Tree-shaded campgrounds and cabins are what staying at Meramec State Parks is all about. Forty of our most scenic parks offer a wide range of sites, from basic sites to pitch a tent at to full-service sites for your RV. Fourteen favorite state parks offer lodging options ranging from motel rooms and fourplexes to a lake house, yurts and outpost cabins and makes for great camping near Kansas City.

Meramec State Park Campground

Nice clean state park close to St. Louis. My family and I spent all of our time on the gravel bar. Parking is limited at the gravel bar so show up early if you want a good spot. The trail to the water is short but it is just a narrow path through the woods &amp; brush (maybe 50 yards). If you have even the slightest mobility issues you will have trouble due to the narrow unkempt path and incline. The host was present if you need anything. Quiet hours start at 10:00 but did not need to be enforced. Everyone seemed to close it down before 9:30. Shower house was ok. Pads seemed level. Short drive to town if you forgot anything.

Watch out for raccoons. They have no fear and appear to be very hungry. One tried to access our trash at 9:15 in the evening. I was sitting no more than 5 feet from the trash and that raccoon did not care.

Great State Park

Literally the funnest fishing spot and lots of places to do quick hikes. It's quite muggy in this area, but it has quite a surprising number of things to do!

From the West coast and going to MO? Check this place out

The caves are seriously awesome!  Definitely worth checking out.

CAVES!

Lots of thing to do. Camp ground has lots of trees for hammock camping and large sites for tents. *Note- only two tents or lodging items per site. Free showers and clean facilities. There is a cave tour that is a lot of fun. Tons of great hikes with some that take you to caves. Access to the river for lounging or floating. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BI1OsuchfISOmrCJn1Fjwmm2DmtYOfm69xchAU0/?taken-by=abbysitzer      My daughter and her friend made a fun video. 


Great family place

Wit campsites right off the water this is a very peaceful campsite. Bring a float or fishing poles. There are also canoes to rent. The restrooms and shower house are very clean, huge plus!!

relaxing environment

**Campground Review**

The campground is very family friendly, with kids programs and playgrounds all over, but if you want to go camping to have a sense of “getting away from it all, “ this place is not for you.

[Meramec State Park](https://mostateparks.com/park/meramec-state-park) is huge at 6,896 acres with over 13 miles of trails and so much stuff to do. While there you can get a canoe rental, eat at the Fireside Store and Grill, swim, attend an interpretive program, picnic, hike, backpack, explore a cave, boat, and of course, camp. This park caters to everyone from the back country camper to the RV enthusiast, to every those strange friends that would rather stay in a motel room or cabin. With the park only being about an hour outside of St. Louis and having great river access, it must be a hot spot in the summer time. My husband and I decided to go a weekend in the early fall and almost didn’t find a campsite despite the fact that it was already too cold to swim. The sites are packed in close together and the non-electric sites are just a short distance from the electric sites, giving you the sense that you are in a trailer park. If you are at a site at the far end of the loop, prepare for a 10 minute walk to the shower house every time you need to go to the bathroom. And forget just using the trees, there’s no cover in the open field of camping. I may go back to try the back country trails, which include 8 established campsites. Outside of trying the trails there are places not that much further away from St. Louis that offer a much better outdoor experience that I think I’ll go to instead.

Camping is available year-round, prices shown are $1 less in the off season (Nov 1-March 31).

Basic Sites - $13/ night

Electric sites- $23/night

Online reservation fee- $8.50 per reservation (year round)

**Product Review**

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time - today I am testing the [LEDlenser MH 10 Headlamp.](https://www.ledlenser.com/en/products/headlamps/outdoor/mh10/) This ultra bright headlamp is rechargeable! I definitely love the idea that this can be reused without going through batteries and that it produces this level of light! It provides enough lumens that you can easily hike a trail at night.

However, the rechargeable battery makes the headlamp bulky and weighty, so that it's not ideal for backpacking. It's really unnecessarily bright for car camping. The lenses that allow you to filter the light to either green or red are not the most user friendly to swap out, although they are very secure once on the lamp. The lamp does get warm to the touch after 5 minutes or more of use. It never gets so hot that it’s uncomfortable to wear or overheats the light. Don’t get me wrong, this headlamp is nice and probably a stellar choice for starting a hike before dawn, but for the average camping or backpacking trip it’s a bit of overkill and pricey.

