Carlyle Lake, IL

We went to the Dam West COE campground at Carlyle Lake in IL last week and spent four days there. It’s so nice to be retired, getting a full hookup site during the middle of the week is soooo easy. With my seniors discount we get a full hookup site for $12 bucks a night. This is my favorite campground within a 150 mile radius of our home. We usually make three or four trips to Dam West each year. Most of the sites are spaced nicely apart and some are long enough to accommodate the trailer, truck, and a boat if you have one.

The overnight temperatures were down in the mid-forties so we ran our furnace to keep the Wildcat warm. In reality, I was too lazy to dig out the space heater. Once again, just as in Bay St. Louis, MS our furnace seemed to be running longer than it should to keep the trailer warm. “Oh surely one of the vent covers on the furnace didn’t fall off again”, I thought to myself. BINGO! Sure enough, when I accessed the furnace that same vent cover had come off. I think I’ll wait to see if it comes off again before I come up with a way to permanently keep it in place. The suburban furnace has nine vent choices and my 28 RKBS unit uses just three, removable covers are put on some of the other choices.
Here’s a link to what the suburban furnace looks like.
**** Suburban furnace ****

While we were at Carlyle, we ran out of propane in one of our bottles. The closest place, and as far as I could tell, the only place to get it refilled was at the marina next to the campground. Wow, when you’re the only game in town you can charge outrageous prices. The marina charged me $30.00, that’s a dollar a pound for propane. If I ever run out of propane at Carlyle again I’ll wait until I get home to have it refilled.

Below is a photo of our site last fall at Carlyle Lake. Of course I no longer own the gas guzzling V10 Dodge truck.

Richard,

That's one of the prettiest pix that I've seen on this site. Had to have been the fall. and

Very nice pic!!!!

We love Dam West but sometimes have a hard time getting a site, especially since we are both working still! We actually stayed there several times this year. We also enjoy Cole's Creek and Boulder, but they are further from town. Just love the entire area! Hazlett State Park is also really nice, but more expensive.

Next time you go be sure and hit up the Carlyle Meat Mkt. They have some great meat and prices!!

jakomom53 wrote:We love Dam West but sometimes have a hard time getting a site, especially since we are both working still! We actually stayed there several times this year. We also enjoy Cole's Creek and Boulder, but they are further from town. Just love the entire area! Hazlett State Park is also really nice, but more expensive.

Next time you go be sure and hit up the Carlyle Meat Mkt. They have some great meat and prices!!

We'll check that meat market out next week. We are headed to Dam West on Monday and coming back on Thursday. The purpose of this trip is to winterize the Wildcat, bummer. We're in site 86 which is a full hookup site.

Enjoy your stay!

Last time we had full hook-ups at Dam West we were also in site #86!!

We leave Tuesday for Rend Lake, North Sandusky, for the week as well.

Make sure you ask about their brat burgers!! It like a brat but in burger form and no skin!! Wonderful!!

Ther are alot of other campsites further south too. We live close to Crab Orchard lake , Rend Lake and others. Some have full hookup some don't. But a day of camping is still the best. Jim

Beautiful site! Thanks for the eye candy.