Best Tent Camping near Salem, MO

Tent Camping Reviews near Salem, MO

652 Reviews of 22 Salem Campgrounds

• 

  Mike V.

  Ranger

  Aug. 3, 2016

  Taum Sauk Mountain State Park Campground

  Camping, hiking, sightseeing, & birding at Taum Sauk Mountain State Park in Missouri

  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.

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• 

  Kelsie L.

  Ranger

  Sep. 18, 2020

  Loggers Lake Campground

  Nice camping right on the lake

  Loggers Lake campground runs along the 22 acre Loggers Lake near Bunker, MO in the Mark Twain National Forest.

  Be prepared for a decent amount of driving on gravel county roads. The route from bunker itself has a bit less while the route to Salem is longer on gravel with a handful of water crossings.

  There are 14 sites which all have parking, picnic table, and fire ring. Most have lantern poles. Most back right up to the lake. Most have back in parking which can accommodate a vehicle with trailer. The first few sites have split parking, which can house your trailer in one spot and vehicle next to it, but not long enough to back in without disconnecting. At the beginning of the campground there is a swimming area with picnic tables, grills, and a vault toilet. After this, there are the sites mentioned above with split parking. Tent sites and tables are down a hill from the parking spots here. There is a small fork with a parking lot and a handful of sites - while we were here there was an RV in this area. I believe this would be the only place a full RV could park in the campground. Finally is the main campground loop. There is another vault toilet at the beginning of the loop. Both vault toilets were relatively clean. One had air fresheners in it. There is water access near the vault toilet. On the loop, all exterior sites back up to the lake. There are two sites on the center of the loop which would be very nice for a large group. The lake itself is beautiful and easy to access. There is a boat ramp at the campground loop and a spot at almost every site to put in a kayak or canoe.

  There is a 1.5 mile trail along the lake which begins at the campground loop. There is a spur to the spillway. The trail does not seem to be very heavily traveled, expect to walk through brush and spider webs!

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• R

  Rebecca

  Traveler

  Nov. 22, 2021

  Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park

  Late Fall Tent Camp

  We tent camped in loop 3 in late November for one night. The bathroom and showers were still on in this camping area. The spots are slightly close together but still very wooded. Not a lot of people camping at this time of the year even on a Saturday. Camp hosts were fabulous. The sites aren’t really set up for tents. More for Trailers. We had to get creative to find a spot to put up the tent in order to stake it down. Large parking pads, fire rings, and picnic tables at each camp site.

• 

  Marissa H.

  Traveler

  Aug. 11, 2020

  Timbuktu Campground — Echo Bluff State Park

  Wonderful Swimming Hole

  This is a really nice spot for tent camping - even though it’s clearly geared towards RV camping. Make sure to book a walk-in campsite if you’re tent camping, otherwise you’ll be in the lot with the RVs (no trees, no privacy etc see first picture). You’ll have to carry your gear to your site, but not too far. Each walk in site is fairly isolated and separate from the other site by trees. Each site has a wood tent pad, picnic table, and fire ring with grate. If you want you could even go to the lodge (walking distance) for a meal and skip the cooking! Book your spot in advance as it seems like they fill up quickly.

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• b

  brett K.

  Scout

  Aug. 31, 2021

  Mark Twain National Forest Loggers Lake Recreation Area

  WPA beauty!

  Loggers Lake, in the Mark Twain National Forest, is about 7 miles west of Bunker, Mo. Spring fed lake, no electric or water campsites. There is a maintained M/F restroom on the site, and a water spigot close to the restroom. All sites have a fire ring and a picnic table. GORGEOUS!

• 

  Staci R.

  Legend

  Oct. 24, 2017

  Brazil Creek

  No man's land

  No cell signal, and as the other reviewer has said, have your map to get there, because it's easy if you do. Your phone will not get you there. Beautiful clear water creek runs directly behind this "pull off" campground. There is only one actual fire ring & picnic table, but folks have built other rock fire rings dispersed throughout the campground. Just off a main trail to Meramac river and horse and hiking trails. No water, amenities (not even a vault toilet) or cell service.

• A

  Alicia N.

  Scout

  Nov. 4, 2024

  Alley Spring Campground — Ozark National Scenic Riverway

  Small sites with little privacy - campground fine, but not great

  I'd seen a lot of great reviews for this campground, so I had high expectations when we arrived for a night in early November. We reserved a spot in the 900 loop, just to be safe - a few of the camping loops allow reservations, and the rest are walk in. The loop was very open, spaces all fully visible to each other. The bathrooms were locked for the season after 10/15. 

  Since things were pretty empty, we moved to the 500 loop, which was more tree covered, near the river, and next to the shower house, which was the one park bath open for the winter. Bathrooms and showers were clean, though no camp host was present the night we stayed. 

  We were the only people on the 500 loop, so it was fine, but again - sites VERY close together. Some picnic tables were less than 20 feet apart. The 600 loop was the only heavily occupied loop when were there, filled with campers, presumably because of the electric access. 

  This is a NPS campground, so its amenities tend to be fewer than many MO state parks. I have other parks in this area that have more scenic and private tent camping. Just on the other side of the river is the Alley spring and mill, which are lovely - and ironically, some of the picnic sites are more spacious than these tent sites. I wish we could camp on that side!

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• 

  Hannah W.

  Guide

  Apr. 2, 2019

  Berryman Trail & Campgrounds - Mark Twain National Forest

  No fees, no water, plenty of beauty and space

  This 8 site campground has well kept vault toilets and no other services, but is fee-less to match. There is a pavilion near the access points to the Berryman and Ozark trails. We camped the night before heading out on a one night backpacking trip on the Berryman and were pleasantly surprised - it had rained the past 2 days and just finished when we arrived, but the ground was not soggy at the campsite or really much on the trail at all. The sites are well spaced apart, short pads so we saw one couple park their camper on one and their truck on another (the sites were not anywhere near full). Downside to that was, they ran their loud generator all night. However the experience overall was a positive one, with friendly neighbors but plenty of distance between so we didn't cross paths or hear each other's conversations unless we wanted to, a nice fire ring - check before selecting a site as ours was missing a grate; we didn't need one anyhow, a sturdy picnic table and plenty of down wood around to collect for a fire. We will be back!!

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• 

  Matt S.

  Legend

  Sep. 4, 2016

  Taum Sauk Mountain State Park Campground

  Taum Sauk Mountain is the highest point in Missouri, and a good campground

  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.

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