Best Tent Camping near Ste. Genevieve, MO

A great spot for a quick get away from St Louis. Beautiful park with lots to do not far from the campground. If you are tent camping you don't have to worry about generators from the RVs as there are two separate camping areas that share a really nice shower house, but have their own bathrooms as well. Be careful to not get a tent site in the middle, in the low area, as rain runoff will run down to the middle area. No tent pads, but plenty of grassy areas to pitch your tent. Activities in the park include swimming in the pool or the Big River, canoeing (rent at the Thunderbird Lodge), hiking, and petroglyphs.

I have been to Hawn State Park many times! It is a very clean campground with a newer shower house. The campground is smaller and has amazing views. I love electric site 17 best because it has the perfect view of the cliffs. There is 3 trails with the longest having two loop options with connectors from the other two trails. There are also walk in sites here and hike in sites. This park will not disappoint. It is also close to Ste. Genevieve which is a great town to visit for a history lesson on the settlement of Missouri. Pickle Springs Nature Area is also a few minutes away which is another fantastic area to hike. It is beautiful any season but I love the views in autumn best!

Peaceful tent camping on Walkers Island at $8 per day.

Plenty of tent camping sites. There are primitive also. Great Lake to fish and plenty of trails to hike. Looks like the rv site can get booked up on weekends.

Not a huge campground but, Its a really simple beautiful place to enjoy Missouri's rolling hills. It is located 1 hour from St. Louis and 30 ish min from Elephant Rock State park. If your in the area check out the other amazing Missouri state parks while staying here. The Missouri Mines state park is maybe a 5 min drive and a neat place to see. Tent sites, Bathroom and some hammock spots.

Camper area is well cared for but tent camping needed to be mowed desperately. Lots of bug spray required. the area is very hilly and narrow to drive through. Over all very nice place to camp!

This is a very basic campground with some shade. No hookups, really good for tent camping. The new picnic shelter is beautiful and there is seating around a fire pit. This forest does a great job of keeping restrooms very clean.

We spent a Saturday and Sunday there camping in the electric site. They do have tent sites but we wanted to be closer to the river which was a 2min walk.

Great place, awesome people and kid friendly. Definitely will be back!

this ground is very well kept and is oerfect for tent camping. the only downfall is the amount trees. although the sites are very large, flat, and easy, you can see everyones business because there is maybe 1 tree in between each site. but there is a creek, trails, walk in sites, and lots of history to check out.

I like this camp site because you are within the trees the whole time. It is tent camping only. Where we camped, the ground was covered in moss. That made for very soft sleeping, except for the few large rocks spread over the area. We had room for two portable canopies and about 35 cub scouts and family members.

Really great campground. Good mix of tents and RVs. Bath house was very well kept and clean. Showers ran cold at first but after a few mins it gets warmer! There were plenty of pit toliets through out the campground and trash cans. My tent site was clean, good flat spot for tent, picnic table and fire pit with attached grill.

The Concession building in the park is closing. No boat rentals, selling everything he has on the shelf.

Caught a few bass and and good amount of hiking. Large trail around the whole lake, smaller trails lead to sites around the different campgrounds.

Lots to do for all ages, including swimming and hikes of any difficulty/length. Famous for petroglyphs and other history too. Green rolling hills that would be ideal to visit in the fall. The electrics sites are closer to the river, the tent sites are more private in trees in a separate area.

Yay: Rent a canoe/kayak/tube to enjoy the river (on site!).

Nay: Make sure to get away from the developed part of the campground to enjoy this nature. Surprise: Petroglyphs are the icing on the cake here!

Very simple campground lets you feel close to the lovely nature here. The trail options are either a short loop or a loooong out and back along the famous Ozark Trail. Not much else to do (no water activites) so if you’re not planning to hike a lot or just hang out/grill, you might want to plan some time off site.

Yay: Trails through all kinds of forests, waterways and waterfalls. Educational displays.

Nay: TENT CAMPING ONLY!!! My friend had been turned away on a previous trip! (There are some other parks nearby if you are in an RV.) Fills up fast.

Surprise: Hike the tallest mountain in MO, not a long hike. Endless green rolling vistas! Also had deer at our tent.

Fort Kaskaskia State Historic Site is located on the remains of historic Fort Kaskaskia, constructed by the French in the 1700s to defend the town of Kaskaskia. Founded in 1703, the town was a central commercial center. The fort was periodically occupied by French or U.S. troops until 1807.

The remnants of Fort Kaskaskia include long earthworks forming a rough square. A footpath leads to the Pierre Menard Home State Historic Site, located at the bottom of the bluff.

Near the pavilion, which was recently rebuilt after being destroyed by a fire, you can get sweeping view of the Mississippi river below. The overlook area includes picnic shelters with tables and grills.

The campground includes tent-camping and RV sites, 32 are electric sites. There is a bathroom and shower building.

The campground is based off first-come first-serve. They offer vault toilets and water and only tent camping.

