Blanding Landing
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 8 of the next 8 nights read 16:19 UTC
- A night
- $14–$24Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 37All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Blanding Landing is situated in a lush river valley on the east bank of the great Mississippi, just 13 miles from Galena, Illinois. Rich deposits of minerals line the landscape. In the early 19th century, miners from around the globe flocked to the area in search of wealth from minerals. This was the nation's first mineral rush, predating California's legendary Gold Rush. Keep reading
Recreation
The Mississippi River draws crowds of anglers each year. The most popular species is the channel catfish. Bluegill, walleye, crappie and northern pike also live in these waters. Other activities include boating, picnicking and hunting.
Facilities
All campsites are on grass and most have electric hookups. A playground and showers are also available. Hardwood trees allow for natural shade in the area.
Natural Features
The campround is off the beaten path offering a quiet camping getaway. Nestled along the backwaters of the Mississippi River, this area is a well known birders paradise plus access to miles of great fishing. Thousands of years ago, Ice Age Glaciers divided and detoured around the northwest corner of Illinois. In their wake, clusters of rugged hills remain. Today, the winding country roads are perfect for leisurely drives.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Galena is 13 miles north, and attracts tourists for its quaint atmosphere, unique shops and historic buildings. Eighty-five percent of the buildings in the town are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (563) 582-0881.
What the agency tells you
Visitors are expected to be aware of Campground Rules
This campground is a Self-Service Campground. Self-Service Campgrounds allow campers to modify their own reservations on their arrival date, at no charge using the Recreation.gov website or Mobile App. So, if you want to add a night, leave early, or move to a different site, you can do it all from your smartphone!
Check-out time is 12:00 pm. Check-in time is 2:00 pm
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Campsites are by Reservation Only. 1. Campers With a Reservation: - MUST confirm the site reserved, locate site, and start camping. - A Park Ranger or Volunteer will come to your campsite to check you in. Have your ID and ATB pass, if applicable, ready to present. 2. Campers Without a Reservation: - MUST check for campsite availability and make reservation first by: - Using your smartphone camera to scan the QR Code at campsite - or call 1-877-444-6777 - or visit www.recreation.gov
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 37
- Hookups
- 30 electric
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Playground
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Birding
- Fishing
- Picnicking
- Water access
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 2nd darkest of 30 in IL
- Bortle 4
62 of 76 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:19 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $14–$24 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:19 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
38 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 37 mapped sitesAll 38 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 37 of the 38 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BLANDING LANDING | 01 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 49 ft | 183 ft | $14 | ||
| BLANDING LANDING | 02 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 49 ft | 162 ft | $14 | ||
| BLANDING LANDING | 03 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 37 ft | 172 ft | $14 | ||
| BLANDING LANDING | 04 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 184 ft | $14 | |||
| BLANDING LANDING | 05 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 46 ft | 240 ft | $14 | ||
| BLANDING LANDING | 06 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 46 ft | 284 ft | $14 | ||
| BLANDING LANDING | 07 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 65 ft | 316 ft | $14 | ||
| BLANDING LANDING | 08 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 54 ft | 356 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 09 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 54 ft | 313 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 10 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 52 ft | 266 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 11 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 44 ft | 229 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 12 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 44 ft | 195 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 13 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 38 ft | 175 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 14 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 38 ft | 177 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 15 | standard electric | 15 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 63 ft | 392 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 16 | standard electric | 35 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 42 ft | 344 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 17 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 42 ft | 309 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 18 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 59 ft | 268 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 19 | standard electric | 35 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 59 ft | 249 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 20 | standard electric | 30 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 61 ft | 309 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 21 | standard electric | 35 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 61 ft | 338 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 22 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 64 ft | 362 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 23 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 64 ft | 412 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 24 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 80 ft | 459 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 25 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 42 ft | 386 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 26 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 40 ft | 366 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 27 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 40 ft | 350 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 28 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 41 ft | 202 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 29 | standard electric | 35 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 63 ft | 255 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 30 | standard electric | 35 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 55 ft | 321 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 31 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 55 ft | 360 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 32 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 81 ft | 437 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 33 | standard electric | 30 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 44 ft | 500 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 34 | standard electric | 30 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 44 ft | 501 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 35 | standard electric | 30 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 54 ft | 486 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 36 | standard electric | 30 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 54 ft | 486 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | 37 | standard electric | 35 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 79 ft | 469 ft | $24 | |
| BLANDING LANDING | Shelter | day use | 20 amp | yes | 398 ft | $25 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 38 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Bulger's Hollow Recreation Area27 mi
Thomson CausewayUpper Mississippi River National Wildlife And Fish Refuge · 28 mi
Grant River30 mi
Fishermans Corner49 mi
Clarks Ferry60 mi
Shady Creek63 mi13 miles south of Galena, IL off HWY 20, turn west on Blackjack and follow directional signs. DO NOT TAKE DIGGIN HILL RD.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bellevue, IA
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 12°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Blanding Landing is in Illinois’s 16th congressional district. Its representative, Darin LaHood (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →