Looking to cabin camp near Vanzant and enjoy a rustic retreat into nature? The Dyrt can help you find the best cabin camping destinations for your next trip. You're sure to find the perfect cabin rental for your Missouri camping adventure.
Montauk State Park preserves a shady green retreat that offers visitors plenty of opportunities for fun, whether it is fishing, camping, hiking, picnicking or just relaxing with friends and family. Montauk State Park's campground offers basic and electric campsites. For a little extra space, try one of the park's family campsites. The park's store carries a variety of camping supplies.
Twin Bridges Campground along Missouri’s North Fork River with canoe and kayak rentals. This campsite offers a variety of lodging options including: cabins and trailers that sleep up to twelve people, tent sites, RV Hookups and base camps for those canoe or kayak packing. They also offer rentals for canoes, kayaks, rafts, and even ATVs. Twin Bridges is a basecamp for backpackers heading into Mark Twain National Forest, as well as hunters and fisherman. Twin bridges offers a cafe, bar, community fire pit, and camp store.
$11 - $220 / night
This recreation area is part of Bull Shoals Lake
$15 - $135 / night
Blue Heron Campground provides the pleasure of a natural Ozark setting without leaving the beaten path. Forget about traveling miles of back roads to reach that special camping spot. Our RV park is just off the highway and right on the banks of the White River, a premier trout fishing destination. This is RV camping at its finest. You can fish, bird watch, or simply enjoy the Ozark Mountains scenery.
Bidwell Point is tucked below towering oak and pines on the shores of Norfork Lake. Lay on the beach or take the boat out for water skiing on the easily accessible waters of Norfork Lake.
Lake Norfork is home to one of the best striped bass fisheries in Arkansas. Black bass fishing is at its best from September through May, and an increasingly popular sport is night fishing with lights for crappie and White bass.
The forest-topped Ozarks are actually a heavily eroded plateau, shaped and carved by hundreds of streams over several thousand years. Norfork Lake is sourced by the North Fork River in northern Arkansas, which winds through the rugged Ozarks before filling up 22,000 acres of Norfork Lake.
Hike the Robinson Point National Recreation Trail for wonderful views of the Ozarks. Just south of the lake, The Ozark National Forest spans 1.2 million acres.
Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee.
$24 - $50 / night
$48 - $237 / night
Scout
Blue Heron cabin was awesome! It was so so clean, and beautiful! Over looking the water can’t get any better! The cabin was so nice! Michael was great to work with and very professional and very nice! Can’t wait till next time ❤️
Legend
This is a mixed use place. It appears that there are long time campers, some weekend campers and nice cabins along the River. The White River is incredible with amazing trout fishing, so this is a great place to take in the views of the river! Location is close to town, the Marina & State Park and also Gastons. Giving it 4 stars for the cabins, but not so much for the campground.
Traveler
Have been coming to Montauk for nearly 30 years. Besides the excellent trout fishing, there are hiking trails, playgrounds for kids, a lodge with well-stocked store, tours of the fishery and old mill can be arranged, a naturalist’s cabin and an number of events are held there during the camping season. Four campground loops along the Current River, plus cabins and a motel at the lodge. Reservations are recommended, especially for weekends, but a number of tent and RV sites are non-reservable. Fall is our favorite time of year and includes annual Rose Holland Trout Derby.
Traveler
Tent, rv Hookups, cabins. yurt. Pool. Pleasant place for kids and adults. Good restaurant, live entertainment on occasion, views, trails. Great staff. Conpletely new place. Good time by current river mo.
TravelerWe celebrated a birthday with family and friends at Blue Heron - we traveled from Texas. What a GREAT place. Beautiful views - so many amenities - they have everything you need to make your stay as comfortable as possible. Can’t wait to return and stay in one of the riverfront cabins. SO nice. Cheryl and Michael were so helpful and made sure our trip was one for the books.
