Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Harry S. Truman Lake

This campground is clean, and is close to many attractions near the Lake of the Ozarks.

Wifi is spotty, but my site was at the back of the campground. The campsite also has a new in ground pool and dog park.

Reason I gave this campsite 3 stars is because it is clearly still under construction (6/30/23), which I was not aware of. My guess is this was the first season it was open. Half of the park still had conex boxes and construction equipment around. The dog park had little grass and was very rocky.

The owners were VERY nice and accommodating.

If I were to return next year in 2024 I have no doubt I would have given this campsite 4 or 5 stars

Turkey Creek was a very nice campground for our month long stay.  The park is well maintained and clean.  It is very quiet!  There is a train track nearby, but we only heard it a few times during our stay.  

Amenities included full hook up, laundry room, bathrooms, showers and a fenced dog park where you 4 legged friends can enjoy some off-leash time.  We had 4 bars with AT&T and waffled between 1-3 bars with Verizon.  

The location is great for visiting local attractions such as Branson Landing, Silver Dollar City and Top of the Rock.  

Really appreciate the park manager, she was friendly and brought an overpayment to our attention and quickly issued a refund.

Great experience overall!

Great place for a place to stay near the lake of the ozarks attractions. Super close to big surf and not a bad drive from all the lake has to offer. But not a favorite for a trip focused more on hanging out at the camp site. Very hilly (though grade on the site wasn’t bad at all), pull through sites make getting in easy with larger rigs but all roads through are gravel and rutted so not the easiest. Sites close together without much in between. Nice large trees would offer some summer shade but still not much separation between sites. Water and electric at site. Small “dog park” (fenced in area) great for smaller dogs to run off leash and pretty large kid okay ground too. Overall we will stay here again but think of it more as bringing our own hotel to the lake rather than coming to enjoy the campground.

Kimmy’s is amazing!  Always friendly and clean. Lots of activities for any outdoor adventures. Hiking kayaking swimming and lots of laughs come with Kimmy’s crew. They go out of their way to make your stay wonderful! If the pond on site is not big enough Stockton Lake is just minutes away or maybe you enjoy kayaking the Sac River is very close as well. Shuttle service is right up the road if needed. Keep your eyes peeled you may just find a message rock or two. We frequent Kimmy’s several times each summer and by far our absolute favorite campground in Missouri. And they are pet friendly too!

It was quiet. We enjoyed our stay. I read about the black cat that was found there in the other review. It was still there when we camped in late December and quite hungry. Very friendly and needing love. We brought him home with us and he is the most amazing cat. Took a while to get litter trained but I’m glad we opened up our home to him before the bad weather got here. Thanks to this site, we found our new family member! Thanks to whoever posted.

There is a super sweet local cat who befriended me here and made my visit so much better. I had some mechanical issues with my car and Kampground Kittah tried to help. 🤣

Bathrooms were fine. It’s free camping so it was great that there were bathrooms at all.

One of the locals stopped by my site to look for arrowheads. Apparently, she has found a lot in the area so that’s a good activity if the kids are bored.

If you’re looking for a good wine, you can find some at the local auto parts store. I am not kidding! I think it’s Rick’s Auto Parts and their liquor is priced very reasonably. 😄 If your car’s broken down and you can’t drive, I guess you might as well drink and Rick’s there to help you out with both. 🤣

Great place for camping with the family and dogs! everyone is very pleasant and I felt comfortable letting the kids ride their bikes around, a great presence from the park rangers !

Big lake, several sites to choose, good fishing, pit toilets. The sign says NO FISHING after Oct.14 because of duck season. Open for camping. Mowed, TP stocked, plenty of firewood and room for dogs to run.

Great campground if you need full hook-ups. All the bells and whistles. Clean bathroom, laundry, pool, playground, dog run, hiking trails and firewood that you can actually burn. It's off the beaten path but still close to everything. Friendly people and very accommodating.

We camped at Firey Fork in the autumn of 2021. It was during deer hunting season and we only had one neighbor that looked to be there for quite a while hunting. We could see them with our eyeballs but they were perfect neighbors and we didn’t hear a peep other than their generator for a bit. The area was mowed, had a rock fire place, concrete picnic tables (which were handy), a vault toilet, shade, grass for dogs to play frisbee, parking right beside your spot, trails, access to the river, good hammock trees, flat-level surface!