Pros:

-ULTRA Bright

-Rechargeable

-5 year warranty

-water resistant

-Focusable light

-3 levels of light

Cons:

-Bulky

-Heavy compared to other headlamps

-Difficult to change out color lenses

Ranger Review: Ledlenser MH2 Headlamp at Meramec State Park

Huge park with tons of amenities and options. Although there is year round Camping, the host on site advised water to each individual site will be turned off end of October for winter. Potable water is available near dump stations (hmmm....). Very well kept, and vacant this time of year, affords the opportunity for a more private camping and river experience. Clean well kept shower houses. Lodge &amp; cabin rentals also available. Boat ramp in back of campground. Campsites with blue bands and parking stops are ADA compliant with concrete pads, elevated grills plus fire ring and picnic table.

Mera-culously huge

**Meramec State Park, Mo campground** has the trees for an awesome tree tent gathering.....if that’s something you want to do :) ( hammocks would work as well!)

Off I44 southwest of St Louis Meramec Campground sits next to the river of the same name which has some beautiful blue water. One of the full hook up aisles is right across the street from several access points to the river. The sites don’t offer a lot of privacy but there is room to set up your accessories and not be sitting your neighbors front “yard”.

My favorite section is the cluster of sites to the left of the main entry that are in a canopy of big old trees. There were multiple selections for treetents and hammocks, it could look like an “Ewok” village if you got enough people in there with their treetents ;)

The showerhouse was older but maintained and the staff was friendly and informative. Most campground this time of year are scaling back if not closing completely. Meramec is year round just in a smaller area. The Boatramp is within the campground, small and gravel.

Excellent camping area with anemities nearby.

The TREES!

Miles upon miles of trails. Spacious campground, caves to explore, old time blast furnace to explore, fresh Missouri spring with exceptional fishing. Then theres a general store with a restaurant

Perfect

This is a nice, large campground in the middle of Meramec State Park. The campground is a large level meadow between the river, the bluffs and the road. For being close to the road, there is not a lot of road noise. I noticed more river noise with boats buzzing up and down the Meramec. The campground was well maintained and nicely laid out with several loops. There didn't seem to be any real separation between the tent and RV sites, but on a early season weekend, you can manage to get a tent site away from the RV's. Some tent sites have good ham mocking trees, but not all sites do. And some sites were clearly in low lying areas that would definitely puddle in a decent rain. All sites had the standard fire ring and picnic table. I thought the shower house was really clean and well maintained, although for a campground this large I would have thought there would have been two. There is a nice hiking trail coming out of the campground that winds along the river and then along the base of the bluff. You can hike up into a large cave and get a birds eye view of everything through the trees. Across from the campground is Fisher's Cave which is open for exploration during the summer months. It was not open when I was there, but there is a trail going to the top of the cave, and of course you can stand at the gated entrance to the cave and feel the cold air coming out. I'm not a caver, but apparently this is a really good cave for exploring.

Ozark fun

beyond yojr wildest dreams! Trails, caves. historical monuments, canoeing, kayaking, fishing, overlooks. complete with cabins and a restuarant or rough it and go primitive style 

what more could you ask for 

Nice, big park with lots of sites for all campers and tent needs. nice shower houses. close to the river for canoeing, tubing and wading. Lots of cottonwood trees so be ready for them dropping ”cotton” all over. 
Some  sites are close and others a little roomier. We’ll be back.

Big, nice campground.

That spaces are roomy than most other state parks, at least it seems. They are too strict in their quiet hours if you ask me...right at 10 our group was told to be quiet. (My large family of about 20 who was just sitting around the fire). Other than that we took a nice float the next day! A photo of us enjoying the night and fire!

Typical campground for floating

Nice campground. Spots are a little cramped but there is running water and decent toilets. Absolutely beautiful area and the park rangers did a great job describing its history and landscape. Highly recommend taking a cave tour of Fisher Cave! So neat!


Cool Caves and Nice Hikes

There are many campsites along with backpacking campsites. A cave nearby. Trails to hike. A river to float.

Out of the way gem

We really love Meramec State Park. The sites are a little close together so it can get quite crowded feeling, but overall it is a well maintained campground and the showers and bathrooms are clean.

Family friendly but crowded

Meramec is a campground centrally located in the Meramec caverns. It is a flat area, soft ground, and open space to camp. Not a lot of privacy from neighbors but it is cozy and everything is close by. Bathrooms could be updated but they are well maintained. Host is kind and halloween trick or treating is the best time to come. Lots of playgrounds and space to play yard games. No trails but it is along a short trail that leads to a cave and the river. 