TravelerWell kept state park and trout hatchery. Recently upgraded electric in campground 4, which was nice. Each campground has its own host, which is great when you need it. I hung out with friends in a basic group site, too, and there was plenty of room and a nice setting (site 116). Food at the lodge was better than anticipated and friends in the cabins had no major complaints either.
Scout
Park is clean and well run. Along the beautiful White River, trout heaven. 3 “cabins” available, these are park model RVs in permanent spots along the River. Tent sites with no hookups available, but not at rivers edge. You can put a tent on an RV spot. Programs available from park rangers. Store in campgrounds has most of what you may have forgotten. Tent sites have trees for setting a hammock, some better than others.
ScoutThis spot is mostly focused on trout fishing. The campground is large, 3 loops, but spots are close together and can be noisy during prime fishing season. Nice camp store, restaurant, ice cream parlor. They also have motel style lodging and cabin available. Nice, somewhat challenging due to hills, hiking trails. Trout hatchery available to walk through and feed the fish. I'm a repeat visitor for fishing purposes. Camping spots available along stream.
Legend
Family style theme campgrounds are always fun. Not really so much about the hiking and outdoors as many other camps in the area but the amenities and attraction of the campgrounds are usually the selling point.
I have seen many Jellystone Parks in the past, and I will say this one is a bit less themed than others. However what it lacks in theming it does make up for in charm as the cast and staff are extra friendly and involved. They ensure that children have interactions with Yogi and that there are plenty of fun activities for the entire family to enjoy!!
They host daily activity times for foam parties, scavenger hunts, interactions and crafts which is really fun and makes for a great family style outing especially for the younger kiddos. Additionally they have a splash pad, swimming pool, hiking areas which are a bit less challenging, playground and ranger station.
Though they do have an all inclusive style approach to entertainment they also have show tickets available for purchase for venturing into Branson itself, a great touch for additional entertainment as there are many things the entire family will enjoy.
Tent camping along with RV camping and Cabins is available but something unique to the park is the RV rental service where you can rent an RV to stay in, something not to many parks in Branson offer.
When I visited the park, some of the amenities and special attractions were currently closed due to the conditions going on in the world, but they still made sure to make it an exciting experience for all staying there.
RangerThere is some hiking but everyone was fishing, canoeing, or swimming. Good big state park campground. We stayed at the larger family camping area. Full RV options. You can also rent modern hotel suite-style cabins and eat in the dining hall so you don’t have to cook. Nice general store too. We didn’t take advantage of it, but there were a lot of activities aimed at kids. Great mix of modern campground and nature experience.
Ranger
I’ve camped here 2x for Jeepstock in September. Brandon, the owners closes the park for the event but it’s still maxes the facilities capacity. The tent camping is questionable, but lots of great electric sites. Generator camping is far away from everyone else so that’s nice.
There’s limited bathrooms and showers but I think that’s going to change soon with additions to the grounds. Nice new cabins are being added yearly. If you ha e a chance to visit SMORR, I would recommend it!
TravelerThe campgrounds and cabins can be a bit difficult to book, if visiting on a Friday or Saturday, but the park is worth it. Cold spring fed, stocked stream, which is the start of the current river. If you're trout fishing, you'll need your MO state fishing license, as well as a daily trout tag within the park. Below the park at Tan Vat landing, you'll need your MO state fishing license and a trout license. Areas on the Current River, directly below Montauk are "Blue Ribbon" areas, so be sure to read the restrictions on trout fishing.
RangerIf you’re not out on the water here, you’re going to be missing out.
Yay: large private wooded campsites, modern and clean facilities. They also have cabins and a hotel. Couldn’t believe they had a restaurant on site but we only got ice cream there since we had a cooler of food to use up. Kids loved making crafts and even learning some history with the rangers (all free). We rented large canoes on site for a very modest fee.
Nay: very bustling, but not overly noisy or crowded.
Surprise: loved exploring the area by boat, we saw tons of water fowl.
