Best Tent Camping near Renault, IL

We loved our stay at Babler, aside from the snow & wind - the park is great! Review below ⬇️

⛺️ S I T E R E V I E W ⛺️

📍 Dr. Edmund A. Babler State Park Wildwood, MO

💰 $12-$21/night

🗓 Feb 19-21, 2022

Site 48 ⚡️💧

🦮 Pets Welcome (on leash at all times)

➕Concrete Pads, Quiet, Close to Interstate 40, Paved Roads, Easy to Access, Gated Overnight with access code

➖Small/Close Sites, No Water in Off Season, Only Vault Toilets - No Showers in Off Season

📶 AT&T Service 4 out of 5

🚮 Dump Station located behind bathhouse. NO WATER during off season!

🚻AMENITIES •Playground •Hiking, Biking & Equestrian Trails •Wood & Ice •Interpretive Programs •Visitor Center •Special Use Area •Laundry, Flush Toilets & Showers ON SEASON ONLY!

🏕SITES Reservable 12 Months-FCFS in off season 72 Reservable 8 Accessible sites Basic - Electric Concrete Back In Lantern Hook, Picnic Table & Fire Ring

⏰ HOURS/DATES April - October 7:am - 9:pm Nov - March 7:am - 6:pm

🔺Park Office 8:30am - 4:pm M-F

🔺Visitor Center April - Oct 9:am - 4:30pm W - Sun Nov - March 9:am - 4:pm - Sat-Sun Dec - Feb CLOSED

This camp site has RV hook-ups and tent camping. There are trees throughout the campground if you're looking to set up a hammock. Each site has a fire ring and picnic table and is a mix of grass and light gravel. Pit toilets, no showers. Water spigots throughout the camp ground. Keep an eye out for snakes though! I nearly stepped on a copper head in the outhouse! Camp sites are a 2 minute walk to the St. Francois River. Great hiking along the river and good fishing, swimming and kayaking in the river! Also not to far from the Castor River Shut-ins if you're looking to pack two rivers into one trip. We just celebrated my husband's birthday here last weekend, though we have been a few times before. Always a blast!

I’ve camped at both campgrounds offered at St. Joe. In the fall of 2018, we stayed at CG#1, the spot has a nice gravel tent pad with border, picnic table, and a fire pit. The spot also offered a concrete section for a camper and cars. We had a pop-up and one tent and it was very spacious. A great spot with a minute walk to a very well kept shower house and bathroom. We really liked this spot at CG#1.

CG#2 is located about 2-3 away from the main campground, this includes the shower house and main bathrooms. There is no shower house at CG#2. I stayed at CG#2 about a week ago. Very similar in design to the sites at CG#1, it also offers amenities for those with horses. We had a spot with electric and no water, water is located close by the vault toilets. The site has a gravel parking area rather than the concrete one at CG#1. We had two tents, two cars, and five people, just as spacious. If you want more seclusion and don’t really care about being right next to the showers, I would suggest CG#2.

Also, there was a trail located right by our spot at CG#2, it’s a good hike!!

Two clean and well kept swimming areas, great trails, good camp sites, and great bathrooms/showers!

Really great campground. Good mix of tents and RVs. Bath house was very well kept and clean. Showers ran cold at first but after a few mins it gets warmer! There were plenty of pit toliets through out the campground and trash cans. My tent site was clean, good flat spot for tent, picnic table and fire pit with attached grill.

The Concession building in the park is closing. No boat rentals, selling everything he has on the shelf.

Caught a few bass and and good amount of hiking. Large trail around the whole lake, smaller trails lead to sites around the different campgrounds.

Took the youngest kids for their first camping trip, and it could not have been better. Plenty of space, site was level for our tents and had a nice, soft carpet of pine needles, facilities in great shape (didn't use the showers, but they looked decent and were fairly popular), nice sink in the laundry room we used to fill our dish-washing tubs, good neighbors, nobody too noisy and folks generally kind and friendly. Really enjoyed being on the tents-only side of the campground--allowed for a clear, wide view of the landscape and the fall colors. Hiking is some of the best in Missouri.

I will say that the "walk-in" sites didn't seem to have much privacy and weren't very far from the parking lot, if that matters to you.

All in all, you can't get much better for tent camping.

We had a beautiful campsite with soft grassy ground. We did have a mole or something burrowing around so you had to watch for loose dirt clods but that was NBD. The site had a picnic table and fire ring. There were pit toilets, no showers. Spigots throughout the area. Within walking distance of the river and trail access. Beautiful hiking on the bluffs above the river. The hosts were really friendly. There was also a very cute and very friendly kitty running around the area hunting grasshoppers. He hung out for some pets and cuddles then wandered off for some more adventure. I kind of want to be that cat. ^_^