Location / Name: North Sandusky Campground, Rend Lake, IL

Date: 08/23/2016 (1 night)

North Sandusky Campground is one of at least two Core of Engineers campgrounds on Rend Lake in mid-Illinois. Rend Lake itself is a Corp of Engineers project. It is a huge lake with I-57 running next to part of it. Since it’s a little more than 350 miles from my starting point for our first long trip in our T@b – target Boise, ID, in about 10 days, it was a bit longer than my 300-mile daily target, but since we’d be fresh, I figured we could take the extra time on the road.

North Sandusky Campground is on the shores of Rend Lake, a large lake in middle Illinois. There are hiking/biking trails within the recreation area containing the campground, a disc golf course, volleyball, and playgrounds, as well as a boat ramp for those that want to participate in water activities. The North Sandusky Campground is located on the western shore of the southern half of the lake. There is also a state park with campground on the northeastern part of the lake – a bit closer to the Interstate, but we were glad we picked North Sandusky.

General description of campground:

The North Sandusky Campground is well-groomed and clean, with sites on either straight roads from the access road down to the lake, or in loops doing the same. There are over 300 sites, so I wasn’t worried about getting a mid-week reservation, and the walk-up plan worked well. There were some pull-thru sites in the back section of the campground; about a mile from the front area. All I recall on the straight roads to the lake in the front section were back-in. The recreation area is scenic, and if we had bicycles would have been a great place to ride. For families there were many activities that could make a week-long stay nice. Staff at the entrance where we registered was extremely helpful and friendly.

Access: There should be no problems with any kind of vehicle.

Site: We stayed in Site #1, a back-in site with a long, narrow driveway. The driveway was paved and nearly level; I used a couple of lego blocks to get it the way I wanted. The site has a grill and picnic table.  

Electric: 50/30/20 amp at electric sites. There are warnings not to use adapters.

Water: Water connections are available at some campsites.We didn’t have it at ours.  

Bathhouse: There is a large bathhouse with 7 or 8 showers handling the three straight roads – a total of about 55 sites. There were also a number of toilet stalls, urinals, and sinks in that bathhouse. In addition, each road had it’s own smaller bathouse with toilet and sink. The showers were very clean, but the drainage was poor. It took a long time for the water to get hot, probably not an issue if there were more people using the showers. The pressure also had no adjustment, and it was really high pressure; almost to the point of being painful. There was also no hand soap in the bathhouse.

Sewer: There is a dump station near the recreation area entrance, a mile or so from the campground.

Cell Phone Service: 2-bar 3G and 4G service, which worked well.

Trash disposal: Dumpsters in the middle of each road/loop section of the campground.

Cost: This is the best we’ve done so far other than some free, boondocking locations. $16 for a site with electric, $26 for full hookup. With the America the Beautiful Senior Pass the COE we got a 50% discount, so we paid only $8 for the site! Best buy ever, and a really nice campground.

Supplies/Food: There is a small store just outside the recreation area; otherwise I didn’t see anything between the campground and the Interstate several miles away.

T@b Note:

15.4 MPG for the 354 miles from home. It’s noteworthy that since we’re going to be on the road for 10 days, we were running with our heaviest loading yet. I continue to be please with our 2012 Highlander Limited (V6 4WD) as a tow vehicle.