Best Dog-Friendly Camping near St. Joseph, MO

We attempted to post up at Dupree on the river for our inaugural spring camping trip, but was not able to enter the CA the usual way from St. Joseph off Highway 36. Our first attempt at entering was via the North on Airport Road (then 26th Road north 0.75 mile, and DuPree Road east 0.75 mile), but that led us to a locked gate with a sign that said something about a levee. So we exited back out Airport Road and headed SW and attempted to enter via Vermont rd. We found where they were digging the levee and were not able to pass through this route either (gates, sign, mud, federal prosecution from entering levee area) - but we saw this cool train bridge !! Short story long, we didn’t camp at Dupree but will try again next year :)

Pros:

- so peacefully quiet, seriously even with the kids

- dog park with 3 separate areas- close to KC

- a hose at the dump station that you can actually hook up to your black tank flush

- both AT&T and Verizon worked great 

Cons:

- I honestly have none from here!

Camped here on Oct 5, 2023. RV parks are not our preferred place to camp. Prefer to camp with our campervan in dispersed or primitive campsites. That being said, this campground was really good for an overnight stay during our trip north to Minnesota. The owners were very welcoming and helpful. The property and restrooms/showers were very, very clean and well maintained. Our dog enjoyed the fenced in dog park with is on the property. The campground has ponds. Other campers were friendly and respectful.

Great please to camp, not to crowded. Got busier on the weekends, empty on the week. Nice showers and toilets, laundry. Campsites were large, many had a good footprint enough to set up a large tent. We have a 20’ round yurt and had plenty of room. Lots of hiking trails in this park, some paved. Nice lookout point. Dog park was nice, well gated and taken care of, had water station for thirsty dogs. We spent 25$ a night for a 30amp electric site. Campground was well maintained. Only minutes from the historic town of Westin, amazing parks, lots of pubs and little restaurants. Nice place to walk around. I would camp here again.

This Love’s RV Hook Up is right off I-29. We’ve enjoyed several stays at these new Love’s campgrounds(CG) and they are normally away from the main car and truck fueling areas. After cruising around the truck area, we found that we needed to go to the car area as the CG is literally off the auto-side fuel pumps/parking lot. There is a lane that we could have driven through from the truck area and this would've put us in the right position to back into our site. However, there was a Love's fuel truck parked there the whole time of our stay. There are six back-in sites with water and electric. They give you a code if you want to use the dump station. We reserved site 1 with water and electric(50/30/20 AMP). It still could have been an easy back-in but there was a big U-Haul truck parked outside of the formal parking areas in our path. We were still able to maneuver around and get in our site. After parking, we checked in online to activate our utilities. We quickly found out when we auto-leveled that site 1 was not a level site as our passenger side tires were off the ground. And whoever designed these sites thought boulders between sites was a good idea? We had to position our rig to avoid a boulder on the pad, so that we could open our basement slide drawer. The utilities are at the far backside of the pad and based on our rig’s configuration with the wet bay towards the front, we needed 25’ or more of hose and electric cord. The water pressure here is good. The WiFi is also for general public use and not very fast. We got 3 bars on Verizon and used our MiFi for internet as we were not comfortable putting out Starlink in this general public area. We were next to Love’s two-sided dog park, which if not for dog poop on the inside and around the outside would have been a great convenience. Concerning the uncomfortable comment, two stealth campers in cars were in parking spaces adjacent to our site for the night. We shared the CG with a Scottish Rugby cycling team traversing the USA raising AHS awareness. We did not know that starting around 6:00 AM the sprinklers came on and all of their gear got wet. The sprinklers also make mud puddles at the dog park entrance. Loves should gravel the small and large dog entrances. There should also be signs to let campers know about the sprinklers. The other Love’s RV Stops we stayed in had restroom and shower facilities, here you go in the main building and pay to use the trucker showers. The dump station is hard to get into with a large rig. Wrapping up this unpleasant stay, this Love’s was one up on a Walmart parking lot as it had water and electric.

