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Nat'l Recreation Area
Nat'l Recreation Area

Illinois Waterway

Illinois · IL

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We display cached information from agency feeds. Hours, fees, permits, closures, fire restrictions, and conditions change without notice. Outdoors is not the permitting authority. Confirm current conditions for this park using the links above before you go — you are responsible for compliance. Last verified by us: May 20, 2026. Our copy is more than a month old — please reconfirm with the agency before relying on it.Spot an error in our data?

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Park entrance fees, hours, and ranger-issued closures change without notice and may be out of date here. Always confirm current conditions, fees, and access restrictions with the managing agency before you travel. Outdoors is not responsible for closures, fines, or denied entry resulting from outdated information.

Ever want to see the operation of a lock and dam? The Illinois Waterway Visitor Center offers you that as well as impressive towboats of mammoth proportions navigating through the Starved Rock Lock, which is one of eight on the Illinois Waterway. While there you can see all sorts of cool displays in the visitor center. Displays cover the waterway from the Illinois and Michigan Canal to today?s modern lock and dam structures. The visitor center is open 7 days a week with the exception of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

Source: recreation.gov

From Wikipedia

The Illinois Waterway system consists of 336 miles (541 km) of navigable water from the mouth of the Calumet River at Chicago to the mouth of the Illinois River at Grafton, Illinois. Based primarily on the Illinois River, it is a system of rivers, lakes, and canals that provide a commercial shipping connection from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico via the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.

Source: Wikipedia — text licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Verify alerts and operational details with the managing agency below.

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Hunting in this park

Hunting is generally prohibited in this National Park Service unit

Verify current park-specific rules with the National Park Service before planning any hunt. See NPS regulations

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