Shabbona Lake State Park, IL

Shabbona Lake State Park is located just miles west of Chicago, off U.S. 30, and features 1,550 acres of natural heaven. Shabbona Lake State Recreation Area provides a convenient, natural haven from the hustle and bustle of daily life. With facilities for picnicking, camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, and winter sports, Shabbona Lake is a convenient and comfortable retreat where you can refresh and reinvigorate yourself in a rare, unspoiled environment

Shabbona Lake State Park Campground is a semi-wooded area with 150 Class A sites with electricity, showers, vehicular access, boat launch, playground, kid’s fishing area, and The Camp Store. There are paddle boats that you may rent to enjoy a scenic view of Shabbona Lake.
 
Each campsite has a gravel parking space, picnic table, and a campfire ring. Campfires are only allowed in the ring, you must either purchase firewood at The Camp Store or you may bring in wood as long as it has been certified by the Illinois Department of Agriculture as having been inspected and found pest free.  All vehicles must park on the gravel pads. Please remember to erect your tent on or within 15 feet of the gravel pad.
 
A single camp is considered to be a family of no more than four adults, or a group of no more than four unrelated adults. Four unrelated adults without children may occupy up to two tents per campsite.

Reservations for the cabins, campsites, shelters and youth group can be made on-line through www.reserveamerica.com. All overnight prices can be found on the Reserve America site.

Chief Shabbona spoke against Chief Black Hawk at a major council of the Pottawatomie Indians held on the DesPlaines river. Upon learning of Black Hawks plans for war, Chief Shabbona, his sons and tribe members went from cabin to cabin warning settlers as far away as Ottawa, IL, of Chief Black Hawk’s intentions. The U.S. Government granted Chief Shabbona land for his service during the Black Hawk war. The land was set aside for him near Shabbona Grove in DeKalb county. He was also awarded, by the government, a $200 annual pension. This is the state park dedicated to Chief Shabbona.

Starting at the farthest parking lot, the trail quickly splits and a decision needs to be made. We took the Tomahawk trail over the dam. Our hike was counter clockwise around the lake.

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We have a nice sit down discussion about all the various PB&J combinations we’ve experimented with this season. My dad and I spend a lot of time working our food menu for our hikes. We’ve been dehydrating fruits, making these sandwiches and testing various purchased hiking food options. Today we are eating the winning combination of SunFlower Butter, Ginger Preserves and my dad’s homemade bread. Mackays Ginger Preserve: http://usa.mackays.com/our-range/pres…​

At the end of the Shabonna Lake Dam is a gate. The gate gets closed when hunting season begins. We were going to test our luck, but our smarts caught up with us and we turned around very shortly after this (Do as I say, not as I do).

There are some picnic tables for hanging out at on the West side of Shabbona Lake. This piece of land goes further into the lake.

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On our way back from the Shabbona Campgrounds (more info in link below). We are traveling along the Arrowhead Trail back towards the trailhead. Along this section of the hike is much evidence for beavers. The bottoms of many trees were stripped bare of their bark and my understanding is beavers do this to file their teeth.

Still trekking on the Arrowhead Trail. We came across an Osage Orange fruit and were slightly perplexed. We talk about the beaver evidence again too.

Hear the geese? We do too. What a symphony!

This trail goes past a pond (not Shabbona Lake) for a small period of time. Shabbona Lake State Park is a man-made lake, created in 1975. SHOUT OUT NEIL!

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We lost our trail and ended up on the road that takes you through Shabbona Lake State Park. Shabbona Lake State Park hosts activities such as fishing, hunting camping, hiking and others.

It’s always a nice moment when you come back to present moment awareness and enjoy what’s happening right here right now. The smells and breeze were coming together to create a memorable moment in this hike.

We finished our hike at Shabbona Lake State Park. The dam is an especially noteworthy part of this location. The campgrounds were closed when we hiked by them but we plan on coming back in the spring to see if we can camp then. We hiked 6.97 miles.

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