RV rental Illini State Park, IL: Motorhome rentals, camper van rentals and more

There’s no shortage of RV rentals in LaSalle County, Illinois, and no shortage of scenic state parks to enjoy a motorhome camping trip. Illini State Park is in northern Illinois, just 80 miles southwest of Chicago. The 510-acre state park borders the Illinois River, across the water from the small town of Marseilles. You’ll find grassy picnic areas, dense oak forest, and beautiful cottonwoods along the river here. The park was named after the Illini natives that once inhabited the area, and there’s plenty of history to see here.

The Marseilles Moraine, features from the last ice age that flattened most of Illinois, left a little bit of a divot where Illini State Park is located. This changing topography helped create scenic rapids along this section of the river, which you’ll have a hard time finding elsewhere along the river. The rapids were so strong that Illinois created a separate canal for shipping to Marseilles, which parallels the river. The area was home to a large-scale coal mining operation until World War II.

The land on which the park now sits was once a sprawling, swanky country club in the early 20th century. The Civilian Conservation Corps eventually turned this golf course into a park in the early 1930s, and Illini became an official state park in 1935. The old CCC camp buildings are still standing today, and Illini State Park campers can walk around these historic buildings as part of a small network of hiking trails throughout the park.