Getting to the state park off I 29 and through the countryside was easy as the route had Weston Bend SP signage. We followed the SP signs to the campground(CG) where the gate was not manned so we headed to get water, but someone was sitting in the dump station waiting for another person to arrive so we went around this one-loop CG to see if there was a convenient spigot. There are spigots but with a larger rig, you will block the road, and/or you will be on a hill. We went back around and the person moved so we could get water. After that, we headed to pull through site 28 with electric(50/30/20 AMP) only. The site is long but has a 1/4 moon turn so we had to pull back around to get better positioned on the pad so we could disconnect our 39’ 5th wheel and F450 for our 3-night stay. There were tree branches overhead that we could not avoid. RVers next to us in site 30 had just arrived as well and were having trouble getting their travel trailer unhitched and leveled due to the pad’s slight incline and unlevel asphalt. They got their trailer positioned so they could get somewhat level. We got a solid two bars on both Verizon and T-Mobile. Due to our proximity to Kansas City, we got a lot of OTA channels. A satellite connection would be iffy in most sites here due to the number of mature trees. The trees in a lot of sites would also scrape the top of larger rigs. There’s a variety of sites with most being good for regular trailers versus tall rigs, and tent sites. They have a nice shower house with 1 washer and 1 dryer both for$1.50. There are also vaulted toilets here and there. There’s a 1.7-acre fenced dog park that includes one large area for large dogs and two other areas with one dedicated to smaller dogs. The dog area is at the front park entrance away from the campground and it would be a long walk to get there, so we drove up. There are a lot of hiking trails here plus an old tobacco barn that’s worth a look.

It does cost about $25 a day, but you have electricity, and shade, and it is always quiet here. The park rangers are always cleaning or doing rounds to make sure everything is okay. Bathrooms have AC and are cleaned with disinfectant daily. Very clean campground and has a playground. Pet friendly.

Great view, large spot, dog friendly and owners were great

great camp grounds, great host, great place to take our dog on her first camping trip for the weekend

Love this little area for camping! It’s well maintained, quiet, easy to access, has lots of grass for the dogs to play and we always see wildlife. People often leave trash so be sure to leave no trace so it stays nice for all to enjoy <3

We drove by the east side campsite and it was packed. We ran into a local and he told us about a spot on the east side of the lake. An old boy scout camp. It wasn’t maintained but there was nobody there. Our dogs ran free and that was what we were looking for. We ran our generator at night because we had no neighbors. We were a mile from the lake so we drove around and had access to the lake.

We stayed for two days in spot #92. Many of the spots have a good amount of room, but there are some that looked tricky to level. 92 was fine for leveling. The only downside is that the spots, while larger, are fairly open (in the area around 92). I prefer a spot that has a tucked away fire pit and table, but this worked OK for us. Bathhouses were clean and there is a great 3.75 mile paved loop around the lake if you have dogs that enjoy long walks.

This campground is mainly for Rvs. The campsites are full hook ups which are $20. The sites each have a picnic table, and fire pit. They are on pavement, level, and are kind of close together. There is a nice playground away from the sites along with a fenced in sand volleyball court. The park also has a frisbee golf course. The lake/pond has a paved sidewalk surrounding it with plenty of benches scattered to just rest or enjoy the lake and it's wildlife. You can hear the bull frogs, geese, and coyotes when the sun goes down. There is a train track behind the lake, and it seems to have a train every few hours that you can hear from your site. A couple of things that I noticed was the large number of vehicles coming through the campgrounds that were not staying hear. It was very busy and noisy. They also have 2 large fenced in dog runs for the pups.

It's in the Conservation Area of Missouri on Pony Express Lake. Easy to get to. Gravel road to the camp areas. Very small. Only 7 or 8 sites. We had a van. There was an RV there and a tenter. Picnic table and fire ring. There is a boat landing further down the gravel road past the campground, different finger of the lake. Fishing. Pit toilet, no water or hook ups for RVs. Very quiet place and of course, you can't beat free!

Weston Bend is less than half an hour from our home, but at the same time, it seems a world away. We enjoy camping there to get away from routine and responsibilities and simply hang out at our camper. The campground is wooded, generally cool, and peaceful. All camp spots are well-shaded and nestled within the woods. It's easy to take a quick jaunt into Weston for wine-tasting or exploring it's quaint shops. Or you can hike or bike in the Weston Bend park and check out the nearby Missouri River from the park's overlook.