Best Glamping near Ozark National Scenic Riverways

This 1200 acre property used to be the beautiful Cherokee Ridge Girl Scout camp until it was sold in 2019. We have went through extensive renovations and development to bring this property to the public so that it can be enjoyed by our guests. River access and our private gravel/sand bars are available exclusively to our guests and have provided some of the most peaceful weekends imaginable.

We have everything from glamping tents right on the river bluff (photos attached) to 12 fully equipped cabins with hot tubs overlooking the 22 acre lake with a beach and activities (photos attached)

We have 4 Conestoga Wagons that are heated and air conditioned (see photos attached). They are the definition of glamping.

50 RV sites with picnic tables fire/grill pits with a variety of 30 and 50 amp pull-through and back-in sites. We offer float trips, rental boats for the lake, and rental golf carts to adventure around the park.

The park is going through endless development to continue to provide everyone with the most enjoyable and peaceful vacation possible.

Please check out our website www.otahkilake.com

Positives: Tranquil little campground with beautiful spring and cave. Quiet, shady, has two points of river access, group sites, and steaming hot showers.  Close to Echo Bluff State Park, Current River State Park, and Eminence, MO.  

Negatives:  Test sites are hit or miss. Sites 1-18 are fairly small and not very level. Sites 19-29 have larger, more level areas. 30-39 are kind of mixed.  Many sites have steps up of down to the site from the road.  There is no cell service available, so make sure you have made reservations before you get here. Closest cell service is up the road at Echo Bluff State Park. 

Other info: You may get lucky and see otters on your way to the spring, or some of the wild horses in the area. Go in the early morning to the spring trail to watch the mist roll off the water and enjoy the wildlife - so otherworldly. 

Cave tours are available June - Oct., but even if you visit is outside of this window, the walk to the cave is kind of magical.  

If you walk to the spring overlook, you'll also encounter a portion of the Ozark Trail. About a half a mile down the Ozark Trail you can cross the Current River on a pedestrian bridge which is a pretty cool experience.  

Bathrooms available on the upper camping loop, but the showers are located on the bottom loop (three family style showers).  Fantastic water pressure. 

Host was friendly even when he had to tell us we couldn't hang hammocks in National Park campgrounds. 

While you're there drive down to Alley Spring for a nice hike, another beautiful spring and historic mill, and at the camp store you can get a National Parks Passport stamp (located in the screened in porch) for the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. 

We stayed in site 13 which is located directly behind the bathrooms. Good if you have to go all the time, bad if you don't like to hear loud toilet flushes.  Very shady site.

Van Buren, MO is in the midst of to the Ozark National Scenic Riverway. This whole area is party central for water lovers that spend their vacation time either motoring, floating or sitting along the Current River and the several natural springs that feed into it. 

Big Spring State Park is nearby with plenty of camping options. The campground is still under renovation due to the 2017 flood. There is a showerhouse used by all that is a bit cryptic and bug infested. There is one flush toilet in the first campground loop, the other two loops have porta pots. Picnic table, fire ring and lantern hook on semi-private, mostly level sites. Some have more shade then others. Also a group site is available. 

Skyline Drive is the scenic roadway through the Mark Twain National Forest in this area of the state. There are several areas that people camp on the Current River sand bars. If your looking to commune with nature it is possible even with the crowd, they stick mostly to the river.

Eminence, MO is the crossroads to several of the springs and Current River areas. Food , fuel and shopping.

Definitely a destination camping area.

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.

Having experienced many rustic & gravel campsites, paved campsites are a welcome change of pace. It’s a new park (opened in 2016) with amenities like (excellent) WiFi in the campground, clean bathrooms/showers, and a fully stocked camp store at the lodge. The staff was very pleasant and helpful. While there is not much seating in the restaurant dining room, the patio area has plenty of space for the warmer months.

There is a large, modern playground for kids to enjoy and pavilions to grab some shade. The creek is a short walk from the most areas of the park.

As time goes by, programs would be a welcome addition to the park - maybe even some geocaching or scavenger hunts. A small band of wild horses roam the park, but all we saw was evidence that they had been there.

All in all, a great experience.

Large primitive sites with plenty of space and access to community water pump in each area. Full RV hookup sites with room for tent camping friends. Trash pickup. Bathrooms within walking distance, that are CLEAN, critter free, and well kept. Access to shower house near the main entrance. Laundry on site as well!

The site we stayed at was a premium tent/basic RV slot, so essentially we had access to an electrical outlet and our own water. The site was huge, plenty of space for our two tents, a pop up, and our "camp kitchen". Each site has a pretty well kept up picnic table and fire ring with cowboy stove (grate that flips over the fire..does the rest of the country use that phrase, too?)

We came in on a Thursday evening and had no issues checking in and getting settled. We floated the Black River Friday through the campground, and had a blast. Our 6 man raft was in great condition and we had no problems with pick up at the put out. Our bus driver was a magician, getting us back in record time. We camped for three nights. Quiet time beginning at 11pm didn't need enforcing, everyone was pleasant and friendly. The staff was phenomenal.

We are already planning our next trip out and cant wait to bring the kids!

