Camping near Mark Twain Lake

Hanson Hills Campground I have never felt so unwanted and segregated in my life. This campground is clearly about who you know. We are not from the area or even the same state so we were not with the in crowd. They were more than happy to take our reservation and money, and when we arrived, we saw a very cute camp office and store. We traveled past nice clean grassy campsites and according to their site they have activities and amenities. When we checked in, we were given nothing, no information, map, directions nothing but we were told to follow the lady in the golf cart it is a large turn to get into the site. We followed all the way through the campground past the nice open sites, a pool and playgrounds for her to come to another road and she stopped in the middle of the road as soon as she turned. Very confused my husband got out of the truck for her to tell him this is your site. We are parked in the middle of the gravel road next to box trailers in storage and broken tables from other sites. There was a gazebo in the middle of the grass area that edged the road. It has a ring doorbell camera pointed directly at our“site”. Our camper was boxing in other campers that had wooded sites on the edge. They physically could not move their rigs if they had to because we were in the road. According to their website and reviews they have activities, offer breakfast, and it is a great place to make memories. We would not know, paid to camp on the road in their storage, on rocks, with hook-ups.

Hannibal is "someone's fading memory of a town," but you can tell it used to be a cool place. The Mark Twain history part of it is cool! The cave is fantastic with history galore and a reasonable price. The gift shop is also very very nice. The people checking you in and running the tours are great and very pleasant. The campground is under a nice canopy of oaks and is in a valley between two hillsides that contain caves. The place is very quiet and has a nice feel to it. The whole campground is gravel except for sites f1 through f12 which have grass and are bordered by a crystal clear rocky creek. Two older and smaller playgrounds, a picnic shelter, laundry, and a couple of community corn hole boards. Highly recommend a site under the trees along the creek in the C or F section. I think f10 is probably the best site. We enjoyed our stay in f2.

We used to stay here once or twice a season, and it was one of our favorite campgrounds. Haven't been able to make it back to Hannibal for a few years. Went this past weekend. The "premium pull-through" spots are a joke. All gravel, way too close together. No way we could have had a fire that close to our camper or our neighbors. We ended up calling the office and moving to "F' section. The office personnel were very friendly. Still close together, but did have grass. In the older portion of the campground, they have changed some sites to make room for more, now it's way too crowded as well. A lot of the sites are pretty short and over half are all gravel.

The campground (CG) was easy to find, located just 5 miles off I-70 with clear signage along the way. We parked at the designated registration area, and check-in was quick for our one-night stay. We were then escorted to pull-through site 17 with full hookups. The gravel pad was fairly level, and although the utilities were toward the back of the site, we had no trouble connecting. There were two sewer hookups—a nice touch. Water is shared, but the pressure was solid at about 50 psi. Sites are decently spaced, though some are closer together; ours was relatively close to the next site on the driver side. Our site had a nice yard, picnic table, and fire pit, but if someone had been in the site next to us, we would have been sharing that area. We got 2 bars on Verizon and 3 bars on T-Mobile, and our T-Mobile Home Internet worked very well. The CG WiFi was fine for email and web browsing. While the grounds have mature trees, most sites—including 17—are satellite-friendly. The 1/2-acre dog park was especially impressive. There was a mix of permanent, seasonal, and short-term guests. The park was clean, well-maintained, and featured fun wood carvings. The setting includes a pond and a trail to a small lake. A small camp store, ice, and propane are also available. Overall, this is a solid CG for overnight or extended stays. Out of the 325+ campgrounds we've visited, this one has the best rules sheet—hands down. It's hilarious, and you’ll instantly get their vibe!