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Established Camping

Turkey Bayou Campground

10 Reviews

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About

USDA Forest Service

Turkey Bayou Campground

Located in Oakwood Bottoms, Turkey Bayou Campground is a great location outdoor activities including waterfowl hunting, deer hunting, trapping, fishing, nature watching and bird watching. The campground is next to a 20-acre lake on the Big Muddy River with close proximity to the Big Muddy boat launch and the Oakwood Bottoms Greentree Reservoir. There is no charge for camping at Turkey Bayou, but there is a 14-day maximum stay. The campground does not have water or toilets. The site frequently floods during heavy rain periods.

Our partner, Friends of Turkey Bayou helps maintain Turkey Bayou Campground.

A favorite with waterfowl hunters, Oakwood Bottoms offers so much more from excellent bird watching to fishing opportunities and primitive camping at Turkey Bayou Campground. Picnic with your family or youth group at Oakwood Bottoms picnic site and take a short walk into the bottoms on the wooden boardwalk trail that loops back to the picnic area. The site also has a large picnic shelter next to a large pond, where you can enjoy watching ducks and other birds visit the pond in search of food.

Fee Info

Free - first come first served

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Location

Turkey Bayou Campground is located in Illinois

Directions

From Murphysboro: Take Highway 149 west 7 miles to Highway 3; then south 5.5 miles on Hwy 3 to Oakwood Bottoms Road. Turn east (left) onto Oakwood Bottoms Rd. and continue 4 miles to the campground. From Jonesboro: Take Highway 146 west 8 miles to Highway 3, then north 8 miles on Hwy 3 to Oakwood Bottoms Road. Turn east (right) onto Oakwood Bottoms Rd. and continue 4 miles to the campground.

Coordinates

37.68475068 N
89.41091197 W

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Access

Drive-In
Park next to your site
Walk-In
Park in a lot, walk to your site.

Stay Connected

WiFi
Poor
Verizon
Fair
AT&T
Unknown
T-Mobile
Available

Site Types

Tent Sites
RV Sites
Standard (Tent/RV)
Group

Features

For Campers

Picnic Table
Phone Service
Toilets
Alcohol
Pets
Fires

Enjoy camping on government land. Limited or no services at this camping area.

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For information regarding reservations, contact this campground directly.

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Contact

General Info

Tammie C.

Guide

Reviewed Jun. 10, 2023

Beautiful, roomy, remote

This is a beautiful location. Straight off the main road, it felt like 3 miles, but I'm not sure. It was really late when I rolled in. Porta potty, low bandwidth LTE AT&T service. Lots of people staying but plenty of sites. Most were fishing. Check out the awesome hike a Little Grand Canyon. It was one of the best I've done.

Site16

Month of VisitJuly

(10) View All

Heather C.

Traveler

Reviewed Mar. 16, 2023

Super Quiet

Stayed a night and loved the quiet. Heavily wooded. 10 mins of gravel, some rough spots but ok for a car. Porta potty only and no running water. 20 mins to town. Would stay again!

Month of VisitApril

Tim D.

Scout

Reviewed Sep. 24, 2022

Nice place - good facilities for free boondocking site

Back in sites along the water, tetherball, lantern hangers, picnic tables, porta potty, fire pits, boat ramp - sites with both full sun, full shade or in between - we took full sun exposure to power our solar panels.

The only downside is the drive in - 4 miles of gravel road that was slow going in our 36’ class A - lots of overhanging trees that will rip a TPO roof (ours was ok with a fiberglass roof). We are 11’8” at the roof.

Well worth the drive in just plan for going slow if you have a large rig (especially tall)

We had 2 bars of service with Verizon 4g and 2 bars on T-Mobile 4g service. Speeds were 12 down/3 up and 3 down/.5 up respectively.

Last week of September, arrived on a Saturday and half the sites were open (most folks chose shaded spots)

Noise will all depend upon who your neighbors are when you stay (like most places). Sites have adequate space between them so you feel like you are camping and not overhearing eighties talking.

Several of the sites can fit a 45ft RV

Would return again.

Site16

Month of VisitOctober

Bernadette H.

Guide

Reviewed Aug. 15, 2022

Huge site, only 3 others there

We pulled in to see many of the large sites available and picked the one with a tree for shade looking over the river. We pitched our tents and then drove to the Little Grand Cayon for a quick hike before dusk.

Month of VisitSeptember

Kevin

Traveler

Reviewed Apr. 4, 2022

Feels criminal this is free

Perfect campground. Clean, right next on the water, only 2 other groups (~20 sites total), and FREE. Though no trash or showers--only porta-potty.

Month of VisitMay

Elisha S.

Traveler

Reviewed Sep. 11, 2021

Peaceful

I went camping alone and there weren’t too many people here but I know if I screamed there would be people that heard me lol spectrum Mobile works out here and the lake is beautiful.

Site14

Month of VisitOctober

Nathan L.

Traveler

Reviewed Sep. 14, 2020

Great place to stay

I enjoyed turkey bayou a lot. Was not expecting such a great place, for free none the less. Definitely be coming back.

Sheryl P.

Scout

Reviewed Jun. 27, 2020

Beautiful Site for Primitive Camping

We took a chance camping here since we hang hammocks but we found a site that had some trees nearby. We were pleasantly surprised to see a port-a-pottie at the campground. It was clean and had toilet paper. Middle of the week in June and the campground was about half empty. Very peaceful place. We could hear the fish jumping all night.

Month of VisitJuly

Tricia L.

Traveler

Reviewed Sep. 20, 2017

Beautiful and accommodating despite eclipse crowds

A few miles down a dirt road this is a beautiful campsite with great volunteer hosts. Stayed during the eclipse so crowds were intense but the hosts lets us camp where we could find room, the site was clean and the pond was beautiful (as always bring the bug spray when camping near the water).

Month of VisitSeptember

Shari G.

Legend

Reviewed Jun. 30, 2017

Simple & Free

This simple, FREE campground is in a beautiful location by the Big Muddy River. It is volunteer run and relatively well-kept up, but there are not many amenities. It's like front country, back country camping. There is no toilet and or water spigots, so bring your back country shovel and fresh water.

What this campground does have is beauty, a lake, and the Big Muddy River nearby. There are wooded areas in the campground, but the sites near the water are wide open with not much privacy. Many fisherman and hunters use this campground during the season, but when we camped in the early spring, there were only 2 other campers in the whole campground.

My husband and I camped here on a whim while traveling through southern Illinois. While cooking dinner over the campfire, the sun was setting over the lake and caused us to stop what we were doing just to enjoy the show that Mother Nature was providing for us!

SiteNo site numbers, just pick a spot and pitch your tent.

Month of VisitMay