Best places: Lakes in Illinois

Popular, 11,000-acre lake featuring boating, swimming, camping, fishing, sandy beaches & picnicking.

Large 26,000-acre lake used for sailing & fishing, with sandy beach areas & state park trails.

Hiking trails & sandstone bluffs encircle this reservoir attracting visitors for fishing & boating.

👍👍 .y fav place to go to the lake take the dog, family, friend, cook out swim, hike aweso.e

👍👍 Awesome trails. Great bird watching. Not super crowded. It would also be a fantastic place to go kayaking.

Reservoir popular for warm-water fishing & boating, also offering nearby campgrounds & a marina.

👍👍 Awesome place to fish with your kids! Almost every nice day you have a guaranteed bite! There are big bass, pike, bluegill, sunfish, etc! If you are a fisherman, come check it out! Overall this place is amazing!

👍👍 We go every summer now for the last 6 yrs to the beach. It's reasonably priced, however there's no life guard. Nice, clean sandy beach with picnic area right by the beach. We have a great time every time we go. Thanks to the summer staff for making it a nice visit.

👍👍 This lake is stocked each year with young Walleye that come from a garage based fish hatchery the local forest preserve employee run. Just saw a short on “Chicago Tonight”. The forest preserve employees do a great job in helping to keep our lakes stocked with fish - Thank you for your hardwork so ev...

👍👍 Lake Park is an amazing park, it has lots of BBQs and great open space for picnic. A big lawn for open play and there is also a stage for local performers. They have movies in the park in the summer months there. Also, the park offers 2 huge picnic pavilions, 1 smaller one (about 60 people), a child...

👍 Great location but dwindling solitude. Too many new Young inexperienced boaters that don't respect noise levels and crouch. Nothing stays the same

This 810-acre manmade lake surrounded by lush foliage offers boating & rainbow-trout fishing.

👍👍 Spent a few day tenting for the first time and must say I enjoyed myself very much. Place was very quiet clean and staff was very friendly from check-in to check-out.

Large reservoir lake for water activities like fishing, kayaking, canoeing & swimming.

😠 I decided to go to the lake for the first time with my friend. We wanted to do something new, but nothing expensive and nothing too far away. We decided to go to lake mattoon. While there we swam and had some fun. When we decided it was time to leave I had gotten into my car and drove to the exit. T...

4,260-acre reservoir with boating, fishing, a marina with watercraft rentals & a park with a zoo.

👍👍 I've always enjoyed the fireworks and fishing here.