Best Tent Camping near St. Joseph, MO

Tent Camping Reviews near St. Joseph, MO

297 Reviews of 7 St. Joseph Campgrounds

• 

  Sarah H.

  Guide

  Sep. 19, 2016

  Big Lake State Park Campground

  Clean and Friendly off I-29

  My husband and I tent camped one night at this park. We arrived around 8 pm and even though the office was getting ready to close, the woman behind the counter was very kind and helpful. She helped us with finding our spot and with getting firewood. Our basic tent site was lakeside and had a fire pit and picnic table. The site was so well maintained it was hard to find small sticks for kindling.

  The grounds have private bathrooms with toilets and showers. There are two nice playgrounds and a swimming pool. Most campers were enjoying fishing in the small lake. Kayaks were available to rent for a small fee. Kids enjoyed riding bikes around the flat roads.

  This is a great spot off I-29 to set up camp and have a rest. It's also a good spot to take young kids fishing.

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• 

  Sarah H.

  Guide

  Sep. 18, 2016

  Wallace State Park Campground

  Popular Park Tucked Away In The Hills

  My husband and I tent camped overnight at Wallace State Park. Woodsy tent camping sites were spacious and private. Large camping pads are lined with wood chips and are comfortable enough to sleep on without an air mattress. Covered picnic tables have an extra shelf for storage convenience. Even after setting up the tent and camping chairs there was still enough room for lawn games or for little ones to run around.

  Wildlife was abundant in the evening. We saw many deer, frogs and squirrels. At dark, nature sounds were unbelievable with songs of bullfrogs, owls, and flying creatures of all sorts. Be sure to bring bug repellant.

  Campground 1 had clean vault toilets, but the bath house near Campground 2 was even better. Showers were clean and in their own stalls with locking doors, shelves and ample hooks. The water got nice and hot and the shower heads were even and held good pressure. This bath house was seriously the best one we have ever visited and we have used dozens.

  For entertainment, there was a bustling playground, winding nature trails, horseshoes, lake swimming, and fishing. There was also a well kept laundry house with a dishwashing sink attached. Campground hosts and park rangers were friendly and busy keeping the park in great shape. Overall, this is a really nice place to camp!

  Gear Review: Lighthouse 250 Lantern and USB Power Hub We decided to try out our GoalZero lantern instead of our usual larger lantern. The lantern is compact enough to fit in a small bag with other electronics and is very light in weight. This saved us a little extra room which is a bonus since we take all of our camping trips in a tiny little Prius C. The Lighthouse 250 would be a good contender for bringing along on a backpacking trip, but you would want to pad it with some kind of protection as it seems that some parts might not hold up to a lot of banging around.

  We used the lantern 2 nights in a row without charging it and the battery life indicator still had over 1/4 of its power left. On this same charge, wee tested the phone charger by hooking up an iPhone 4 to charge for 10 minutes with the light on full turbo. The 10 minute charge boosted the phone's battery 12%. The hand crank charger was a little awkward, but would be sufficient in a pinch. Had we needed more power, we could have easily plugged the attached USB cord into our car charger. We don't usually pony up for electric sites, so on extended excursions, the Nomad 7 Solar Panel is a gadget we would consider purchasing.

  The directional lighting feature of the lantern came in handy for having dimmer light closer to sleeping times and brighter light for reading/boardgames in the tent. In the end, we will definitely bring the Lighthouse 250 lantern with us on future trips, and will leave our bulky older lantern at home.

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• 

  Whitney L.

  Guide

  Jun. 1, 2022

  Arthur Dupree Memorial Conservation Area

  MO River camping - has potential but couldn’t access due to levee digging

  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 :)

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• 

  Whitney L.

  Guide

  Jun. 6, 2022

  Bluffwoods Conservation Area

  lovely, quiet camping near St. Joe’s MO

  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

• 

  Leni K.

  Ranger

  Jun. 6, 2022

  Wallace State Park Campground

  Good Weekend Getaway

  Campground 1 is the ideal tent grounds. Heavily wooded some with better coverage than others. Campground 2 is the most spaces RV site. Campground 3 had five total sites in an open area. No privacy at all. Campground 4 was a tighter RV set up. All campgrounds share one very updated showerhouse, which did lead to some lines at the showers Sunday, but the trade off for quality bathroom is appreciated. All campgrounds and day use areas are also connected by a series of trails, so you're not far off from getting to a hike at any point. Campground 1 has four walkins that range from 80 to 300 yards in, starting with 28 closest and 31 farthest out. We stayed at 31, and whole remote, during the day picked up sounds clearly from other sites and at night the highway was pretty clear. Overall though the seclusion tradeoff was nice and it was an easy adjustment for us as car campers. We had a raccoon visitor who is a frequent flyer, while he got away with some hotdogs, we adjusted and ensured he didn't get additional treats. The main showerhouse was closer than the vault toilet on 1, which was still really well maintained. Overall crowds here seemed very respectful of quiet hours, space on trails and made for an improved stay. Camp hosts were always available and polite and friendly. Trails were maintained. Definitely would return again, to a similar site as a walk in.

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• 

  Leni K.

  Ranger

  May. 24, 2021

  Weston Bend State Park Campground

  Okay Campground for Tenting

  Campground is great overall, with a walkable trail just past the showers, clean restrooms and easy to access sites. There are only 3 basic tent sites, making it hard to nab. #4 had a decent amount of privacy, however most other electric sites do not. As an electric site, there was not a lot of ground space for tents, we settled on gravel with reflectix to buffer the ground. Check in was easy, and in walking distance. Site was pretty noisy, even after hours, a few kids running around with speakers on blast definitely were less than optimal.

• 

  Lady Phyre ☆.

  Guide

  Jul. 4, 2025

  Pony Express Lake Conservation Area

  Pony Express is amazing!

  You can camp in one of several little inlets and nooks. It's a Fish & Game preserve with camping and fishing spots all around the lake. Many with picnic tables and most with vault toilets. It's on my top 10 list of best primitive/dispersed camping locations. Only con is the vault toilet at the inlet I camped in. It was unusable with fetus nearly to the top. I think some unscrupulous person put trash in it then other used it probably without knowing. Very bad etiquette! Be sure to bring your own camping toilet and/or check the vault toilet before setting up. I didn't see very many RVs but several vans, trucks, and cars were there. The wildlife is predominantly water fowl.

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• R

  Reece G.

  Scout

  Aug. 3, 2016

  Wallace State Park Campground

  Wallace State Park in Cameron, MO

  There are mixed RV and tent camping sites, including primitive and walk in sites. You can get water and electric at most sites. Each campground has an iron fire ring with a grill attached.

  There are nice hiking trails. Trails are well marked. There three levels to choose from based on distance.

  There is also a small lake to fish or swim in. The lake for it's size, had some nice fish.

  The community shower and bathroom houses are not air conditioned. The floors are slab cement, but the park staff clean them daily.

  Overall, I think that campgrounds are decent.

• P

  Patti M.

  Ranger

  Oct. 23, 2018

  Pony Express Lake Conservation Area

  Small campground, free, on the lake.

  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!