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Pitch your tent in one of four widely spaced sites. Each site has enough room for multiple tents and includes a fire pit and picnic table. The sites are just a short walk from our shower/restroom facility. The fishing ponds are just a quarter mile walk from the campsites, and access to the numerous trails throughout our 940-acre property is directly from the campsites. While we have four designated sites, it is rare for all to be full, and likely that you'll be the only campers here most days. We are located in a very remote/rural part of Illinois in a county nestled between the Mississippi& Illinois Rivers, but only 75 miles north of downtown St. Louis. We have been included in John Shirle's"The Best in Tent Camping: Illinois."
The McCully Heritage Project is a 940- acre environmental center located one mile south of Kampsville in beautiful and remote Calhoun County. We are a private non-profit left as the legacy of Howard and Eva McCully.
Dropped in as a quick stop during cross country trip. I had worked on a project there in HS 3 decades ago, and having fond memories, thought to go and check it out.
Wonderful program ongoing, got to chat up a couple of the staffers and see the happenings. Took time to hike up the ridge, read the current works reports, and they even gave me the old report for the project I contributed to many years ago.
This place is real field work that inspires a lifetime of scientific inquiry. Highly recommend for aspiring archeologists. Bring sunscreen, a big hat and bug juice. 🙂
Great place to hike and experience nature. This is not state or publicly funded. It's fantastic that the public has access. It's free, but donations are recommended, since they receive no government support. I saw lots of wildlife on my hike. Crawford Creek runs through the site.
Such a beautiful place! I enjoyed the south horse trails the last two weeks. Some of the trails seem to be a work in progress, but mostly this is a great place to camp/hike. Lots of wildlife, the facilities are well kept, and during the week it’s not very trafficked. I highly suggest mapping out your trails first and know the hills are not for the faint of heart! Please be prepared to donate to this project, they work hard to keep these trails and protect the local wildlife.
A friend and I camped and hiked here in early November. We stayed at campsite #4. All the campsites were very spacious and spaced out well. I think this is one of my favorite campsites I've stayed at! The bathrooms were extremely clean, too. Each campsite gets a separate bathroom up at the shower house which seems like it would be very convenient on busy nights. I have nothing but positive things to say about camping here. We were also visited by a couple of very friendly cats from the house there.
The north trails were the only ones that were open for the season while we were there, but we can't wait to check out the south trails when they're open again. There is small a scenic overlook on the north trail, which seemed like the main highlight. Unfortunately, the woods there have been completely overtaken by invasive Japanese honeysuckle but we did observe a couple of neat native ferns on our hike.
Visiting wetlands when they aren't wet is kind of a downer, but it was beautifully deserted and wild. We didn't have time to walk any of the trails, but if you like to be alone in nature, this is your spot.