Taum Sauk Mountain is known for being the highest peak in Missouri but has a lot more to offer with its breathtaking views. There are three trails that are within Taum Sauk Mountain and you don’t want to miss out on these views!

Taum Sauk Mountain- Missouri‘s highest point trail is not a long hike, just a little under 2 miles and rated moderate.

Mina Sauk Falls trail is a little under 4 miles and rated moderate. Best to hike after a heavy rainfall to see the waterfall but don’t let that stop you if it hasn’t rained in awhile, still beautiful to see.

Ozark Trails meets with Mina Sauk Falls and then runs off on own again. Its about a 14 mile trail and rated Hard.

Be sure to wear good hiking shoes!

I downloaded the AllTrails app, which if you dont have I highly recommend downloading it. This app is very helpful finding trails near you and even locates where you are at on the trail.

Saint Francois is a tent and rv campground just 1 hour south of saint louis, MO in Bonne Terre. It also along a river which allows swimming at your own risk because there is no real entrance site. But plenty of gravel bars. I personally enjoy this park and its sites. The rvs and tents are separated which i love. And the tent sites have plenty of room for 2-3 tents plus games. They provide individual showers, out houses every 6 sites, flat areas for tents, ice, wood, and activities. Trails, parks, and lots of fields to play in.The only downfalls are (1) entering the park. You enter on a dangerous highway where you need plenty of room and stopping to enter but there is none. Getting out is the worst especially if you have a trailor and move slow. There is no lane for you to pull out. Cars are fine. (2) the river is monopolized by 1 company for rafting/kayaking/canoing. You have to make an appointment, they only accept cash, and the websites dont show correct equipment. But it gets the job done.

I had a great time at Taum Sauk Mountain. I came down to check out the area to see if it would be a good place to do a Boy Scout High Adventure for my son's troop. It is only tent sites, no RV's, campers or pop ups. I prefer setting up my tent and sleeping under the stars so I loved camping here.

There are not a lot of campsites and they are reserved on a first come first served basis. There are only pit toilets and no showers but if you are in a pinch you can power your phones from the outlet outside of the pit toilets and there is a water fountain with a spigot right next to the pit toilets as well.

Taum Sauk Mountain is the highest point in Missouri with a beautiful overlook. It also has a tower if you are not afraid of heights and can make it up the 91 steps to the top. There is a lot of wildlife. I saw several deer myself and my neighbors had a pack of raccoons who terrorized the food they left out on their picnic table. Be sure to keep your food and belongings in your car or hung up in a tree or on one of the posts set up in the camp site.

This is a great park for scenery, wildlife, and solitude.

Gave this campground a 5-star rating, but it probably should only be a 4 star. It only has about 12 basic tent campsites, no water or electrical at the sites. The campsites were nicely spaced, most have a lot of shade, each has a picnic table and a place to make a fire. No trailers allowed at camp sites, just tents. There is one or two special-use camping areas that can be used for groups such as boy scouts, etc. It appears you can pay in advance and reserve some campsites, so that you be sure to get one for your trip. I went in late May on the Mon-Tue of-after Memorial Day weekend and was able to find an available campsite even though I did not have a reservation. Camping fees/rates were posted on a board near the restroom building by the honor system camping fee pay station.
The restroom bldg only has pit toilets, not flush toilets. But they were cleaned very well by the workers on the 2nd day I was there. Also worth noting is that there is water faucet an a drinking fountain next to the restroom bldg, so you can get fresh water if needed. OK, so this sounds normal to average, so why give this campground a good rating? Because of location to the great stuff near-by on this mountain.
Missouri's High Point is here on this mountain. There is a very nice overlook w/ viewing platform w/ handrails very close to the campground. Some awesome hiking trails are worth checking out, although they are a bit rugged in places where you could twist an ankle. One of the trails will take you to a nice waterfall, which is Missouri's highest falls. Note that I would not call it MO's largest waterfall. Further to all of this great stuff is that the birds were plentiful and quite active when I was there. Easy to watch and listen to them at the camping area, and at the overlook viewing platform. Birds were pretty much everywhere. There is also a look-out tower up on the mountain, which is probably used as a fire watch tower. A few pictures attached.

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

We stayed here on a Tuesday evening in early November. It was election night so we were happy to not have a cell signal for the night. 😊 The sites are all walk in but it’s a short walk from your car to the site. Very rocky ground so be careful where you put your tent. Pit toilets are located at the entrance to the campground. We didn’t see where the water was but it was supposed to be off for the season anyway so we were prepared. We did the hike to the highest point in Missouri and then to a small waterfall. We were racing the sunset so we didn’t get to spend as much time as we would have liked. There were only two other campers and all was quiet.

They were very picky about every single thing we set up. They required the tent had to be set up on the gravel but we had 2 large tents and they did not fit. Plus who wants to sleep on gravel. Had to buy wood but was only open a couple hours day. It was not a relaxing weekend.