The best EQUESTRIAN camping near
Kelso , MISSOURI

My group and I camped in two of the basic sites in Asher Creek campground and we couldn’t get enough of the front-row lake view! The sites closest to the lake are very level, and everyone in the campground is only a short walk from the cleanest park restrooms I’ve ever seen. If you’re like me and are just doing basic tent camping, I’d recommend a pop-up canopy for the table area since there is not a lot of tree cover in those sites. Overall, an excellent place to camp!

So first of all- I think it’s fair to state before I leave a review that my husband and I prefer primitive and private camping. The fewer people we see while we’re out, the better. We live in a city so when we camp, we want the opposite. If you enjoy RV camping or don’t mind not so Private spots, this is a decent spot to spend the night. If you like primitive/private camping- il fill you in below!

We do tent camping and Saw there were walk-in sites and hike in sites at this campground. Usually walk-in sites are pretty private and dispersed well - atleast where we’ve been before. The 14 “primitive” camping sites were right next to eachothwr with little to no privacy at all. Good tree cover for shade but otherwise you’re basically setting up your tent and area in an open field. That was a little disappointing to us because it wasn’t what we thought we would find. The RV spots also seem super close together but again- we like things spread out so maybe it would be an OK place for some.

The vault toilets near the tent sites were…as clean as vault toilets get! And we did not use tje shower facilities so can’t speak on that.

If we had been just the 2 of us, we would’ve hiked in to do our camping along one of the hiking paths but we were meeting two other friends and were unsure if they would want to hike miles to a spot so we opted for the tent spots just after the RV campground. If you want more privacy for an evening of camping, you’ll need to come with your gear packed up decently enough to hike it out atleast a mile onto the trails. There is camping allowed along the trails as long as you are 100 ft from the trail so that was an option, but in certain spots along the trail it’s challenging to find a clearing (hammocks would be great along the trail). There is also an official primitive camping site halfway through the 12 mile loop of the Red Ceder Trail. We day hiked almost the whole loop but made a Weird little detour so we didn’t get to check these spots out.

We were hoping to find a campsite that- as get as difficulty of accessibility level- was in between a 6 mile hike and the tent spots in the field but there isn’t any official spot like that even tho there’s tons of space and potential for it. Rant over about the campground. Let’s talk about the hiking! The hiking was truly awesome and felt like it balanced out my disappointment with the campground. Doing the whole 12 mile loop of tje Red Cedar Trail was a challenge for us! We really enjoyed it. In some spots, the trail markers are a little confusing, but overall it’s decently marked and the map is somewhat helpful just to kindve know vaguely where you are. The 2nd day, we went back and did about half rhe loop and also checked out the more popular section of the trails back there that include Giant City Nature Trail, Devils Stand Table, and a few others. Very cool rock formations. Pretty busy in the weekend over there but the test of the trails away from that area with those big landmarks was completely deserted and there are some super cool rock formations not on the map at all.

Over all, this was a fun 4 days. We would return and plan on hiking out into the trails to camp for our evenings. If you like privacy around your campfire at night, I can’t recommend the campground.

This was our first stop on a trip out west. It was a great spot to pull into for the night, pretty sunset over the little lake on site. Sites were kinda close together but that is more of a preference thing I think. Picnic table, hook ups, level, host was friendly.

There were several hiking trails that looked pretty, but we didn't get a chance to walk them. Overall, this is a nice and quiet campground. We would definitely stay again. We camped at Ferne Clyffe State Park in a Motorhome.

This is a quiet family campground, most spots are lake side. Very spacious and lots of trees. First come first serve, and the park was full most of the time we were here.

Only stayed 1 night, but beautiful sunset over the lake. Was able to catch and release a small mouth bass while cooking dinner. Owners are very friendly- will stop again!

We have camped here two nights and the area is quiet, scenic, but with a few surprises. Our first being all of the water is shut off and It appears that the dump station hasn’t worked in years. We had a pleasant day driving through the area. There is a lot to explore but it would take more than two days. The trails we were on were unclear and poorly maintained. We tried to go to the beach for a swim and it was inaccessible although there was a clear paved trail. We never found the swimming area as it overgrown and apparently unused for a long time. It could have been a beautiful area with maintenance and TLC. Being a National Forest area, it was disappointing.
The pit toilets were very clean but it’s a good thing they didn’t need water to keep them that way.

This place is really great. Hiking and camping get an a+

So much to do here I’ll just have to keep coming back to get everything in.

Not a lot of tent sites, but enough. Nice wooded primitive sites with easy access to water and toilets. Had my pups with, and no problems at all. Nice trails for different hiking skill sets. Only issue I found at all was firewood is surprisingly difficult to come by.