The campground was quiet and low key. No internet available so bring your own or purchase WiFi from their system. Shower house was ok, the smell made me dry heave, smelled like old meat. Small fenced area for dogs to play / go to the bathroom in. No playground for kids. Our site was level, it stormed during our stay but staff was quick to clean up downed trees and regrade the roads. The location was perfect for visiting Branson and its attractions. I got the vibe that it was more of an older generation camping campsite with more long time campers. We’d go back and stay if our focus was the attractions at Branson, not to hangout at the campsite.

Missouri Department of Natural Resources has done an excellent job of taking care of this area and the surrounding wildlife. The Harry S Truman State Park is a treasure to relish and love. My family and I spent a week here and the place was amazing. Thank you Missouri Department of Natural Resources for your hard work.

Less amenities than other near by State Parks, no playgrounds mainly and the sites aren't too close to the lake. Power only, so be prepared for that if you are looking for hook-ups. Overall, you can't beat Missouri state parks for beauty, cost and availability of trails to hike! Enjoying our stay here!

Pomme de Terre is one of our favorite Missouri campgrounds.  Most spots are lakefront on an uncommercialized lake. I fish from a kayak and was never overwhelmed by boats and the fishing is fantastic. Camp spots are clean, has shower house and clean bathrooms.  There are two swim beaches and boat ramps, also has a marina to rent boats if you would like.

This state park is a hidden gem in central Missouri. It has something to offer everyone in the family. There are several small lakes and plenty of hiking trails to keep everyone busy. The campground is one of the better ones in the state park system. They are spread out and are level. The bathhouse has been newly renovated. The people in the park are some of the friendliest we have come across.

Campsite Review

This is quite a large campground, meaning it can easily cater to tents, car campers, and RV heroes. Each site had electrical hook-ups, and there was a common combination shower & laundry area. My campsite, like all, came with a picnic table and a fire pit. I definitely recommend ear plugs if you are a light sleeper since the bugs were very loud all night. This is one of a few campgrounds within the State Park and I chose it since it offered lakeside views – which were very pleasant. There was also boat ramp access. I had a nice bike ride from the campgrounds to a nearby campsite area near Racoon Ridge on some well paved roads, capped off with some different lakeside views. There was a few places to fill up drinkable water and use bathrooms.

Product Review

I won the Saris Feedom Superclamp 2-Bike bike rack from a contest held on The Dyrt's facebook page, so I decided after a few weeks and trips with the product to do a review.

So far the bike rack has been up to Jasper National Park from Boulder, CO with stops along the way in Grand Tetons, YellowStone, Glacier, Banff and Lake Louise National Parks as well as a roadtrip from Boulder to Toronto, ON through Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan. I've gone on various road conditions over the 5,000+ miles as well as in various driving conditions (city, highway, off roading, and country).

This bike rack is incredibly easy to use. It is what I call "micro adjustable" just because the bike is clamped to the rack with a bunch of slide-able wheel wells and tire arms adjustable at any position. It works with any bike type, and is super easy to install - no special tools needed. Your car just needs either a 1.25" or 2" hitch. Watch the video review here.

I also love that it comes with included, retractable bike locks to secure your crappy or expensive bikes to the rack, then another lock between the rack and your car's hitch. I can't fully open my trunk (although it looks like the new model EX2 solves this bit of trouble) when I have bikes on the back, which I would complain about if this didn't take any longer than 10 seconds to get the bike's off.

I was also impressed how well the rack held up when I went up Shadow Mountain with 2 on the rack to do some riding around the summit with the Grand Tetons as my backdrop. The bumpy road and constant rocking could've bent the frame, but it held up beautifully.

Shout out to Saris for putting some good material around the wheel clamps to keep any harsh contact points against my bike. My bikes are cheap, but someone with anything they care about will appreciate the care they took to keep their bike protected.

I'll do an update on this review after a few more weeks with the rack for my overall impressions, and so far so good!

ROAD TRIP!

And so the road trip to Canada with my dog Sirius begins! I hit the road a little late from Colorado, so I knew as I was driving that when I finally made it to Missouri I was going to be rolling into the campsite in dark. Luckily, most of the drive east once you leave the Rocky Mountains is flat and uneventful so anything I would have seen in the daytime wasn’t much better than blackness. There’s some vast prairie landscape along highway 70, so it’s not the worst scenery to have, but I’ve driven from Colorado to Chicago a few time and I was trying to avoid another one of those endless farm field drives you can find along highway 80. Oh well, more of the same I guess.

