St. Francois State Park Campground

This campground offers no-services tent/RV and RV with electrical.  The electrical spots are all in cut grass areas, many with great shade trees.  The no-service sites are more wooded.  We did not visit the facilities (COVID) but the campground is well kept and nice.  The staff did not wear masks (hence the lower rating).

There are plenty of good walking trails along the river.  We are looking forward to coming back in the spring to walk these nice wooded trails.  We did not see any bike trails.

There is good cell service (ATT) at the campsites.  We did not detect any WiFi from our camping spot.

NOTE. The park is close to some motorsports arena which had loud events (drag racing?)  during the entire weekend we were there.  If you appreciate peaceful days and nights, check out the racing schedule first.

Great Missouri State Park and Campground

This campground was packed, but it started off on the wrong foot.  The entrance comes up quick and is right off a state highway with traffic moving between 65-80 mph so of course I passed the entrance and had to double back.

When I pulled into the park there was bunch of construction.  There were a few trails but honestly it really seemed like an RV park with very few tents. The showers and bathrooms were clean but there were too many people, it was very crowded.

I should add as a positive that here were equestrian trails and a large parking lot to park your horse trailer.

St. Francois State Park is close to St. Louis so it is probably a popular destination, it just didn't feel like camping.  I'm sure it will improve a little when the construction is completed, but I doubt it will be above three stars.

St. Francois SP is Fair to Average.

Nice stay with river access, friendly people. The site was very peaceful!

One night vaca

Not a huge campground but, Its a really simple beautiful place to enjoy Missouri's rolling hills. It is located 1 hour from St. Louis and 30 ish min from Elephant Rock State park. If your in the area check out the other amazing Missouri state parks while staying here. The Missouri Mines state park is maybe a 5 min drive and a neat place to see. Tent sites, Bathroom and some hammock spots.

Nice Place to get away

We spent a Saturday and Sunday there camping in the electric site. They do have tent sites but we wanted to be closer to the river which was a 2min walk.

Great place, awesome people and kid friendly. Definitely will be back!

Great getaway close to St Louis

very nice campground. large park with tons of room and several playgrounds for the kiddos. the shower houses were clean and well kept,  the water feature was adequate for play. miles and miles and miles of trails. Tons of water access. 

Very Clean

The campgrounds have two loops, electric and basic. The electric loop sites are close together, and is mainly RV camping. The loop has great river access. Further from the river is the basic loop - these sites are nicely spaced, most back to the woods, and all were grassy.

All sites are within reasonable walking distance to the very nice shower house, bathrooms, it even had laundry. All facilities were well maintained and clean. Campground host sells wood and ice. Nice playground next to shower house.

Big River is great for many water activities - kayak, float, fish, etc. I gave a try at fishing and caught a couple small bluegills. If you'd rather get away from the people, there are a number of beautiful trails to hike, many providing bluff river views or are along creeks (I prefer hikes with water views!) I hiked the swimming deer trail, which is 3.15 miles and a combination of forested areas and bluff riverside terrain. The trailhead is at the campgrounds, which made it very easy to access.

While we were there, we encountered a lot of wildlife! We passed by a momma (we assumed) raccoon in a tree, a few snakes on the trail, a few turtles on the trail, an abundance of squirrels, and even had some deer spend time right behind our campsite. It was amazing!

Easy Riverside Camping

We have stayed here many times. It is busy and has a party atmosphere on the weekends but is nice and quiet during the week. There are some nice trails here that are around 3 miles and 1 long trail that equestrian friendly and also has a hike in camp site. I did score it down because the shower house is older and could use updating. The electric sites are nice. The basic area has some sites that are washed out and red clay is exposed so very messy in wet weather, There also seems to be a drag racing track nearby because you can sometimes hear the noise. Great place for wildflowers and butterflies.

If you want a party campground, this is for you.

Saint Francois is a tent and rv campground just 1 hour south of saint louis, MO in Bonne Terre. It also along a river which allows swimming at your own risk because there is no real entrance site. But plenty of gravel bars. I personally enjoy this park and its sites. The rvs and tents are separated which i love. And the tent sites have plenty of room for 2-3 tents plus games. They provide individual showers, out houses every 6 sites, flat areas for tents, ice, wood, and activities. Trails, parks, and lots of fields to play in.The only downfalls are (1) entering the park. You enter on a dangerous highway where you need plenty of room and stopping to enter but there is none. Getting out is the worst especially if you have a trailor and move slow. There is no lane for you to pull out. Cars are fine. (2) the river is monopolized by 1 company for rafting/kayaking/canoing. You have to make an appointment, they only accept cash, and the websites dont show correct equipment. But it gets the job done.

Go-to Campsite

Nice camping area. It was not overly crowded. We went beginning of June during the covid crisis/RV buying crisis. It has decent camping sites and they are right next to the river and swimming holes. The hiking trails are a few of my favorites in MO. The park is big and has several picnic and swimming areas. 

Nice

We went camping for a weekend to welcome in Spring 2021 (March 20) and it was CROWDED. The RV side of the park was completely full and there was only 2 or 3 open sites for the “primitive” sites, fortunately one of those empty sites was right next to us

Although our stay was nice, i feel like it would be better later in the year. The water was turned off so we had no available water (we had to carry in) and only had vault toilets. There was was also a wood barn near the main shower house, but that too was closed. The camp host didn’t show up until sunday afternoon when we were packing up to leave. 

The two wings of the campground have a shower house in the center of them (I’d mention the quality, but it was still closed) and right behind the shower house was an amphitheater and trail head to a 3 mile trail. The hike was very nice, easy, but nice and well maintained. There was also several play sets for the kids throughout the park for kids.

As long as you don’t have obnoxious neighbors (unfortunately we had some music blasters) it will be a really nice visit. It’s def. not primitive, but it’s not an RV park either.

Not too crowded, plenty to do 

Nice Hiking on trails. 
Close access to river for fishing and kayaking. 
Not setup for biking except on roads.
Large open field for kids to play. 
Crank brakes up when you get off the highway prior to starting down the hill. 
Dump station backs up for up to an hour on Sundays. 

Nice Spot giant trees

The campsites were very clean and sewer the other facilities there are two great trails in the park and there was staff on site doing educational programs that my kids really loved