B loop but after walking around thought we would have preferred the E loop had we been staying longer. Bathhouses in the A and E loops are modernized and have nice clean stalls with good shower heads. The ones in the B loop look to be original, are small with shower heads that squirt everywhere. All were very clean and obviously cleaned often There is a beach (B loop) that is open during warm weather, and many of the campers came with their small boats for fishing. Had the weather been nicer we would have loved to kayak on the lake as there is a lot to explore and a number of different wildfowl. As it was a Canadian Geese couple with their 7 little goslings entertained us each day. Other than the calls of various birds in the morning and evening the campground is blissfully quiet.
ATT was 4 bars unboosted, 5 boosted.
Carbondale is a 15 min drive away and as a university town has all the national chain stores as well as a well stocked Food Co-op. There is small park based on Dungeons and Dragons that is a memorial to its creator's son killed in a car crash, that is great fun for kids and pretend kids.
I imagine the CG gets busy in the warmer weather but the office staff is nice and if you call them (618-985-4983) will give you an idea of how busy they are. Check out time is 2pm.