When I was researching places roughly 9 hours from home, Harry S Truman State Park looked like a fun place to check out near the Ozarks if you’re on the road and passing through. There are lakes plenty large enough for any water activities you’re creative enough to think up, and the many campgrounds found scattered in the parkland offer a great balance of seclusion and variety. I picked Long Shoal since it was near the water and promised some nice lakefront views. I was going to have to wait until the morning to find out if that promise was one the park could deliver on though, as I didn’t arrive into camp until close to 2am. I parked, popped up the rooftop tent, popped in my ear plugs, and hit the sack. The next morning I awoke to a large lake and a kayaker enjoying their morning paddle. My morning was spent cycling the 4 miles just past the welcome center, where I enjoyed some more lakeside views from Racoon Ridge. It certainly was convenient to have a paved road the entire ride lined with dense forest trees. I wish I saw some deer along the way, but I can’t always get so lucky. The heat was quite strong, so it was a nice coincidence that the ride was shaded and hugged the water’s edge. I took in the lake views, but I didn’t have long to enjoy the scenery, as I had another 8 plus hours in the car that day, since I wanted to get to Kentucky and spend my real play time of the trip checking out the Land Between the Lakes Recreation area.

This was our first tent camping trip in Missouri State Parks. Visiting in March meant there weren’t many things to do. This parks main focus is Lake Pomme de Terra, so if you’re not into being on the water - this campground may not be for you. We had a vault toilet near our site which was nice for middle of the night trips. The site was on quite an incline & there were lots of rocks under our tent. I would not recommend this site.

Our first camping adventure in the popup took us to Pomme de Terre State Park on Father’s Day of 2017. Pomme de Terre State Park is one State Park that is two completely separate campgrounds, split in half by Pomme de Terre lake. When booking pay attention to whether you are on the Hermitage side or the Pittsburgh side. Each campground has it’s own camp store, swim beach, boat launch, and sanitary disposal station.

We have camped three separate times at Pomme de Terre with all three campsites being in the 400 loop on the Pittsburgh side. This loop has been chosen due to its proximity to the bathrooms and the playground, these are key when having a 4-year-old. This loop is located in the woods with nice spacing between sites. Each site comes with a fire ring and covered picnic table. I will warn you that some of the sites on the left when you first pull into the loop are on an incline, so bring plenty of leveling pads with you if you have a trailer. If you are wanting to be close to the water this loop is not the one you will want to reserve. I would look more in the 300 loop, though those sites are gravel in case that is an issue for you, or look at the Hermitage side. The bathroom and shower house located at the entrance to loop 400 are some of the nicest that we have experience while staying in a state park. They are clean and well maintained. Located throughout the loops are vault toilets if you choose a site farther away from the main bathroom.

We enjoy the campground and marina on the Pittsburgh side. The marina is stocked with some camp essentials as well as a café for a quick bite. They also have boats, canoes, kayaks, and paddle boards for rent, for a list a prices here is the Marina’s website www.mofunparks.com. This is one of our son’s favorite stops on the trip, they have a nice selection of ice cream. The size of the marina is not large, and if it is busy the inside can be very cramped. We do prefer the swim beach on the Hermitage side it is located along a peninsula with ample room on busy days, as opposed to the Pittsburgh swim beach that is located in a cove without as much space.

When traveling between the two state parks you will travel through Hermitage, Missouri. They have a Dollar General, gas station, and some restaurants. I cannot speak for the restaurants, but we have used the Dollar General for supplies that did not make the trip. Located at the junction of Hwy 64 and Hwy 64B, just outside of the Pittsburgh side of the park, you will find an old building directly across from White’s Marine Center that is selling camp wood. The person that sells the wood will be out there sometimes, but if they are not, there is drop box mounted to one of the poles to leave money in. I was able to purchase a wheelbarrow load for $8.00, which is a much better deal than the small bundle they sell in the park for $5.00.

Pomme de Terre State Park has become a family favorite campground. We will be making a voyage here every year to continue exploring.

Campground Review:

We stayed at this beautiful Missouri State Park on memorial weekend in 2019. This park is park of Pomme De Terre lake and 1 of 2 state parks on the lake, Pittsburgh and Hermitage. There are several local private campgrounds in the area but non match what you'll find at these two campgrounds. Pittsburgh is described as the more secluded of the two and thats just the way we like it. 

