Going camping with the family

[shugknight]

So for my brother's birthday we're planning on going camping. I'm in charge of finding a cool place to camp. Something to help entertain my parents, along with my aunt and uncle. But also something to keep my nephew's from being bored to death and asking to go home.

I live in Chicago, and I'm pretty big on the outdoors. I'm an avid fly fisherman, and have gone down to the Smokey Mountains to fish/camp. Here in Chicago I normally head down to the Kankakee River. The State park has a nice campground, with many activities; like canoing, fishing, and horseback riding. Thing is, I feel like it's too close to home (1 hour away) and it normally gets overcrowded, especially during the weekends.

So I was thinking of possibly looking at places such as Michigan and Wisconsin. I heard many good things about Michigan, but can't find any info or pics about which campgrounds are really nice. Does anybody know of any place, whether in Illinois or Michigan or Wisconsin, or anywhere, that would be good to camp out for the weekend? Possible hidden gems?

Thanks!

[davin]

Re: Going camping with the family

I was 9 the last time I went to this place, so please do some research on it. My family would go to Wabash in Indiana, seemed to be a pretty good place that my family enjoyed. There was a place my dad and I went camping in Michigan (about 45-60 minutes from Toledo) when I was 10 that I loved, but I can't remember the name or really anything about it other then we went fishing on the canoe, did some hikes around a lake, and they had a lot of open space to play baseball. Sorry I can't remember the name.