Spillway Group Area
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:13 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Spillway Recreation Area— the perfect place to enjoy a wide variety of activities, events, and nature with the best sunsets of Southern Illinois. Rend Lake is made up of 20,633 acres of water and 19,523 acres of land. Whether you're looking for high adventure, a peaceful retreat, or something in between, you'll find it here! Keep reading
Recreation
Within the area, visitors can access the Rend Lake Bike Trail—over 20 miles of paved pathways that guide riders through scenic woodlands and across views of Rend Lake and the Big Muddy River. The area offers abundant opportunities for boating, hiking, fishing, hunting, swimming, and general outdoor exploration. Additional recreation features around Rend Lake include an archery complex with a 3D trail and elevated shooting platform, a dog park with a swimming feature, and two public swimming beaches (including the pet-friendly North Marcum Beach).
Facilities
Spillway Group Area offers 10 acres for company picnics, weddings, church gatherings, family reunions and many other outdoor events. The area includes a large shelter (250 capacity) with electricity and overhead lighting, an amphitheater (250 capacity), and a small gazebo (30 capacity), a swingset, and direct access to the Rend Lake Bike Trail. The area also offers picnic tables, flush toilets, and drinking water in order to provide a comfortable experience for guests.
Natural Features
The fields, forests, and waters of Rend Lake provide a natural haven for wildlife and an outdoor wonderland for you. Woodland areas are made up of hickory, oak, and beautiful maples providing habitat to white-tail deer, turkeys, racoons, and many more native species. The shorelines are an excellent viewing area for waterfowl, shorebirds, and bank fishing the known crappie population.
Nearby Attractions
Rend Lake Project Office/ Visitor Center Rend Lake Bike Trail Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (618) 724-2493.
What the agency tells you
Please contact the Rend Lake Project Office at 618-724-2493 to discuss your lighting and electrical needs and whether a special use permit will be required. A permit may be required for large group events, placement of canopy tents or other additional equipment.
- When Reserving the Spillway Group Area: (10 acre site) your reservation includes the following: - Large Shelter (250 capacity) - Amphitheater (250 capacity) - Gazebo (30 capacity) - Playground
User responsible for providing additional tables, chairs, etc. above existing facility capacity.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
This is a day use facility. Camping is prohibited at this location.
Boat ramp available at South Marcum Recreation Area.
Shelter reservations require a primary occupant to be 18 years of age or older and to be present during use.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
See Park Information Guide for additional rules and regulations.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…The area also offers picnic tables, flush toilets, and drinking water in order to provide a…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Biking
- Birding
- Fishing
- Picnicking
- Stargazing
- Water access
- Wildlife viewing
1 of 1 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:13 UTC
The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
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 16:13 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| SPILLWAY GROUP | Group Area 1 | day use | 50 amp | yes | 134 ft | 395 ft | $150 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Dale Miller Youth0.6 mi
South Marcum Campground0.8 mi
Shagbark Group Area2.7 mi
South Sandusky Campground2.8 mi
Gun Creek3.1 mi
North Sandusky Campground3.6 miFrom I-57: Take take exit 71 and turn west onto Highway 14. After 3 miles turn right on Rend City Road, then right on Rend Lake Dam Road. Continue 3 miles to the park entrance on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Benton, IL
Typical weather
Typical October night 46°F, day 69°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 24°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 · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Spillway Group Area is in Illinois’s 12th congressional district. Its representative, Mike Bost (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- The member who votes the moneyMike BostU.S. Representative · Illinois’s 12th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRichard J. DurbinU.S. Senator · Illinois
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTammy DuckworthU.S. Senator · Illinois
Read the draft, or change the wording
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Spillway Group Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Mike Bost, I’m a constituent in Illinois’s 12th district. Spillway Group Area, Illinois carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Spillway Group Area (Illinois) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Spillway Group Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Richard J. Durbin, I’m a constituent in Illinois. Spillway Group Area, Illinois carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Spillway Group Area (Illinois) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Spillway Group Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Tammy Duckworth, I’m a constituent in Illinois. Spillway Group Area, Illinois carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Spillway Group Area (Illinois) via campanac.com