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!

Shelbyville–Forest Park Aquatic Center

Saturday was going to be another hot day, and we were looking for something fun to do with the kids.  Looking around on the internet, we found the Aquatic Center in Shelbyville’s Forest Park.  It looked promising, so we decided to take a drive to that side of the lake, drive through the Lithia Springs Campground (another COE park that we had considered) to check it out, and then go to the Aquatic Center.

With our plan in place, we had a quick lunch and changed into bathing suits.  It was about a 20 minute drive the the other end of the lake, through corn and soybean fields.  At Lithia Springs, we obtained a “Sightseer Pass” from the gate attendant, and drove through the 4 campsite loops.  This is a more popular campground, and it was almost full, but not suitable for our big rig!  They have one full hookup loop (D leg), and a beach within the campground (off C leg), but each leg ends in a very tight turnaround.  We could never get our rig around those turnarounds!  So, even thought several sites are technically long enough, this campground is not really big-rig friendly.  Lots of trees overhanging the roads, too!

From there, we drove into Shelbyville and right to Forest Park.  We paid our $5/person entrance fee and found a group of chairs under a giant umbrella.

The pool included a zero depth entry area for small kids, up to 3’6”, then a larger area that was 4’0” to 5’0”, a smaller area that was 11’0” with a diving board and slide, and a waterslide that ended in a 3’6” pool.

The largest area of the pool – 4’0” through 11’0”

The very popular waterslide – No, I didn’t go down it!

The kiddie area of the pool – complete with water fountain and frog slide!

In the building they have mens’ and womens’ locker rooms, a family changing room, and a concession stand.

Lots of big umbrellas for people who need to be in the shade.

The kids headed right for the waterslide,

and it didn’t take long for the big kids to join in the fun!

Todd gets the prize for making the biggest splash – in and out of the pool!

They certainly had a blast on the slide, and I would have loved to join them, but at Bryce’s insistence (Please Mom, don’t go on the slide!), I just stayed in the pool.  That was refreshing enough!

Next, the group headed down to the deep end to try out the other slide and the diving board.

They had fun on that one, too, but not quite as much as on the twisty slide!  Tom and Todd decided that they needed to check out the kiddie area, and rest for awhile!

They’re just a couple of big kids!

It was a great way to spend a hot day, and well worth the $5/person entrance fee! 

Staying cool!

After a few hours, we packed up and headed back to the campground so we could get cleaned up in time for church at 5pm. 

While we were gone, Todd got a fire going and we had pizza pudgie pies and hot dogs for dinner.  We had quite a bit of thunder and lightening while we were cooking our dinner, but the storm stayed south of us and we never got any rain.

It cooled off nicely, and turned out to be a good night for a campfire!

There’s nothing like a busy day at the pool to make everybody sleep good at night . . .

. . . or even in the afternoon!