Red Hills State Park, Illinois; an Iffy Start but a Passing Grade

After the tranquility of Johnson-Sauk Trail we were dismayed Saturday to arrive at Red Hills State Park and find it buzzing with children. Children on bikes, scooters and skateboards were zipping around the campground roads. Not only that, but the reservation I had called in had not gotten passed to the campground hosts, so someone was in our spot.

After some time and discussion we took a site with 30 amp electric and no water or sewer with the hope that there might be some open sky for Starlink. We filled our water tank and settled in. The patch of sky over the camper wasn’t getting us connected to Starlink but we had the lake behind us so we decided to see if our longer, 150 foot, cable would reach the shore.

It just made it.

The trees at the edge of the water block the top of the reception area, but it hasn’t affected our service.

And by Sunday afternoon most people had left and we had the loop to ourselves, ahh.

The roads were now quiet.

There were no trail maps but after taking a sidewalk to the next road I could see that I could walk around the lake, so I decided to walk alone again.

This was not as pretty a road as the one around Johnson Lake at the last park.

We, the blue dot, are now getting towards southern Illinois,

and I have been happy to find Sassafras all over here. The last time I saw any was at Kopegaron Conservation Area in southern Ontario, which shows what a unique part of Canada that is!

Red Hills Lake is pretty,

but seems nutrient rich.

There was a sign here saying no swimming.

The algae at this nearby dock would be enough to keep me out of the water.

After all our travels up north with sparkling clean water this pea green soup is a bit shocking.

There are no trails here at the campground and my walk around the lake was on roads, some through roads with some traffic.

Still there are some short paths,

and lovely treed areas.

And our campsite, now that we are alone, is very, very nice.