Crab Orchard Campground — Hotel in Carterville

We stayed at a primitive site with 2 tents and 5 people. The GOOD: Beautiful location, there is a beach with a restroom hut with showers, a small store with basic needs, good quality firewood. The campground is quiet, fire pits and picnic tables are maintained.

Could use a few more trees for shade in the primitive site.

The BAD: Parking, trash, potable water, distance to restrooms, we think primitive camping here is a back burner for the management team.

We were not very happy with the management. They were pleasant enough but when we asked about potable water none of them knew what we were talking about. Once we told them what it meant, they said we could go to a local gas station…. The primitive-only area shows a gravel road on the map that no longer exists. You are supposed to park your cars at a small lot and walk over to your site which technically makes it a pack-in because of the distance. The road used to be there but was grown over by grass under the previous owners and the “new” management never fixed it. We were told to park our cars on the gravel so we pulled onto the field area where the grown over gravel is and they came by later told us to move our car to a gravel parking area 100m away. They really need to re-gravel the existing road there. The closest restroom is a 6 minute walk away by the beach. Or a 7 minute walk in the other direction. But there is plumbing at a fish station by the primitive site, so I’m hoping they add in a single all gender toilet on the back of it. The paved roads by the rv/beach area are not super well maintained and can be a bit treacherous at night. The primitive site has holes all over the place , including an old culvert that was left there after the ditch was filled in which led to big holes, and tree stumps cut just above ground that weren’t removed making it dangerous to walk without a flashlight at night or even when you aren’t watching your feet in the daytime. There was trash that hadn’t been picked up all over our site, including glass pieces, a few deck screws, and various metal and plastic debris.

Overall, we won’t be coming back here but we did have a...

As of 6/26/18 beware of Google Maps directions as it will direct you to the actual campground instead of the proper entrance...use your eyes to follow signs instead of your phone.

We showed up with no reservation after business hours on a Monday evening late June 2018 in lieu of hotel. Tried calling their main number a few times about 2 hours in advance but did not get an answer or voicemail, probably due to poor signal and it was after 5pm CST.

A friendly assistant located us at Loop E ($10 non electric/water) around 7:30pm to have us pay and get a parking/campsite tag. Had to drive back to the entrance to do this but didn't take long...and no worries to set up camp beforehand because there was no attendant at the front, just don't get too settled in if you find your own open spot. Checkout is 2pm.

They have a few full time attendants that live on property in the various lots...so adhere to the rules or be mindful.

Gorgeous clean lake, access beach is only open from 1100 - 1800 so best to plan ahead if you plan to have water fun. Pet friendly place with exception of swimming beach, though fairly easy access from camping spots so be wary if you have a lake loving dog or kids (also against their rules to access water from campsite).

Lots of jumping fish, bass and crappie I'd guess. Buy wood bundle unless you get lucky like we did and find a recently vacated spot with some leftover pickings. Clean open spaces near the lake with limited but large trees and your typical fire pit with a solid grill for cooking. If I end up back here I'd be fishing and using their on-site fish...

The office at the campground needs more folks in there with less attitude and to be more helpful. Had to pack up our campsite because they rented it out from under us. Then we found another one after having to take down our tent and load our van back up only for them to tell us that the one we are on now has also been rented even tho there was No white tag on the pole. By the time this was all said and done they were now down to only 2 sites left not only was I pissed off already but we are now down to only 2 options so we take the one just to find out she wrote us out the Wrong campsite tag so when she went to change it out and give us the right one we get to our "4th" site just to find out it has a tag already on it. She then says don't worry about that they never came back for it....So you're goin to run me out of 3 sites because you claim they have already been rented just to put us in one that is rented???? keep in mind folks that the 3 sites we had to pack up and move from had No White Tag or Any Tag At All to indicate it was "Rented". Im very upset by this usually I have no problems at all with this place and love it here. Yesterday tho was a different story I was pissed because they thought all of this made sense and then acted as if I was the one who did...