Trip to Rockford, IL
Blackhawk Valley Campground
June 19-20, 2004

This weekend, we traveled to Rockford, IL to the Blackhawk Valley Campground to spend the weekend camping with our daughter Lisa.  This was her first outing with us.  The weather was great and the campground (our favorite so far this year) was having a cooking demonstration at the pavilion all day and it was a lot of fun.
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Pictures of this trip
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The Trip
This was our second time visiting Blackhawk Valley Campground and the first time RV camping with our daughter Lisa (19).  We arrived Saturday around noon and left Sunday around noon also.  Even though we were only there for 24 hours, it still felt like a whole weekend.

We spent time visiting some of the seasonal campers that we'd met the previous time we stayed here.  The seasonal campers staying here are so friendly.  The campground had an organized event at the pavilion on Saturday too.  One of the seasonal couples (Jim and Ann) hosted a cooking/tasting event.  All day long, they cooked appetizers and entrees (all on grills) and served them up at various times.  The campground handed out fliers on the event to people checking in and probably delivered them to the seasonals as well.  This way, you knew approximately what was being cooked and tasted at what time.  Jim and Ann did a wonderful job cooking.  Everything was so delicious.  I understand this was sort of a trial event to see if it was something campers had interest in.  I think it was a hit.  Poor Jim and Ann were beat by the end of the day, I am sure.  All that planning, shopping, setup, prepping, cooking, cleanup etc.  Whew!

It was nice to have a nice event like this taking place when Lisa was with us too.  It gave us something to do when we weren't just lounging around.  We also had our usual grilled steak for dinner, Smores afterwards and my baked egg dish for breakfast on Sunday.

Since this was just a single overnight trip and we didn't need to use the Jeep for anything while camping, I decided to leave the trailer hitched to the Jeep.  I just used the trailer's stabilizer jacks to stabilize the trailer and semi-level it.  Most of the daily rental sites are pretty level to start, so not unhitching worked out pretty well.

While not yet planned, we already look forward to returning to Blackhawk Valley Campground.

Trip Out:
Time: 90 minutes
Route: Lake St. (US-20) to I-355 north to I-90 west to US-20 west/US39 south (in Rockford, IL)
Miles: 69
Weather: Sunny and mild 

Route Map

Campground
Blackhawk Valley Campground is located on the south side of Rockford, just south of US-20 and just west of US-39, right on the Kishwaukee River.  

Blackhawk Valley Campground offers ~130 individual RV campsites.  The sites break down as (approximately) as follows: 

- 69 Seasonal RV (some with full-hookup and others with water/electric only)
- 39 Standard water/electric (19 of them are pull-throughs)
- 22 Monthly sites

They also have 2 large tent areas

I'd estimate the campground to be around 20 acres in size.

Restroom/shower facilities: We did use the showers but they looked very clean.  The restrooms were older but in good condition and clean as well.

We stayed in pull-through site number 64 this time.  One thing different about most of the daily sites here is that there is no gravel.  It's all grass (a few new sites are gravel) and actually, it's very nice.  I suppose in the very wet time of the year, gravel would be nice, but for the majority of the camping season, the grass would be nicer.

The fire ring is near the back of each site and they were all decent sized truck rims (the usual).  They were cleaned out too.  The water and electrical hookups were well situated and were in good condition.

I could go on and on but why take up the space when the campground has a pretty good website with a very descriptive site map?  Click here to see the site map.  We still feel this is the best campground we've stayed at all year and look forward to returning each time!.

Rockford
Rockford is a pretty large town - about 150,000 people covering about 15,000 square miles.  We didn't spend any time in town other than to stop by Arby's (Harrison Avenue exit off US 20) on the way home to grab a quick lunch.

Radio
- Didn't turn the radio on this trip

TV
- Didn't use it this trip, but last time here, all we got that was channel 13 (in a wooded valley)

Cellular
- AT&T Wireless (TDMA): No service in this valley.  Back in service outside of valley though
- T-Mobile (GSM)             : No service in this valley.  Back in service outside of valley though

Trip Back:
Time: ~90 minutes
Route: US-20 east to I-90 east to I-355 south to Lake St. (US-20)  
Miles: 69
Weather: Sunny and mild

Jim

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Updated: 11/05/2004 10:11:37 PM
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