Best Glamping near Poplar Bluff, MO

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

The state of missouri does an amazing job providing opportunities for families to enjoy the beauty of nature. Nature programs for kids and parents to learn. Well kept facilities. The ice cream is just a bonus. This is by far my favorite campsite for the kids.

State Park in Southeast Missouri along Big Creek. Well maintained campsites with electric hook ups. Water and dump stations, but no water hook up sites. Nice beach with easy access for swimming and kayaking. Very nice bike trail throughout park. Privately owned store and restaurant in park. Cabins also available for rent.

It is shaped by Marble Creek, from overhead it looks the piece to a puzzle, no matter where you are in the campground any direction takes you to the water. There is hiking, it is in a National Forest that allows Dispersed Camping outside designated areas and off roads. It is a pure delight natural water park, in the capital of natural water parks The St. Francois Mountains where creeks and rivers have "natural shut-ins" . The area around Black Mountain next door in the National Forest is a natural wilderness area, filled with geo features not marked on any maps and seldom ever photographed. Some of the largest gorges and canyons in Missouri are nearby, waterfalls (seasonal). Marble Creek flows into the St. Francois River a short distance away. 16 miles west of Fredericktown Missouri on Madison County Road E

The state park is located in southeastern Missouri was a disappointment to us on our visit. The campground, while large and spaced out, was a little bit on the trashy side. The facilities were dated and the park state were not the most pleasant. There are several trails in the park that look challenging but we chose to move on.

We absolutely loved this state park! It's easily our favorite Missouri state park to visit with our kiddos. There's just so much to do! The campsites are nicely spaced and clean. Expect plenty of sand at your site (my kids loved this, of course). There's a paved bike path that runs through the park. We took bike rides every day! We were pleasantly surprised that Big Creek was clear, cool and shallow (at least where we were). Swimming in the creek was one of our favorite activities each day... even having a 2 year old. The kids caught and released huge bull frogs and tons of minnows. We also enjoyed the evening presence of deer. Shower house and bathrooms were as clean as to be expected from a packed campground. This park also has a couple of on site stores in case you forget swim shoes or even swimsuits (like we did). You can even rent kayaks and canoes!

Campground Review

Huzzah Valley Resort (HVR) is not a typical campground. It’s a place built for and specializing in float trips. If you are picturing serenely paddling down a pristine river in a canoe listening to the sounds of birds and insects, you are in the wrong place, at least on a Saturday during the summer. This is more like a float trip with frat parties floating on by you, complete with loud music, floating cooler, floating beer pong tables, loads of drunk people and of course the antics of these drunk people. Not really the best place to take your kids on those summertime Saturdays. I knew this going into the weekend. Really, with campsite prices from $12.79 (for the family camping area) to $16.00 (for the loud area with no quiet hours, nicknamed the Zoo) per person, per night most people not looking for this experience are weeded out by price alone. All that being said party-barge type float trips are pretty much a rite of passage in Missouri.

My Husband and I went on this trip with a group of friends that are not as experienced campers as we are and opted to stay in a cabin. This was about $90 per person for the weekend. Our cabin sleeps 8 people with 1 queen bed in a room, 2 queen beds in a loft, and a double sofa sleeper. It included a kitchenette, full bathroom, fire ring, BBQ grill, picnic table. Aside from a microwave and a full size fridge, the cabin didn’t really offer any other amenities. We brought our own sheets and campstove. It was nice to be able to set up a crockpot before we got on the river and have dinner ready when we got back though. The cabin was reasonably sized and not a bad experience.

It was nice on Sunday morning to just get to enjoy our coffee as we watched hundreds of hungover people in the campground try to take down tents.

We floated from Scotia to Ozark Outdoors, which is a very pretty 5 mile float in the Huzzah. This meant we had to be bussed from HVR to the put in and from the take out back to HVR. The river was packed!! There were people as far as the eye could see and the raft/canoe/kayak traffic never broke up during our whole time on the river. Since it was not a holiday weekend, we were a little surprised by how crowded it was. This didn't stop is from having a great time though! We floated in a raft and a kayak and both experiences were very good.

The campsite offered tent sites as well as sites with full hookups for RVs. Each campsite has a fire grate and picnic table. There is a camp store on site that sells everything you could possibly forget, from matches to fishing poles to beer.

Product Review

As a Ranger for the Dyrt I get to try out products from time to time. One this trip I tested out Nature’s Coffee Kettle, which is billed as top quality coffee that you can take anywhere. They give you a reusable kettle bag and a filter bag of coffee. You can purchase refill packs to use in the same kettle bag. Kettle bags get up to 4 uses. You place the filter pack at the top of the bag, pour some boiling water over it and let it sit for a few minutes, then you pour the remaining water over the filter and wait a few more minutes for it to brew through the filter bag and drip into the bottom portion of the bag. Once it is done, you can pour yourself a cup of hot joe.

