Best Tent Camping near Holden, MO

Stayed at Racoon Ridge campground in the Harry S. Truman State Park. Nice park. Pretty quiet. Has a decent beach. Shady spots with or without water and electric. Tent sites and basic sites available.

We stayed in primitive site #3 - fairly close to neighbors, but with some berms/hills between it still felt relatively private. Site didn’t have a ton of level tent sites, but was otherwise in good shape.

Fall foliage was gorgeous this past weekend, and we thoroughly enjoyed the woolen mill tour at the adjacent state historic site.

Shower and restroom facilities seemed adequate, though more dated than other similar state parks in the area. Serviceable but not immaculately clean.

Easy to reserve online, but the camp registration office was closed when we rolled in right after 5. The tent campsites are just a small patch of turf, but they do have tables and a nice fire pit. It was a little noisy as everyone was on top of each other and we did get a little bit of sewage smell at our site. Pool and mini golf are awesome!

Let's Share COVID and a campfire song. When we booked a tent site in the KOA we didn't expect much but assumed it would work for the night while driving across the USA.  Upon arrival we were a little put off by being stuck with several other tents in a field and noticed we were expected to share our fire ring with the tent next door... this was not ok with us and we left promptly and snagged a nice spot in the nearby Blue Springs Recreation Area. Traveling during summer 2020 has been interesting and to expect strangers to share a fire ring and be crammed very close during a pandemic is not only careless but not fun. UGH

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.

No frills site with both hilly and flat tent spots within close proximity of finding "Weaubleau Eggs"

We camped the last weekend in September picking a late reservation where kayaks were available for our first tent test run were our main goals, which the site met. Kayaking was wildly available, due to the small lake and difficult launch, we can see why, but still very enjoyable. Site was very sizable for our tent, as most are suitable for campers. Lots of even ground, with decent distance. Facilities could do with some updates, but there were a number of bathrooms on site, spaced so no site seemed far, including the vault toilet and a lot of people masking up while going into bathrooms as well, which was appreciated. Current host was super nice and helpful to first timers. The tiny market has a number of random items, including a collapsible fork which was the only thing we hadn't overpacked, and wasn't overpriced. Fire pits on our site were adjustable, making grilling food easier to control.

Great place to relaxe or fish away your troubles. Highly suggest keeping your food locked in your vehicle. Had a raccoon enter our tent but that's to be expected when you leave stuff out like I did

Large grassy area with plenty of room to set up a tent or camper. Right off the road, so no dirt roads to traverse. Signs were confusing as to whether it is ok to camp, but they didn't explicitly say no camping. The lake is really just a mud bog, so not very appealing unless you came to duck hunt. No picnic tables or fire pits. The pit toilet was really gross, but there was toilet paper.

When driving across country this summer we camped at blue springs and it was a nice place to stay for the night. The campsites were grassy and didn’t have a lot of trees so I imagine it can get hot but the sites were large and everything was clean and well-maintained. We stayed in a tent and arrived a few minutes late and the staff was very accommodating and gave us a spot for the night.

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!

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.

the hosts were very nice, the bathrooms and showers were clean. several nice amenities. there is no shading for the sites in reality and very restrictive with the rules and regulation. (all firewood MUST be bought ($7.00/bundle), no tie off points, very muddy site, (had to undig stakes from washed in mud)). for the price paid, one would expect more shading, direct access to lake (had to drive a distance to get to lake) and larger than expected gravel size which tents were to be put on, so bring plenty of padding and protection.

I car camped here for one night early this spring and will definitely come here again. There was a big RV parked next to me, some other car campers, and then a group of tent campers. The sites are right on the lake and the vault toilet was clean. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring and they are spaced out nicely. There was a decent amount of traffic to and from the floating boat dock but it still wasn’t too noisy.

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.

We came just at the start of season, so we took advantage of a family spot to relax and get some extra privacy. There were maybe 5 other campers in Wild Ridge, and it was a ridge coming in, narrow roads leading into the peninsula.

Vault toilets were well kept, and well light at night.

We hiked to check out the other campsites that were also well spaced for privacy.

There was a desire line down to the lake, with a rocky shore to walk, the beaches themselves a bit wider.

We had a nice clearing to set up at our location, likely used for a second tent that lended well to privacy.