Lake Shelbyville, IL – Bo Wood Campground Review

Dates we stayed here:  Wednesday, July 27, 2011 – Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Location:  Bo Wood Campground is a COE park on Lake Shelbyville in Sullivan, Illinois.  Contrary to the route that Streets & Trips wanted to take us on, we took I-70 west from Indianapolis to Effingham, and then took IL-32 north to the campground, which is just south of Sullivan.  From what we heard, lots of people had trouble with their GPS finding this campground!

Our site:  #106

We were in a brand new, reservable full hookup loop, which had mostly pull-thru sites, and a few back-in sites.  We had reliable 50 amp electric, water and sewer . . . no cable or wifi . . . and no shade!

Had we been thinking clearly, we should have taken a look at some of the non-reservable full hookup sites in other areas of the campground.  There were quite a few that were open, and we could have fit on easily.

Several sites in Area 5 were full hookup and had plenty of room!

For a shorter stay, there were several sites in Area 5 that had great views, but were electric only.

I think this might qualify for an “IT” factor site in Howard’s book!

Oh well, we didn’t think of changing sites until after we  (and our friend, Todd) were all set up . . . so we stayed put!  We’ll just make the best of the situation.

There are a few sites in this loop that have a little bit of shade (morning, anyway) . . . they are the back-in sites, and were already occupied when we arrived.

For our full hookup site, we paid $24.00/night.  Still not a bad price for full hookup!  There was no entry fee into the park.

Amenities:  The campground is located on Lake Shelbyville, and there is a boat ramp with a large parking area in the park. 

One night we watched this guy take this big boat out all by himself!

The beach is located less than 1 mile from the campground, and entry is free for campers (with your vehicle pass).

The campground is just across that bridge from the beach.

There are modern restrooms with showers throughout the park – I didn’t check them out but the kids were turned off by a huge spider in one of the showers!  Tom said it wasn’t so bad!

There is a small laundry facility (2 washers; 2 dryers) near the gatehouse,  but I opted to go to the Rainbow Wash Laundromat in Sullivan to get our laundry done (no wifi there, either!).

Two small laundry rooms – each with a washer and a dryer

The dump station is right by the gatehouse, and there is a small playground and amphitheater.  They had a program on Illinois spiders one evening, but the mosquitos drove us away!

Sullivan had a catholic church, an IGA, a pizza shop that delivered to the campground (we didn’t try it, but we saw one of our neighbors get delivery!).  The closest Walmart was in Mattoon, along with pretty much everything else you might need . . . and the Rural King Corporate Headquarters! 

The area around Lake Shelbyville is nice, and we could have explored more, but we didn’t venture too far.  We would come back to this campground, but we’d definitely arrive during the week and skip the reservations.  When we arrived on the Wednesday, there were only a few campers, and when we left on the following Tuesday, it was all but deserted!

Looking into our loop Sunday night . . . and our neighbor left early Monday morning!

If it’s as hot as it was on this visit, we’d definitely look at those non-reservable sites overlooking the water, with shade!