Rock Cut State Park, Illinois, United States

3Bill B 5:00 PM Jun 7, 2020

Nice quiet lake and campground close to Chicago but facilities need work
Rock Cut has a nice sized lake for canoeing kayaking and fishing. Being close to metro Chicago makes this an annual camping trip for the family. People are friendly and the campers are amazingly quiet at night. BUT, the lack of funding for Illinois State Parks is showing. The roads are full of potholes, the restroom/showers are showing a lack of maintenance. I saw insect residue that must have been on the screens for years. Shower stalls and toilet areas are looking bleak. Second day in, both men and women's units were under 2" of water.

3Indy-ND 5:00 PM Jul 5, 2021

The most interesting looking hiking trail was closed.
The most interesting hiking area appeared to be in the Willow Creek Natural Area. There is a parking area just to the west of the lake. The trail appeared to be marked well. The first feature you get to is a tall rock formation and a staircase that headed down into the valley with a staircase going up the other side. There was no mention of the trail being closed until you got to the bottom of the stairs. At the stairs to go up the other side, there was a "Trail Closed" sign. That was the end of that. I did head over to the spillway and checked out a very rough trail along the creek for about 50 yards and that was the end of the hiking. I stopped at the park's concession stand and that was closed (covid I believe). I just headed out from there to the next adventure. The lake looked nice and I'm sure there are some fine trails, but I wasn't in the mood to hunt around for a backup, especially since I didn't have a map.