Echo Bluff State Park in Ozark National Scenic Riverways near Eminence, MO is a brand new “old camp”. 

Opened in 2016 the history is rather interesting. From 1929 until the 1980s, Camp Zoe was a children’s summer camp, founded by Russell S. and Margaret McMahan Louis County teachers. There is one of the structures still on site with plaques and information. More recently, it was home to music festivals — and an open-air drug market. I didn’t find any plaques in relation to that. However when the government gained control of the land in a court proceeding it was decided to bring more business into Shannon County by opening a very nice campground for people not wanting to rough it. 

And “BAM” you have very pricey accommodations from lodge rooms, to cabins and two story condos. The campground is pretty nice too but lacking in shade and privacy. There are walk-in (uphill) sites and nice wagons provided to transport your gear. Not my favorite style of camping. Completely full and busy, which is why it got a 4 instead of 5 star. This may be your type of camping and you would say a 5 star. Reserve ahead, I mean way ahead.

There is a huge pavilion that can be reserved that overlooks the area. It has a large fire pit and mega size grill, one of the trails meanders below the pavilion. This would be a nice venue for an extended family get together.

This is a very nice, new, recreation creation. The playground was given two thumbs up by my granddaughter. Then the river, which you can see from the lodge and playground was given 12 paws and 2 thumbs by dogs and grandkids alike. Crystal clear ice cold water that you can walk across to the sheer wall of rock. Bring your water shoes, the rocks aren’t fun to walk on.

A very cool feature , if you are lucky , you will see the wild horses that roam the area. They are not for petting, so use caution. 

Aside from the abundance of people we enjoyed Echo Bluff SP.

**Campground Review: **

We camped at Red Bluff at the beginning of the off season, so it was a lot quieter than I bet it can be in full swing. As everyone else will tell you, the sites on the bluff provide a fantastic view! Right now there are about 5 sites up there, but they are under construction for what appears to be adding an additional loop with a view and I heard rumor of electricity being added up there too. Because we wanted air conditioning, we opted for the lower sites near the river. We camped at site# 28 and it was just right. We were not on the river but close enough to hear it. With the camper parked to the left, we could not really see or hear the neighbors from that direction well. To the right we had a large and long site with a tree line and hill between us and the neighbors. We could see them through the trees but it was not like we were “hanging out together” close at all. Sites 27 and 28 faced the woods so another angle where you felt secluded. A few sites down was a little spot that you could walk right down into the water. It was a tad too cold for us but the heat of the day made us really want to wade in. It was crystal clear and you could see a gravel bar not far from there. I believe in another area of the grounds you can walk out onto one. They do have double sites, some of which were huge! The fire pit we had was awesome, it had a ring that lifted up or down onto a raised concrete circle and had a grill that you could turn out and away if not in use. We are actually going to look for a ring like that for our home. This site also had what we were calling a cooking station. It was a tall covered set of shelves. We put our cook stove on it. The site also had a lantern holder which we used to tie up the dog when we needed to too. While there were flood level signs everywhere and you coud see where flash floods had happened on the lowest level of camp, our site was high enough to not need to worry. One day while we were there we went to Dillard’s Mill- a nearby park with an old water powered grain mill on site. It was peaceful and pretty, no swimming there anymore though. Lots of picnic areas. There is no ATV use on the camp grounds, so we went up to an area of the forest that you can ride in. It was not far from camp. The camp host was very friendly. The only thing that could have made this ground better was a dump station. Maybe that is in the plan with the construction too. I was hesitant to try here at first because of all the raccoon complaints but we did not see even one the entire time. So don’t let those comments deter you! All in all a great site and we will be back with the kids, maybe hit the bluff next time.

**Product Review: **

As a Ranger for the Dyrt, sometimes we get products to test from their partners. This radio is a fun and handy addition to our now growing Midland collection. It does ALL the things. We liked and utilized the NOAA Weather Alert Radio to help us to decide when was a good time to take our ATV’s for a ride through the National Forest. We used the AM/FM radio at the site for some tunes around the fire and the flashlight to take the dog for a nightly walk. The handle and shoulder strap made it easy to carry. Since we are new ATV owners, we were especially looking to test the range for this radio (because separation and possible emergencies seem inevitable lol). My brother in law lives near the campground so we set him up on his porch with the base camp and headed away to the ATV trails at the National Forest entrance. Every so often we would stop and check in “breaker niner niner…John can you hear me?” Sure enough, clear as day we got back a “YUP that’s an affirmative over”. So we got to the end of our trail, which we had mapped as 1.5ish miles as the crow flies and home could hear us, we got a response, then we spoke again and no response back (though he was trying). Occasionally in our trek the responses from home were a tad crackly but we still clearly got what was being said. There were so many features on this thing that we were not able to test them all in our weekend getaway, but I would recommend it if you have multiple radios from Midland in use. It has 5 ways to charge it, one being hand crank so it can be used in an emergency and a USB connector to recharge your phone with. My husband was excited about the eVox Hands free operation option. This will be great for camping and emergencies! We give it 5/5 stars for our needs.

https://midlandusa.com/product/xt511-base-camp/