Best Tent Camping near Sheldon, MO

Tent area is undeveloped, but the lawn is fairly level, bathrooms and showers are only a short walk away. Nicole showed me to the site and was a wonderful help. Great spot that most people might pass up because its right next to the highway, but honestly you can barely tell aside from the hum of trucks. Bathrooms are beautiful and clean, 2 toilets, 2 showers and a sauna in each. The place is quiet and seems like a lot of people here are long term residents. We are in a tent on the back lawn by a small fishing lake. Nice playground for younger kids and you cant beat the atmosphere and the birds. Free on-site laundry which I took advantage of when I needed to wash and dry my blanket on a cold night. Unfourtunately no campfire for tent camp sites, but bring a camp stove and you'll be fine. They are actively doing renovations and the office isnt open yet, so you have to call the park manager, Kim, for info and she is wonderful. All the staff is. Kim came by and took my son and 2 other kids on a golf cart ride on the trail behind the lake and they had a blast. We are loving it here and are sad to be leaving after the weekend. Update: I have just been informed they have a Willie Nelson impersonator doing a show here tonight, this place would get 6 stars if I could.

Fort Scott Lake lake is tent camping only no animenities. ( no water, electric or bathrooms)

Clean and well maintained KOA. Friendly personnel. Shaded, pull thru sites as well as back-ins, cabins, and tent sites. Sites are very level with crushed stone pads. Good water pressure. Lots of grass. Patio sites are available. Internet is poor, as typical of most RV parks. Cable tv with about 30 channels. Good stopover park.

This could be a really nice little campground if it weren’t for the party vibe starting at 7am (yep, there was that one guy pounding beer and cranking tunes at 7am). Camp sites are divided by the road with RVs on one side and tents on the other. A person can easily walk under the bridge to get from one side to the other without having to walk on the road. There are no designated sites for tents, and that means there are also no picnic tables or grills for tents (it looked like there were at least some grills and fire pits near the gravel parking pads for RVs). But, for $5 you can camp on the beach and Mike (the fellow who runs Zan’s) will help you get hooked up with kayaks or rafts to float the river. There are no showers. There’s a decent roadhouse just up the street for some eats.

I think it’s probably the most underrated park in the area. It’s absolutely beautiful. 45 minutes from Joplin, Missouri. Limited camp sites but the sites are spacious w/ tables, pit, bathroom facilIty a short walk away with a creek nearby. Peaceful as can be.

The campground is setup in 2 loops, non electric and electric, so if your a tent camper your not surrounded by noisy air conditioners running. Although the nicer facilities and playground are situated on the electric side. The camp doesn't have a swim beach, but there are some shoreline areas you can swim. The sites are all fairly decent and shady and not too bunched together.

This place is a small park that has lots of hiking trails it is five dollars for tents $10 for RVs with electric the bathrooms are Porta potty but for five dollars you can fish and you can have a campfire permit pretty much anything you wanna do you can purchase by the day here for about five dollars each item is really a nice place for the family to come they had a super decorated for Christmas

Just got home from a weekend stay at site C19 at Hawker Point COE Park. This particular site was just up the hill from the lake and completely private. The walk to the lake was about 50 yards and a little steep but we managed to carry two kayaks down and up without too much trouble (and we are a middle-aged couple), and it was totally worth the effort because it was as if we had our own private cove.

The site is very spacious and shaded with plenty of trees for our hammocks and clothesline. Lots of level places for tents. The park attendants were very friendly and helpful.

C19 has no electricity or water and the closest vault toilet is a good walk down the road. The shower houses were driving distance away. We have a shower tent, so that wasn’t an issue for us.

We drove through the rest of this park to check out A and B campground loops. A loop consists of full hookup sites and many sit right on the water. Little shade and crowded, but if you like to play on the lake all day these might be for you. B loop had pretty wooded sites but many were not close to the water. C loop is where it’s at!

This was one of the best campgrounds that we have stayed at! Big Brutus is a must see if you are traveling through Kansas. The sites are level and on nice grass.The grounds are well kept, the scenery is beautiful! There are only 10 sites (all with power and water) tenting available. it is remote and extremely quiet and peaceful! Clean bathrooms and showers. No one is onsite at night but all emergency numbers provided. friendly welcoming staff!

I wish there were more secluded spots, but altogether a great place. There are miles of mountain biking trails which can be hard to find in Missouri, especially at state parks. Next time, we are hoping to get a spot with more trees and shade. The marina has a great shop In case you ran out of marshmellows or sunscreen and also has a small restaurant attached. Boat slips are also available. You can even rent pontoons or jet skis. There is also a water trail for canoes and kayaks, which are also available for rent.

