Best Glamping near Davisville, MO

For our annual cousin campout in our ancestral home of Davisville we reserved site 24 and the group site (2) directly behind it. It was beautiful and perfect (a long walk from parking on the group site to cooking on the group site). Unfortunately it was in a flash flood hazard zone and hurricane Barry was dumping rain on us. There are new campsites under construction, farther back from the river. We’ll still try to get the old sites in the future but it will be nice to have another option if the weather isn’t cooperating. The Huzzah creek is rocky but beautiful. You have to be careful because there are sudden drop-offs, it can be two feet deep and then you take a few steps and it’s seven feet deep. The campground host is diligent but he slips around like a shadow in the night, don’t let it freak you out. I just hope with the new sites and even a shower house Red Bluff doesn’t get crowded. It would break my heart.

Another great trout park on Missouri

This site was probably my favorite one in Missouri so far. Has a few sites that are great for groups. Then a few sites that are more private for solo/family camps. Fire pit/lantern hooks/tables at the sites. No cell service for both my AT&T and Verizon phones. No restrooms. Only negative I could say about the site would be the other campers that have stayed before me. There was trash I had to police up left by other campers. The fire ring was still hot with a burning log. Bring a shovel if you’re going to camp here and want to have a fire. The fire rings were full with ash. Will have to clean out the rings to have a safe fire. Don’t think they are maintained that well.

We really enjoyed this campground. The staff was very friendly and helpful. Check-in was very easy and we were met at the gate. They drove us over to our spot and brought us over a firepit. The electrical box was setup correctly and everything worked as expected. Water hookup was very close as well and water pressure was strong. As an FYI, we did have to use a regulator to reduce the water pressure. 

We were able to stay right along the river. We had arrived a little too early in the camping season and we happened to pick days where Missouri had a cold front (previous weekend was warm). Even with the cold weather, we were able to really enjoy the trip and get our RV ready for the upcoming season. 

The camping spots are basically just spots in a big parking lot layout. It is fully paved, but during busy season, you would be very close to other rigs. The park is beautiful and a very short walk over to the cave and ziplines. There is easy access to the river and you are able to easily put in your kayak or small boat. Restroom, showers and trash were a short walk as well.

We will return to this site.

We've made the three hour drive to Montauk State Park a couple of times in the last year. We just love it there! It's especially wonderful if you can make it in November when the crowd has left and you can really enjoy the crisp, cool fall and have so much of the campground to yourself. Just beware, they lock the bathrooms and shower houses down during the off season! We, of course, love to trout fish and have always had fishing luck in our favor there. We also love to eat a meal at the little on site restaurant and enjoy the convenience store when we've forgotten things. Try the ice cream at the restaurant! Delish! We've only located one trail in the park: Pine Ridge Trail. It's a nicely maintained trail. We went at sunset and the view from the top was gorgeous. One of the conveniences of Montauk is cell service! You can actually use your phones here, unlike many Missouri State Parks. If you're looking to take your family swimming- I don't think this is a great park for this. There are literally people fishing everywhere and there isn't really a great place to swim. Campground does have a nice play area for the kiddos. Camp sites are generously spaced. We did have some nightly skunk visitors circle our camper, but they were so fat and cute and thankfully kept their stinky spray to themselves.

This is where my love of camping started. I spent many summers as a child camping at Montauk State Park with my grandparents. After those early years of riding my bike as a child around the campground loops, I now take my child there every year with the hope that he appreciates it as much as I do.

Montauk State Park is one of the Missouri Conservations four trout parks, and is located at the headwaters of the beautiful Current River. The Current along with the Jack’s Fork River make up the Ozark National Scenic Riverways National Park. Since it is one of Missouri’s trout parks you will find a majority of campers are there to fish. You can purchase a trout tag at the lodge for $3.00, and it will allow you to keep 4 trout per day with a possession limit of 8. The conservation will stock the Current on a nightly basis, based on number of tags sold the day before. The stretch of river from spring to the falls are some of my favorite fishing anywhere. I have a group of guys that get together every spring and fall for a trout fishing trip.

As the Current River winds its way through the valley, it creates one of the campground boundaries. This allows you to be near the river at all times, or even next to it, if you grab one of the spots on its banks. The campground is broken down into 4 separate loops, with loop 1 being the only basic section, all the others have electricity. I have spent more time recently camping in the basic section with the guys. We have used sites 115 for the space and 119 for the seclusion. Our family did camp on Mother’s Day on site 418, in loop 4. I would not recommend this site because you only have a small space between you and your neighbors.

There are two bathroom/shower houses with laundry facilities located in the campground, along with three campground host. You are able to purchase firewood and ice in the campground as well. Sites do go quickly so you will need to book months in advance.

