Clear running water (river) great views

The campsites are clean, well maintained and decent sized. The views of the bluffs are amazing. But the Elk….soooo majestic! The river running along the bluff makes for an almost trance-inducing sound as you awake to find a roaming herd of large beautiful elk in the campground with you. I have never seen anything like it.

Pros: Great location on the river and close to plenty of hiking trails! Each campsite has a picnic table and fire ring. The bathrooms were well maintained and there is drinking water available. You can walk to the river from the campground which is very convenient! I'd recommend booking a campsite along the trees and further from the parking lot. Good for groups - you can book multiple spots next to each other. I booked the site through recreation.gov. 

Cons: I gave this campground 4 stars instead of 5 only because I prefer less crowded campgrounds where the campsites are more spread out. This campground was full on the Saturday we were there (even though my photos don't show it) which we expected based on it's popularity. Each site is very close to the next. You may end up next to a group of partiers who want to stay up late with loud music, making it hard to fall asleep, so you never know what you'll experience at a campsite like this.

This campground was one of my favorites to stay at. It has a fairly central location to a lot of interesting trails and sights (Hemmed-In Falls, Glory Hole trail, etc.) . My girlfriend and I went during a dry spell, and couldn't find a good swimming hole to relax at. Well, it turns out that right behind the campsite is the best place to swim! Can't recommend this site enough, will go again soon.

Really beautiful views of the bluffs and easy access to the river for swimming. Only drawback was the fact that all the sites are in a large open field with picnic tables denoting specific sites, so just not a ton of privacy. Saw a lot of deer in the forest right next to our site and in the field next over. Overall a great place though!

We loved camping at Steel Creek! You can see beautiful bluff from the campground. The campsites are all in a big grassy field which I love. There are trails to the river nearby and a great swimming hole! There are flush toilets and vault toilets in the campground.

Great Campground with restrooms and running water. Campground sits next to the Buffalo River and Roark Bluff background. Lots of wildlife such as deer, elk and if you are lucky black bears. Very quiet and every site has a picnic table. Half of the sites can be reserved. GO!!!! ITS IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE!!

Kayaking, swimming, and fishing were awesome!

We booked 6 sites of horse camp for Labor Day weekend back in July. They had plenty of time to take care of sites. We got there and the grass was high on all sites. One of the guys with us brought a battery operated weed eater and started to weed eat our area when a park ranger stopped and said we weren’t allowed to weed eat only they are allowed to mow. We asked if they would mow sites and they said NO. The people right down from us on other horse site had to keep horses tied to trailer because weeds were that high you couldn’t get to horse post. One of had brought our RV with horses and were told we weren’t allowed to bring RV even though when we booked it online, it gave us the option to book RV with horses. We usually come to horse camp 5-6 times a year, but think this might be our last time going. Seems they are trying to close down horse camp.. we had reservations on Memorial Day and when we got there it was full of tent campers with NO HORSES but they were allowed to stay there. This place is turning into a joke. You pay $20 a night to get nothing but harassed by the park rangers!!

This is one of my all time favorite places to camp. I’ve only ever been in the fall and winter. So it’s quiet. When you first get there it’s a little unnerving because it’s so quiet. There’s no road noise at all. Just nature and the occasional chopping of firewood. It’s all very clean. They have toilets and water spigots that are open til November. And vault toilets for winter.