On the opposite side of Shelbyville Lake from the popular Eagle Creek State Park and Resort you will find these great trails.
To get there, go to Findlay, IL and go straight through town, it is a small town so it should be easy to tell which road, it passes in front of the school,
and there is a guns and ammo store on it before you pass the cemetery. Continue over the dam, and turn right at the large sign.
There is a convenience store inside the park, although I am not sure what they sell. There are only a handfull of electric spaces, I believe
they are $18/night. There are quite a few primitive spaces, those are $8/night. There is a large day parking area, very easy to get in and out of
the day parking lot. The primitives can be a bit tricky, with the trees pretty close together, but do-able. They are plenty deep, and have
at least one and sometimes two separate hitching posts per slot, and they each have a low tie, and a high tie bar. Each slot has a campfire
area and a barbeque pit and most have picnic tables. Some are on the left and some on the right side. There are two outhouses, both have
one mens and one womens, one outhouse is between the primitive and electric areas, the water is there also. The other outhouse is back
at the end of the primitive section, no water there though, you have to haul it. There are horseshit containers near both outhouses.
This park is only maintained by volunteers so keep it clean.
The trails are great, some meadow, and some wooded, with beaches if the lake is low, and nice challenging verticals. Its a bit like
a mini greensfelder. Where greensfelder goes straight up 100 yards and more, these only go up 15, but for central Illinois they are pretty good.
If you go off the official trails, watch for barbed wire and wells, they are pretty rare but do exist.
The map below is fairly accurate but the trails change and there are plenty of outlaw trails that arent marked.
View of the bathrooms
View of the bathrooms in the primitive area
the day area hitches, yep thats my mare
the manure bin and water
typical primitive, picnic table, concrete pad for a campfire, and in the back the barbeque
©2011,
creagcridhe