The coffee is very good. Even though the brewing process is a little complex (adding 1 cup of water, waiting a few minutes, adding 3 more cups, waiting more), it isn’t that difficult. The closable pour spout is nice to keep your coffee hot while you drink your first cup. The bag is a little flimsy and I was afraid the kettle would fall over while brewing, but it held up.  The kettle and bag are lightweight and can fold down pretty small. These are definitely much easier to use than an old school percolator, and take up less space. I feel like car camping is where these will shine. Although you do still have to pack a pot to boil the water.

They are even practical enough that I might try to take them backpacking at some point. I can’t imagine they will replace Starbucks Vias as my go-to coffee for backpacking though. It is still bigger, creates more trash, and you have to make 4 cups at once even though it is tastier.

Pros:

• Delicious coffee in a variety of roasts and types
• Lighter, smaller than traditional percolator
• Reusable kettle bags
• Screw cap to keep coffee hot
• They offer coffee, tea, and hot chocolate

Cons:

• Can only make 4 cups at a time
• Thin bag- makes it too hot to touch and have to be careful not to let it fall over while brewing
• Not light, small enough to take backpacking regularly

Equestrian sites are never hardly used and we have came on all major holidays. Electricity is only every other site which sucks if your trying to camp with friends. Have to use the human camp ground showers vault toilets in camp area. Love the trails but river crossing can be hard to find. Always shaded spots. There’s camp store and you can float trip or go play in river.

Sam A Baker has a large selection of sites. Perfect for tent camping or Campers of any size. Great trail selection, many moderate trails, but there are many options for those with young children as well.

The campground was clean and looked nice. The bathroom and shower house by the river were disgusting.

Campground Review

I was very excited to finally get to check out Sam A. Baker State Park as I had heard great things about beautiful land. The drive to the park was very pretty indeed, my husband and I enjoyed the view on the way in. My first impression upon entering the park was that this place is huge! There are 2 huge campgrounds (around 100 sites each!) and a nice paved bike path connecting them. There is also a visitor’s center were you pay for your campsite, a camp store that sells all kinds of things, a small restaurant, equestrian campsites, cabins, and an equestrian trail. We set up our tent in a basic site with no electricity, which was nice that it put us a little bit away from RVs and campers. The sites are very close together and even on one of the hottest weekends of the year the campgrounds were full! They do allow advanced reservations and I would definitely recommend them in the summer. The basic site cost $13/night and was close to a shower house with flushing toilets and a water spigot. Since it was such a hot weekend, Saturday morning we decided to the 4 mile float the campground offers. They depart at 10am or 11 am from the boat ramp at campground 1. They have a bus that picks you up at the end at either 2pm or 4pm. We paid $40 for our canoe for the afternoon. It was nice to float a different river, but the St. Francois (at least near Sam A. Baker) was pretty murky and you couldn’t see your feet in about knee-deep water. There were also tons of trees down in the water, making it a more technical trip at some points and even requiring us to get out and portage our canoe for about 25 yards. Although the price for the float was decent, the distance was very short (without stops, it would take about 1.5-2 hours). I think next time I would choose to just play and relax in the river near the campground rather than do that float again. The park also has some backcountry trails with backcountry campsites and is near the Ozark Trail. My husband and I really wanted to explore the trails and see if it connected to the Ozark Trail, but because of the heat the weekend we were there we didn’t get a chance to. Most of the trails are shared use, meaning foot and horse, which is never great for the hikers on foot. We wanted to be able to see the true condition for ourselves, but I guess that will have to wait until next time!

Pros:

• Full amenities (showers, water, electric, store, restaurant)
• Lot of activities (river floats, fishing, swimming, equestrian trails, backcountry trails, amphitheater, bike path)

Cons:

• Very popular, and therefore very crowded
• While it was pretty, it did not feel exceptional in any way.

Product Review: Snapbuds

As a Dyrt Ranger, I get the honor of reviewing products from time to time. This trip I got to highlight Snapbuds. They are a magnetic earbud cord organization system. If that sounds complicated, they are. They are a series of magnets that you clip around your earbud cords so that when you wrap up the cord it stays in place. This is to prevent the inexplicable phenomenon that is setting down your earbuds perfectly coiled, not touching them, then finding them in a yarn ball like knot the next day. They certainly do help with that problem. However, I have noticed since I am now coiling my earbuds the same way each time, they get twisted up after a few uses. The set up process is not entirely intuitive. You lay your earbuds on the provided guide and tape them down. Then you snap the buds in the locations of the wrap you want to achieve. Once the buds are placed, they are not supposed to be able to be moved, but you can pry them back open with a fingernail or slide them down with a bit of force. I found that the indicated placement to wrap around your hand or phone was not where they should line up for my hand or phone once I placed them. This required me to remove or slid each bud. Since they are magnets, if your cords are slightly twisted and the buds line up so the poles of the magnet don’t attract, you have to flip them and it doesn’t look as nice. Also, the magnet will be attracted to anything metal, so when using these at my desk, I have to be careful around my laptop. The buds do add a little weight to your earbuds, but it’s not bad. I did find that wearing the earbuds with snapbuds on them while running was a little annoying, since you have magnets hitting you in the chest with each stride. After each use you have to careful wrap the cord to match up. All in all, I don’t feel like this a worthwhile solution to the problem. At $10 per set, I feel like I would just rather continue to coil the cord at my leisure and keep them in place with an old hair clip.