This is a small municipal campground just outside of town on the banks of Spring River. It is a no frills campground- porta potties that need to be emptied and a big open field with no set campsites. There are a few scattered picnic tables and grills and even few fire rings. But, it’s $5 a night for tents and $10 for RVs, which are separated from each other. There is a boat ramp and some nice fishing spots, but it looks like getting in the water is the preferred method. Across the river there is a local rodeo arena.

We read raving campground (CG) reviews on Osage Prairie, especially how nice the owners were. Based on reviews, we decided to spend three nights here to break up our way south for our annual RV maintenance appointment. Check in was easy and the lady was very friendly with a sense of humor. We were then escorted to pull through site 14 with FHUs. The way the long pull throughs work is that another trailer can back up to you. It was nice that the utilities and picnic tables were on opposite sides. We were told we probably would not get anyone in behind us. About 30 minutes after arrival, a small trailer came in without reservations and was placed right up behind us. We concur that the lady owner who checked us in was very nice. The other owner who escorted us to our site was, in our opinion, a little on the sarcastic side, especially after we had cut our turn on their grass getting into our site. This CG is an A-Typical overnighter where they cram you in. The park filled up every night after our Thursday arrival but we do realize they are in the business of making money. Good news is there were grass areas between sites so you can get slides and awnings out. WiFi was below average for a CG this size. No cable or OTA but after moving our satellite dish around to avoid trees we got it to connect. We got three bars on Verizon. The park is convenient to get on/off I-49 (exits 203 and 202A are both fine) but you’re going to get highway noise day and night. The CG is about 1/2 short termers and 1/2 long timers, and several of the long timer rigs gave the CG that “trailer park” look. I picked up numerous cigar and cigarette butts off our site to include trash in the little grill. We did not enjoy the older Dodge diesel trucks starting up at 5:00 AM to head out to work or wherever they were going. On a more positive side, they have a nice stable with one horse, which you can pet but not feed or ride (guess someone tried to ride him once upon a time). Shower and laundry facility looked clean. They have a little gift shop in the office containing a few camping supplies and leather goods. Again, from previous camper reviews, we thought Nevada (Nee-vay-dah) would be worth touring around but we were not impressed. We grocery shopped at Woods and Walmart and both were on the low side of okay. Our final “not impressed” came when we saw long timers letting their dogs do #2 in the tent area and not pick it up. Then they locked their 3 dogs in their trailer and left early Saturday and had not returned by the time we left the following Monday morning. Their poor dogs barked on and off all day and night. We informed the owner and he said he had told them in the past to not do that anymore. This place is definitely about the frosting, not the cake. We should have just stayed one night and moved on, but we stayed too long and experienced too much. We won’t be back.

Osage Prairie, Site #46 (46 total sites), long enough for tt and truck, gravel, full hookup, close, but not bad, on interstate service road, no major noise, wifi poor, $39 with mil discount, otherwise $44 per night, no cable tv, no OTA TV, needed two blocks to level, some mature trees, some short sites, some longer, make sure to ask for longer, 

I knew within minutes of check in that we picked the right overnight stop. The couple who runs the place couldn't be better. Great site with mini golf for the kids too.

Stopped for the night and stayed two!

Lots of ticks. Good clean campground. Bathroom. Bison roam the park. Ticks also roam the park. Found a burnt guitar. Wooden pole hit truck. Prarie walk had lots of ticks, but no tick dogs.

Prairie state park isn’t very large but it is nice to see somewhere dedicated to preserving the native grassland that the Midwest used to be covered with. The main draw for me other than it being close to where I live is that you get to be around buffalo with out fences. It is a surreal experience and worth the time to locate the herd in the park.

This campsite is not for those who want amenities. There are 4 SPACIOUS sites and they are what I would call primitive. No hookups/ no electricity/ no running water. Good for star gazing. Two sites have a paved pad and two do not...depends what you’re looking for. There are quite a few trails ranging from 1.5-4.5 miles—- total of 14 miles of trails. The nature center is small but they have two bison, a coyote, and many other learning opportunities inside. Speaking of bison and coyotes... you’ll hear the coyotes all night howling and barking...the bison are roaming around which you will be able to see where they’ve been by the scat droppings around the road and trail system. Definitely something to see if you’ve never seen the plains before.