Best Campgrounds near Summersville, MO

The hubs and I went to North Fork campgrounds April 25-28th and we were the only campers there.  People were on the river for day-use, picnic, fishing, swimming etc. but we were the only overnight guests.  The sites are HUGE and spacious but not private.  No undressing if you have a neighbor.  There are some trails from the sites to the river but nature has mostly taken them over and it is not a safe trek. It's a short walk on the driveway to the vault toilets and day use area to get in the river or walk along the pebbled banks. Use caution while exploring the banks because what I'm assuming was a parking lot or RV sites had been recently washed away.  There are large sections of concrete/asphalt slabs, picnic tables, stationary grills, and parking wheel blocks scattered and partially buried all along the bank. The water was nice and the Catahoula enjoyed herself.  Nighttime was magical.  It was absolutely silent besides the sounds of nature and the river. Our favorite part was the THOUSANDS of fireflies. They were like a blanket or waves of twinkles through the whole loop. We let the fire die down just so we could watch the show.  Absolutely amazing.

There are a small number of sites and they are difficult to find. To reserve for $10 per night you have to leave your things at the site and drive down to find the QR code by the bathrooms and book the site. Then the online booking wasn't working and wouldn't allow me to book the site and I spent an hour on the phone with the forest ranger who also didn't know what to do. It's beautiful but overwhelmingly noisy and busy on the weekend. People in your site who are going down the river stop to fish and eat and occupy your space. Trying to launch from your camp site. If you can get a chill few days in th week it's really wonderful and peaceful.

We spent 3 week days camping here in our camper van. We snagged a spot with a river view. Campground was maintained by NPS, very clean. Nice restrooms with showers as well, potable water spigots. There is a herd of wild horses that frequents the area (as evidenced by mounds of horse poop in an adjacent field!) and you can easily walk over to the beautiful round spring. There is an on/off-loading area for canoes and kayaks. The RV and tent spots all looked mostly level. We saw a bald eagle and a very curious little otter down by the river. Close proximity to the ozark trail. We walked through the campground past the spring and caught a little trail that hooked up with the ozark trail and had a lovely day hike around a loop. It was perfect.

When we were there in April there were only a handful of other campers there and we tons of quiet and privacy, however, I imagine during the summer it fills up.

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!