Rend Lake IL

Rend Lake Illinois a manmade lake in Southern IL is one of my least favorite places. It's nothing more than an oversized gravel pit with a lousy view of nothingness, why the state of Illinois decided to plunk this ugly body of water in this location is beyond me. The water in the main lake is typically too choppy to fly on due the fact that it is wide open and the wind blows across it creating some pretty rough water. There is very little landscape in this place pretty much flat very few hills, there are no houses along its shores because it is all State Park. Most of the bays are mud bottom which gives it a brown river water appearance, I suppose before the State of Illinois "aquired" this land from its residence it may have had some nice scenery but any of that was ruined by flooding over it. The bridges to the eastern backwater are low and make it difficult to pass under to arrive at anything worth viewing and in order to get to it you have to travel to the eastern side under I 57 which isn't the problem it is the next set of bridges that are really low and at high water a hover can't pass under them. The only two redeeming qualities of the entire area is the people, they for the most part, are warm and friendly, and the fact that on what should have been the busiest days of the year there are very few boats on the lake so it's pretty desolate. If you’re looking for a fun place to hover I would recommend you stay away from Rend Lake. About the only thing they have to offer is multiple prisons. Big Muddy, Pickneyville, Centralia, and Menard, to name a few. Seriously, give me a better reason to come to Southern IL.