Lake Le-Aqua-Na State Recreation Area — Attraction in Freeport

August 2024. They fixed the dangerous wires sticking out from the ground at the playground, but I am keeping it at 1 STAR because: while washing my hands in the bath house, a guy came out of a stall, walked right past me, and out the door, When I existed, I saw him go in to his trailer...Site 34, he was a campground host! Ewww! Why did I downgrade it from 4 stars to one?

1. They have 4 campground Hosts spots, but only one does actual check-in. If that person is not available, the other 2 or 3 campers won't help you...they are just camping for free. Well, this past weekend I was camping with my granddaughters, and we were down at the turtle pond, where many campers go. One of these "Hosts" followed us down there in her black Polaris 4-wheeler, and sat there staring at us for 5 min. Then she asked my granddaughters what they were catching and they replied "frogs". She went off on them that that was illegal, it was a State Park, and they had to stop. I told her (truthfully) that we hadn't caught anything. She finally went away in a huff. Now mind you, she was not in a uniform, name-tag, or a marked State vehicle. She was outside of the campground that she purports to be a Host at.
2. Last year, the park had 11" of rain and it destroyed parts of the playground. A bridge over the creek sat broken in half for a year. Now, they had removed it, but left the metal mesh wires (that hold in the rocks for erosion control) exposed, and sticking out. This is right in the playground area, and could do serious damage to a kid, of even adult. Hopefully you will be able to see this in the attached picture. There are other, safer, friendlier choices to take my granddaughters to!

I have been going here for 47 years and have seen several changes. Replacing the quaint rental, bait shop and snack bar with a full restaurant in a new brick building seemed good, but it is totally closed now. However, a major Illinois State Parks restoration grant transformed this into one of Illinois' best. One activity that there are few pictures of is the moderate hiking afforded through the canyons in this park. The only downside with the campgrounds are the swarms of local gawkers that troll through the sites, rubber-necking at you. The park really needs to require a camping permit for entry to the campground. So, if you don't need concessions, bait, or rentals, be sure to visit. It is a...

What a great little state park and excellent campground. This had probably the cleanest bathrooms i have seen in a campground and i have seen a lot. Nice campground at the top of a hill. It had been raining like crazy for days before we came - i was worried it might be muddy from the rain but the way it is situated it was just fine. Plenty of sites, each had its own electrical box. I have never been to a campground where you registered with the host, it was refreshing to have such a friendly welcome to the campground. This was probably the friendliest campground i have been too. Met quite a few neighbors and had some nice conversations. Met one couple who had been camping there for 42 years! Another couple said this was their third trip this season. It turned out to be a great place to take my two toddlers on their first camping trip. It was an easy drive from the Chicago suburbs, and only 3 miles from town. There was a beach at the state park - we checked it out early in the morning and i don't know if it was just calm waters or due to all the heavy rains last week, but there was a lot of algae in the water. My toddlers like to drink the water they swim in, so we drove 5 minutes into town and there was an awesome public pool with water slides, a baby pool and sand area. It was 13 bucks for me and 2 kids. Perfect! When we drove back i saw a lot of people at the beach so it must not have been bad. I assume once all the water started moving around a bit the algae probably dissipated. I saw a lot of complaints about the road. I drive a Honda civic and it was fine. There were some rough patches and some potholes but nothing that my car couldn't handle going slow. It looked like they had filled some rough spots with sand to help smooth it out a bit, and there were signs and poles warning about the rough road. It certainly wouldn't stop me from coming back. There were a few playgrounds that were nice for kids, but they were not super close to the campground. Lots of nice shelters and picnic areas, saw a lot of groups enjoying time outdoors. If you are looking for a well kept, friendly campground this is it. From what i heard from the host and neighbors is most weekends it has open sites - i didn't make a reservation ahead of time because i wanted to pick my site when i got there. I...

I give it only four stars for a couple reasons. Von the swimming beach is really bad. Definitely overgrown with algae and really not appealing at all to the kids. As lovely as the trees are, they should be trimmed back a little around the roads, especially in the campsite area, with an RV, it is hard to maneuver under low branches when they're rubbing and dragging along your couch. And my senior or disabled 20 year veteran status means nothing, unless I'm an Illinois resident. Those that serve, serve for the entire country, not just a state.

But for the positives it is a lovely Park. The facilities were clean and well maintained. The camp hosts were incredibly awesome and very informative. The park was picturesque 😍 and the camping sites varied from small tent only sites to campers to large RVs.

So even though there were some negatives, some that were minor and some that I thought were bigger but the positives more than outweighed the negatives so I'm giving it an...