Lake Murphysboro State Park, Illinois, United States

4HoosierGal60 5:00 PM Aug 28, 2015

Camp site with a bonus!
We selected tent site #5 in the Lily Pad section because it sat out on a nice grassy point. It was the last night of our trip so we decided to treat ourselves to a pizza and went into town. We returned just as the last of the light was fading from the sky, and that's when we realized how special this site was. A large number of heron, ducks, and geese began to gather in the shallows just beyond our little point of land. The geese were quite noisy at first, but that just added to the spectacle. They stayed all night and whenever one would be startled by something there would be a little honk or quack. I happened to wake at dawn and ended up nudging my bf awake to watch them do their fishing. The herons took to the air, swooping back and forth over the others and landing in the trees overhead to scope out the neighborhood. The ducks eventually flew off. The geese must have been taking a rest day because they never left. They were in two groups and seemed to have an agreement as to which water and which land each group could use. At one point the largest group was clearly playing an organized game that reminded me of synchronized swimming. It was one of those "am I really seeing this?" kind of moments. We also enjoyed the sounds of a variety of owls throughout the night. Anyway, the vaults were very clean, the showers were warm, although they are the kind with no barrier to keep the water out of the dressing area. Overall a very nice place.

4Julie G 5:00 PM Nov 4, 2019

Nice place to relax
Lake Murphysboro is a nice place to relax. There are several camping areas and picnic areas. Swimming is not allowed but the lake is stocked with blue gill, bass, crappie and is a nice place to fish.