We arrived to find that the normal lake level had risen from 830 ft to 860+. needless to say almost all lakeside camground were closed. We arrived at our site and identified that we had 13 inches until our site was to be claimed by the lake. The campground hosts actually informed us that over half of their sites were flooded or in immediate danger of flooding. They were able to offer us a different site as most people apparently decided to no show. We were relocated to site 323 in the Pittsburgh campground. A side note that almost every loop in this campground had empty sites and all those who were displaced were able to be relocated in the park at NO ADDITIONAL FEE for upgraded sites. 

Site 323 was simply amazing. A level concrete pad with enough wooded area around to fully eliminate view of neighbors on either side. We camp out of a 95 Coleman Pop up so it was perfect for us. It is on a significant slope so tent camping would be hard. This site is walking distance to vault toilets, and clean water. After an impromptu wiffleball game broke out with the multiple campers across from us we decided to explore the campground.

Loop 100 is tightly packed RV sites with no real privacy but all your creature comforts . Loop 200 is electric sites well spaced with lake access to most. This appeared to be the most tent and camper friendly loop.  Both 100 and 200 loops are close to shower house and main playground.

Loop 300 is electric with most sites of the lake side coming with elevated gravel pads for grilling and watching the water. Most sites are on decent grades so the state park pics on their site would be a good idea to look at.

Loop 400 is the basic loop and from what I could tell stays fairly level with large grassy areas to tent in. 

All loops have a vault toilet placed evenly on the loop and access to water from a spigot. They all utilize the same road in and the same plumbed bathroom / showerhouse. To my surprise these were all very clean and stayed that way all weekend. 

There is only 1 trail for hiking and at 3 miles is worth the trip. It goes out to a point overlooking all of the park and most of Pomme De Terre Lake. We got to see this but in a little different way than planned. Due to flooding the trail was almost completely underwater. 

A small marina with rentals and fishing docks is just across the street. They serve normal pub food and were very happy to serve. Lines there can be long as it is also a very busy boat ramp. 

The state park has its own swimming beach and due to flooding it was closed. So instead we utilized the parking lot, Playground, and Pavilion as a launch point for our kayaking adventures. All in all this trip went from possible disaster to an amazing adventure on the water. The lake is very clear and paddling through the tree tops normally 20 feet off the ground was surreal. Pittsburgh won us over with customer service and a unique experience we will all remember. 

Product Review:

As a Ranger for The Dyrt I sometimes get to test and evaluate quality products from amazing sponsors today I am submitting a review of my new Icemule Pro X-Large Cooler.https://icemulecoolers.com/collections/pro-coolers/products/the-icemule-pro-x-large

So as I said before I didnt get to hike with this bad boy but it did spend everyday as our family take and use cooler. 

First and foremost I have to say upon receiving this thing I was shocked at the size. It is definitely extra large. My 7 year old would not be packing this thing around but Icemule has several size options so no real issue there. I chose the xl specifically to use while kayaking on this trip. I would be providing food and drink for up to 8 separate people and would be on the water for  long periods of time. I currently own a Yeti and Wally World Rotomold but cant use them due to their size on our boat.  Well this is where it gets good. I loaded all three coolers and set out with my Icemule in tow. I left the two hard coolers with family at the pavilion. Similar contents and each cooler received 1 bag of ice in the morning. The Icemule stood stride for stride with the yeti in fact I will attach photos to prove it.  The Icemule form fit itself into the storage space on my kayak and at the end of the day had just a little ice left. The Yeti had a little more ice but nothing significant. I will also note that the Icemule was in the open sun on the back of a kayak in 90 degree temps. I was ecstatic with the result. This thing is amazing. 

Now for the nitty gritty. My Icemule comes in several colors. I chose black as it matched my yak LOL. I can say the 24 can capacity is definitely modest but I wouldn't recommend exceeding it by much as all that weight adds up. Not heeding my own advice I topped this thing off and really put it and my back through the ringer. All the stitching and seam weld held up very well. Not a single issue even when over loaded. All clips and straps are high quality and very durable.

All in all I made room for 6 different coolers in my garage as they will all be resting comfortably there. The Icemule is now our families go to for all our cooler needs.