Pros:

• They do offer a solution to a common problem
• You can get them branded and use them as a promotional item

Cons:

• Still causes issues with coiling nicely
• Not intuitive to install
• Magnates get attracted to metal around you
• Magnets add weight to earbuds
• Still had to invest time into untangling and coiling. Didn’t feel like it saved me anytime.

There are several places to access the river and the site we stayed at was very spacious(note not all sites are).

Sam A Baker is an amazing state park. Great access to water and awesome landscapes. There’s lots of hiking available but we spent most of our time in the water. You can actually tube from one end of the park by the visitor center to the boat ramp on the other end. Sites are fairly close in some areas and on top of each other in others. All in all loved our stay an we will be back.

While clean the major problem is the total lack of both cell phone (five miles away you can call) and the usual silly wifi setup.  Next comes the river facts.....shallow as in ankle deep most of the time.  Cool at flood stage at a depth of four feet over most of the park run.  Oh almost forgot the standing in sewage water at the dump station.  Overflowing tanks just before the Memorial Day holiday------sound odd to you too?  Friday before at ten in the morning....

Did see a sewage tanker truck going toward the park as we were heading out to 67------guess my timing was off again.

Was very still and a good camping set up except for the wifi and lack of ability to connect with the outside world.  Problem finding a satellite able spot but there are a few with a clear south view.

We love it here. Sites that can accommodate tents and/or RVs. Its clean and well maintained. Multiple access points to the water. Educational programs and entertainment of some sort most every weekend. Pet friendly.

Beautiful view. You can sit in the cool clear water and relax. Great place for kids. Park is well maintained. I highly recommend.

My family camps at Sam A Baker every year. It is clean and everyone there is friendly. They have a nice gift shop and some great places to swim.

The first time my former partner and I came to Sam Baker was during 4th of July and it was pretty busy but laid back. The accommodations were excellent such as the campground shop and cafe. We stayed in our very large tent, folks were really friendly even though it was mid COVID-19. They regularly cleaned and sanitized all the bathrooms regularly on schedule. We really enjoyed our first stay of roughly a couple nights so much we scheduled to return later that fall. We found out they also had boat/canoe access along the lake and we finally got around to that before it got too cold. Actually enjoyed some more of the snack/meals at the cafe and of course bought whatever we felt necessary at their shop. We really appreciated all the great vibes and welcoming folks. Was sure a good time hope to come back a third and more often then not enjoy our stay!

Great campground lots of things to do. Camp store was nice. Had a great area to roast s’mores and sit around the campfire at night

We enjoyed our 1.5 mile hike to get to the river access to float. We brought our own flotation devices and really enjoyed every aspect of the seclusion. They have equestrian trails as well and we got to see horses while floating too. The water was crystal clear and we even found quartz in some rocks in the water.

 Pros:

--Tons of swimming in the rivers and"shut-ins" throughout the park(just remember to wear water shoes if you can; it's VERY gravely)

--Lots of trails

--Nice, mellow bike path connecting the two main campgrounds and the very fun camp store(look up on the ceiling!)

--Tall pines(I love tall pines, that's all) 

Cons: DISCLAIMER-- We were here on a weekend in August, so I suspect our experience was very much shaped by that....

--Campground was PACKED and LOUD

--Campground was PACKED and LOUD

--Campground was PACKED and LOUD 

Okay, I think you get the picture with the campground itself. It was one of those things that made me feel like a cranky old man, saying,"man, why can't these people stop trying to show-off their lame-ass stereos???" That said, the park itself was beautiful. 

The main attraction is the water. The river twists and turns through the park. It's shallow, gently flowing, and VERY clear pretty much everywhere(except a few places where it was stagnant!). PRO TIP!!! Since the campground was PACKED and LOUD, most people seemed to not venture too far from the campground itself, so if you want your own private swimming spots, you can hike a relatively short distance and grab one. We did the short"shut-ins" trail and found a perfect one. 

BOTTOM LINE: If you want any peace and quiet, don't stay here on the weekend. I suspect the weekdays would be better, and if you managed to schedule mid-week, I suspect it would be an incredible place to stay.

So many amenities and places to check out! My former partner and I and even friends checked this place out a few times. We enjoy the overall area and atmosphere of the shop m, visitor center and cafe offers some pretty good eats if you were up for making some yourself! Otherwise the hikes are pretty good and the views are also! Definitely worth checking out and scoping out if anything!

Campground 1 is beautiful. Keep your food stored safely as we saw 5 skunks, 4 raccoons, 1 weasel and a partridge in a pear tree. They're all pretty bold about stealing food.

I’ve never been to a campground so finely manicured. The grass is short and the roads are in great shape. Campground 1 has a boat ramp and easy access to river sits. Some of the sites are a little crampy, but if all you’re doing is cooking and sleeping, you’re as good to go as a crunch wrap supreme. When night falls, be sure to lock your food up like Fort Knox. We saw a few stinks, a whizzle, and a fat racc. And boy, were they persistent. Next trip we’ll be hitting the backpacking trails. Can’t wait to come back. Thanks Sammy.