Cozy night

Can be quite crowded in the summer and only a few secluded sites that we found of use. This is to be expected as one of the more commonly known campgrounds in MO. But overall a pretty park with lots to do and see. Green hikes that my young kids can handle, swimming, tubing/floating, and of course the caves. We like to put our tube or rafts in the river at one park ramp and float to the next one to take out for a quick shot of nature. That is about a 1-2 hour float depending on water level. This is a nice park even to just spend the day in. Hike swim eat and repeat. There’s usually deer abound. As for camping I can mostly speak for the fall, during that time it is fairly open and easier to relax. Less partying going on and more space in between campers. Bathrooms are fairly clean, staff are fairly accommodating. I would recommend this campground.

Lots to do and see

All ages and all camping types. From every to truck bed camping. We were in a secluded area and had rented almost all spot in loop. Nice campsites with water and electric. Bathroom and showers were a pretty good walk. Very strict on noise and park rangers were not nice at all. Close to river access and fun area. 

Family Camp

Stayed here for memorial weekend. Had a great time.  Very family friendly with clean showers and hot water.

Awesome place to stay. Well maintained and friendly staff. 

This is another campground that our family has went to for many years. And while there hasn’t been a lot of updates done it is still a nice family friendly campground with pretty much everything that you need and all within an hour of St. Louis.
There is everything from Basic campsites all the way up to full hook up RV sites. And with there being literally hundreds of campsites there is usually a good chance that you can find one
There is a river access and a day use area in the campground but they are a little challenging to get to.

Nice campground close to St. Louis 

RV spots are pretty close together, but nicely shaded. Group tenting sites lack water and bathroom facilities, but make up for it in proximity crystal clear river water. Perfect for floating, fishing and swimming! 

Tucked away, easy river access

Meramec State Park was such a nice place. The swimming area is large and easy to get to from the campground. Meramec caverns is just a short 10 minute drive up the road and is absolutely beautiful. There are also many canoe and kayak rental places around. We spent a day just floating down the Meramec River and it was so relaxing and just what the doctor ordered!

Relaxing weekend

The countless caves and great water feature make this the perfect campground for those sweltering July and August campouts. Clean and well managed bath houses. Campsites are large. 

Great hot weather campground

Super awesome camp sight. Just a walk away from the river. Bathrooms and showers get a bit dirty by the end of the day but I am fairly sure they clean them every morning. We went on fathers day weekend so it was busier than normal. I was just glad to have a shower house at all! Very few mosquitos or bug issues. Lots and lots of deer and turkey! Drive slow. Fishing was not great, but we also might have not been in the best area for fishing. Make sure to bring tubes or kayaks to float on the river! We didn’t bring ours and we were definitely missing out. We will be back here again soon. Loved it so much! 

Super awesome!

Camped here for two nights over a weekend. Grounds are clean and well-maintained. The bathhouse was clean and stocked. Could use another toilet during peak season, but otherwise better than adequate.

  

Fire pits have hinged grates that are in fairly good shape. You probably don't want to lay food directly on top of them, so bring cookware.

  

Sites were clean. Don't leave anything food-related laying out overnight, the raccoons will get it.

  

Staff was helpful and friendly.

Well maintained

Great concrete slab sights with River and hiking trails close by! 

Open camping sites with lots of activities! 

We stayed 2 nights in our van. Campsites are close but could be worse. River is gorgeous and the park offers trails, caves, cabins, clean showers/bathrooms and friendly staff. 

Great accommodations and a beautiful river

Beautiful scenery all around you with river access. 

Ozark haven

The road back to the park was narrow. The campground was very well maintained. 

Beautiful and clean

Park was clean, and very pretty. Lots of people, but that is to be expected. Plenty to do in the area including hiking, cool restaurants, swimming in the river etc. 

Park was well kept, and felt safe. We stayed at the full hook ups spot and everything worked as it should. 

Only negative (if you count this as a negative) was there is no wifi and poor cell phone reception. 

Clean, scenic state park

My family and I had a nice stay. Long walk to the bathroom. Campsites are on top of each other though, so that stunk.. speaking of stunk, our site had skunks and raccoons each night. The park did have nice trails, fishing areas, breathtaking riverside views. 

Tight Sites

We stayed two nights Group Site A. It’s far removed from the other campsites…and the bathroom. It looks like there used to be a trail back to the bathroom but it’s overgrown now. The water spigot was out of order but as we already had to drive up to the bathrooms, we just took the water cooler. The water is strongly chlorinated. That being said, the staff is very friendly and helpful. The Cub Scouts loved the site, the Natural Wonders Trail, and the visitors’ center. We will definitely go again but only if we get the site closer to the bathrooms. 