Hickory Hollow Campground

Just returned home from a great camping trip. Not really sure what the bad reviews on here are about. We were very pleased with all parts of our stay.
We were in town for a Friday/​Saturday stay and leaving on Sunday. Everyone else in the area was sold out for the weekend. We were really bummed out and so lucky to find this campground.
Camp was a short drive from Starved Rock, Wal Mart, a gas station and some great local restaurants etc. but at the same time our camp site felt secluded and surrounded by nature. We had a few neighbors while maintaining a feeling of privacy.
Office staff was very friendly and emergency supplies or things you might need were very reasonably priced. Pets were allowed. Bathrooms at the office offered showers and CLEAN BATHROOMS which in my experience is very hard to find and greatly appreciated. Park seemed very well maintained, no trash etc.
A couple times throughout the night security rolled through on their carts but didn’t disturb us. We had some pretty interesting neighbors. Good mix of families and couples. Just a great spot with a friendly vibe, we will be returning!
NO OUTSIDE FIREWOOD ALLOWED

We stayed at this campground on August 15,2015. The owners are wonderful. They were the first campground that assisted us to our site! The campground, though there are not trees, is excellent and very clean.

Besides from this SUPER mean women, everything else was good. She is the worst nightmare you can face and there’s no «customer service» in her dictionary. You better not be late not even one second or she will scream at you for several minutes even if it’s not your fault and you keep apologizing and you have the courtesy to call beforehand to let them know about the delay. Do your best to avoid or ignore her and you’ll be fine. Or if you could (I have friends with me, I can’t get throw out), give her the attitude back or something.
The other ladies, compare to that mean one, are like angels. They are so nice you want to tip them.
Washroom was clean. That’s a big thing for me. Pool is small but decent. Location is convenient. Close to highway, gas stations, McDonald and Subway, 15 mins to Walmart (in Ottawa), 10 – 15 mins to Starved Rock.
Because of the rain for the past few weeks, there’s a lot of mosquitos. But I guess it’s hard to avoid when you decide to go camping after the rain.

This campground was nice! The two women in registration that we encountered were friendly. We didn’t have any other interaction with employees after that. All the other campers were friendly as well. The bathrooms were very clean. The outhouse by our tent site was clean also. I seen the employees doing rounds in the golf cart every 30 mins before we fell asleep. They didn’t come too close too our site.

After reading a slew of bad reviews on Trip adviser… was pretty safe to say we were (just a bit!) hesitant to camp here… and that was even after my sister made reservations.
The reviews ranged from complaints about the owners being Camp Nazi’s (no camp for you!) to extremely bad attitudes by the staff… customers being told that fires go out at 10, and it’s bedtime and cops being called in to reinforce that fact.
Have to say, we were a little on edge because of it! Even fighting with my husband on the way up. because tension was so high.
My sis had already made reservations, Unilocaled and did trip adviser after… which was like wah? what?!!
But, sometimes you have to dig in… and see for yourself.
Glad we did.
Because we experienced NONE of that.
Was a super clean, comfy place. We like roughing it completely — and tent it — most of the sites were nicely shaded, secluded and pretty.
We needed more room, picked the 2 all the way to the back across from the corn field — sun was sure hot! But, super pretty spot! Especially at night.
There is a security golf cart that makes the rounds… we were not harassed. Pool is good for kids — 4 feet, which makes it perfect… not too deep… not too shallow.
2 playgrounds, looks like they have comfy cabins up front and the bathrooms were clean — except at the end of the night, but haven’t been out camping where it really hasn’t…dirt, sand, ick from bug spray… it all adds up!
Primitive camping… costs are reasonable.
In love with the area. Very convenient to both Matthesion and Starved Rock… Buffalo Rock’s in the area as well, never been.
Utica has a cute downtown… bars, shops… lots of scenary in all of those surrounding areas… perfect for centering yourself around everything to enjoy the area.
Good find!
Do believe we’ll be back!

We just spent two nights at Hickory Hollow and had a great time! The park is clean, well maintained and pretty. We are tent campers, by choice, and were treated very nicely by the staff. Unlike some of the other reviewers we did not feel like we were being «spied on» by the staff in the evening hours. The golf cart went around about every half hour or so and I personally appreciated the added bit of security it provided. There was a large group of people a couple of sites down and they were kinda loud during quiet hours but I never saw them being threatened or even reprimanded. Which was fine b/​c they weren’t so loud we couldn’t sleep or anything (this is in response to the reviews that you cannot even talk around your campfire without being threatened with police action).
My children ages 3 and 7 LOVED the pool which was well maintained and clean. There were places for them to play, lots of room to run and a small, simple game room to play pool and video games.
You have to buy their firewood which is $ 4.50 a bundle including tax which is slightly higher than getting it from outside the campground but I think you will find that most campgrounds ask you to buy their wood nowadays b/​c of the risk of bringing in the beetles that destroy trees. Not unreasonable a request.
There were a lot of rules to follow but none were overbearing and if you think about it, that’s why the campground is so nice. This is super close to home for us and we will definitely be back when we want to to just hop away for a night or two.

I have never met a more unprofessional, rude group of old women that run the place. From the beginning (as soon as we checked in), they were rude because a couple days prior, we had to cancel one of the condo reservations (we booked 2 condos beforehand) due to the fact that people in our party backed out last minute. Then they proceeded to tell us that we were only allowed 6 people in the condo (we had 8), when, in fact, they told us prior that we can have 6 – 8 people in the condo, no problem. They literally told us 2 people needed to go home. So after some talking, they decided to be a bit nice and let all 8 of stay, only if we put down another $ 200 deposit which we would get back if everything checked out at the end of our stay.
The night before we were supposed to check out (midnight, to be exact), security comes over and says that there’s too many people, only 4 people are allowed in the condo. Whoa, where did that come from?! Two people already left an hour before the whole incident, so there were 6 left. There were no prior complaints about us at all the two nights we were there; we weren’t being loud and obnoxious; we’re a group of mature adults who wanted to get away for the weekend. Oh, and someone visited us for a couple hours, at 10pm, she was kicked out because «visiting hours end at 10pm.» Who knew campgrounds enforced curfew for grown adults? Apparently these women do. Everyone got fed up and wanted to just go home right then and there, but they refused to check us out, even though the old lady hag lives in the trailer right across the main building! 4 left at midnight, 2 stayed until 8am the next morning to check out. We checked the website when we got home and the website specifically states that the large condos fit 6 – 8 people; we called them to tell them this and they got mad and hung up on us!!! The staff members (the two old ladies in particular) were nothing but rude to us the whole weekend, harassing us for nothing! Oh, and they lied and said there was only 1 small water heater in our building (which holds 2 condos); they said we had to be respectful of our neighbors and not use up the hot water. We found the water heater, and it was not small, by all means; it was a large one. We found out that our neighbors also had a water heater in their unit as well!!! They’re nothing but liars who’s on a power trip. Oh, and the mayor of Utica apparently owns the campgrounds, and it’s his hag of a wife that was harassing us all weekend. Do yourself a favor and don’t come here; save your money and go somewhere where staff treats visitors with respect! I have never posted a review ever, but our experience with them was so, so bad I felt the need to warn everyone else…