Campground in/near Chicago?

I was hoping that there would be something closer, but it looks like pretty much no matter where it's at least an hour to get into the city.

We have always liked Indiana Dunes State Park for camping and then take the South Shore train into downtown Chicago. The South Shore Line has a station station right at the edge of the park. Our trips in and back took usually about 1 hour 15 minutes each way which didn't seem too bad.

I recommend that you avoid driving to downtown Chicago. Red light cameras combined with short yellow lights, expensive parking garages, and "gotcha" street parking are some of the reasons for avoidance. The train system (Metra) and Chicago bus system (CTA) both use an app called Ventra for ticketing. Google Maps can help with routing.

In Joliet there is Leisure Lake Membership Resort. It is open to Good Sam members. We stayed there a few years ago and it was okay. Sites are side by side but have enough room. It is very full all summer with members but we were able to get a site for 10 days without a reservation. It was an hour to downtown Chicago.

Chicago McCormick Place Marshalling Yard – that's its "official" title – is dry camping, emphasis on "dry", in a parking lot for $35/night. Not that easy to get to BUT it is just south of downtown and, using the EL train, accessible to the entire city. There is active security patrolling. BE AWARE: If there is an event at McCormick Place you will be turned away. CAUTION: Do NOT take your rig down Lakeshore Drive! You WILL get a ticket! At least, you will if you head north on Lakeshore; toward downtown. Going south, toward Indiana, I think you'd be OK.

Our go-to campground is Fish Lake Beach Resort in Volo, IL. Yes, it's a couple driving hours out, BUT we drive into the Dempster/Skokie [Yellow Line] CTA station; about an hour's drive from the CG, pay $3 to park [plan to pay $25+ for parking if you take the car into the city], buy a 1- or 3-day CTA pass and hop the train to Howard Station and x-fer to the Red Line, which goes ALL the way downtown in about 1½ hours ...and WAY less if you wanna stop off at Wrigley Field/Addison Station and catch a Cubbies' game!!

I'm getting tickets to opening day/1st home game next year! ;)

GordonThree wrote:
McCormick truck marshalling yard

I heard second hand from a Chicago Police officer that the area around the Marshalling Yard has gone downhill.

FYI. Joliet has a commuter rail line (Metra) that runs into downtown Chicago. If you ride during rush hour, it takes about 1 hour to get into the city. Off peak, the train makes more stops and it it close to 2 hours. Hollywood Casino is about a 10 - 15 minute drive from the Metra station.

There's an awful lot of suburban sprawl around Chicago. It's going to be hard to find a campground that is close in.

We are going to a wedding in the Bolingbrook area this summer. We are staying at a hotel but I had checked into some campgrounds and found two in the SW Chicago area:

Camp Bullfrog Lake

Hollywood Casino Joliet (scroll down to the RV park)

I really couldn't find any others that I liked.

McCormick truck marshalling yard

See if these posts help.