The lodge has a full restaurant, as well as a diner style counter. My son love’s to go and sit at the counter to get ice cream. You will find menu item such as burgers, sandwiches, and salads, as well as a buffet on certain days. You can even order a sack lunch to take out to the river bank. The lodge also has a store stocked with camp essentials, souvenir items, and fishing supplies. If you do not have your own fishing poles, they have some for rent. You will also find the lunker board located here, so if you are lucky enough to catch a three pound trout bring it to have it weighed for your lunker patch.

If you decide not to fish, there are things to do such as take a tour of the mill when the naturalist does one of their demonstrations, hike the quarter mile trial to the springs (one of my son’s favorites, he likes to search for the water bubbling out of the ground), hike the longer 1.5 mile pine ridge trail, feed the fish at the hatchery, or take in one of the nature programs at the amphitheater. Also if you head out of the park on YY you will find Tan Vat Access located right outside the park on the Current. This is a great place to take young ones for a dip in its cool waters. Also you can take a gravel road out of the park to a funky little place called Bo’s Hollow. A family has built a small town in a field, where you can buy a bbq sandwich lunch, and take a model A ride to Ashley creek for swimming and a picnic.

I hope you get a chance to check out Montauk State Park. It is one of our family favorite destinations.

We stayed in space 46 for one night. Great view. Then entire campground was empty. I recommend for view 45 and 46. Although these spots are far from the river, they have the most privacy and best view.

we came across this place by mistake, we just passed our turn off and came acrossed it.

anyway, our fav was the group camp area. just gorg and  there were paths that went to the creek with beautiful clear water.

If you’ve been coming to this campground for decades as my family has, prepare yourself. They’ve taken this hidden gem abounding with rustic, quiet character and turned it into a busy RV park. Most spots are not ideal for tent camping. The beaches are too small to accommodate the number of people now coming in. It’s just heartbreaking. It’s our ancestral home and we just don’t know if we can handle going back. The whole vibe is drastically different. It’s looks like every other RV park out there. It used to be a short walk to get to the water. Not anymore. They also got rid of the picnic area close to the water. It was extremely inconvenient getting my elderly mother down to the water (and then finding a beach spot on our side of the creek was impossible).

The Red Bluffs are beautiful and the creek is named Huzzah Creek, can’t beat that. The sites are along the river amongst the trees and are only semi-private. The group sites are more private (we had 3 families there, it was so great). The swimming can be a little dangerous, I wouldn’t want kids swimming in most of the areas here. There is only a very short and easy trail (as of 2014), but good wildlife since it’s in such a large forest.

This campground is in a small village that is my ancestral home. As a kid I spent my summers just up the road at my grandparents’ house. That being said, you don’t go to this campground to be comfortable. It’s fairly primitive. One loop is mostly rocks. It didn’t used to be that way but there was a devastating flood a few years back and now if you camp in that loop you’re likely going to be on rocks. Unfortunately the far end of the other loop is mostly rock now too. There are vault toilets, a grand total of three in the campground. They are usually kept clean. No showers. Water is at the spigot. The campground host doesn’t bother with quiet hours. The raccoon population is out of control. Basically if you’re camping here it’s just for the crystal clear waters of the Huzzah Creek. There are large boulders to jump from, some small fish to catch, tadpoles to observe, and lots of pretty shells to dig out of the rocky beach. The river will keep the kids busy all day. Most of the sites on the straights are grassy. The loops tend to be rocky. Ample shade at most sites as well as an abundance of ticks, chiggers, and horseflies.

We stayed at site 21. We were supposed to be at a different site but didn’t Iike it when we got there and the campground host let us choose another unreserved site. This site was completely shaded, primitive, a mix of rocky and grassy and mostly level. It rained on us all weekend and I tried not to freak out because this area is known for flash floods (that’s why it’s so rocky). The spigot was right next to our site so that was handy. There are two vault toilets, one in the center of the loop and the other down the path in the picture. Lots of ticks, LOTS of brazen raccoons, horseflies galore. No cell service. At all. You come here for the Huzzah Creek, which is a glorious place especially for kids.

This summer we stayed at site 26 which is a double electric site. Lots of shade and several level spots for tents. It’s right next to the vault toilet, whose stench only wafted over to the campsite a few times, and right across from the spigot. There were maybe five other campsites booked while we were there (weekdays in mid-July). As ever the creek was beautiful. Parents take caution, the water can be very shallow in some spots and suddenly drop off to six or seven feet deep. It was teeming with tadpoles and crawdads and various fish this summer. The raccoons weren’t quite as aggressive this summer but we still had a couple fights wake us up. My sons like to stay up late and do battle with the raccoons. Also, not a single tick on any of us this year. This may have been one of our most enjoyable summers camping in my ancestral home.

Smaller campsite located in Mark Twain National Forest. RV hook ups and tent sites. Views in the bluff area or stay across from Huzzah Creek for easy access to swimming.