Legend
This isn’t a campground, but it is an awesome resort that started in the 50’sand has grown to what it is today. They have lots of different cabins/cottages to choose from on the river. There is a landing strip for small planes and an awesome restaurant with an amazing view of the River. There is a store on site and a game room for the kids. They also offer fishing guides, because, at the end of the day, it is the world class trout fishing that brings people here! They also have a really nice outdoor nature trail area filled with at least a dozen or more peacocks. I could just spend the afternoon here watching the planes land and take off! If you are looking for a campground close by, I would recommend Bull Shoals White River State Park.
LegendMontauk State Park is at the headwaters of the Current River, and is a State Park the northern end of the National Scenic River. It is just South of Salem, MO. The park has a fish hatchery and is noted for trout fishing! The campground is very large, with 3 or 4 loops. The sites are mostly level but close together. They have water and electric. With this many people it can get noisy. There are clean showers/bathrooms and a dump station. There is a lodge with rooms and a restaurant with limited menu, and cabins. WiFi is available at the lodge, but cell service is spotty in the park. This is a trout fishing park. Almost everything is focused on fishing! You can get fishing equipment, tackle, fishing license and trout tags in the store.
Guide
The camp is directly off of the river. For those how love to kayak, swim, fish, of just be in nature this is the place to be. There are a few tent locations that are located away from the main area if you what to be away from it all. There are cabins as well. The camp offers a plethora of boat options to enjoy the river, and they also provide shuttle services for the 8 and 5 mile floats. If you love to hike, there are some amazing hiking trails with gorges views, water crossings, and even waterfalls. They also have an amazing bathroom area complete with showers for after your day of adventure. The cleanliness rivals most home bathrooms. They also have a stocked store on site with nearly anything you would want or need. The best part of this place are the owners. They truly care for the campers/floaters.
GuideCampsites are kind of close together but still comfortable. Each site had a picnic table and fire ring. Nice facilities with flushing toilets and showers. River access and fishing. Very enjoyable family getaway location! Will go again.
ScoutNearly every site overlooks the beautiful White River with its world class trout fishing and fly fishing. Campsites are spacious and clean, and nearby are playgrounds for children and pavilions for groups. The boat dock and camp store offers fishing equipment sales and boat and kayak rentals. One of our favorite campgrounds.
GuideSo many great places to fish and just great views of the river in general. Very scenic. Spread out sites so you're not on top of your neighbors. Tons of family and little kid friendly activities. There are a general store and small cafeteria in case you forgot something or burn your dinner over the fire. ;) Great relaxing getaway! WIll go again!
TravelerThis was a weekender for us. The campground is well organized and very clean. Kids have lots of fun activities waiting for them.
One great feature of this place, is the fact that they separated the 'Family' and 'Activity' areas from the older folks area. Oldies like us can enjoy the kids play and noise, but can get away when it becomes too much. That's great.
Nice hot showers.
GuideAnother great trout park on Missouri
Scout
If you’re traveling through southern Missouri and looking for a park to stay in, this is a great choice! Right off the interstate and easy to get in to. Site are graveled and level, and most are full hookups. The majority also have picnic table and fire pit. Plenty of potty spots for the babies scattered throughout the park and a 25 acre trail area. John, the owner, is a great guy! Friendly and welcoming, he keeps the park well maintained. Will definitely be using again!
TravelerExcellent park for trout fishing in Missouri. Camping available from March through October, when trout are stocked daily and available to keep a limit of four per person per day. Well-maintained sites are subject to flash-flooding during heavy rain. Shower and bath houses are decent. Park has privately owned lodge with store, restaurant and motel rooms and free Wifi. Beautiful scenery along spring-fed river.
GuideWe've made the three hour drive to Montauk State Park a couple of times in the last year. We just love it there! It's especially wonderful if you can make it in November when the crowd has left and you can really enjoy the crisp, cool fall and have so much of the campground to yourself. Just beware, they lock the bathrooms and shower houses down during the off season! We, of course, love to trout fish and have always had fishing luck in our favor there. We also love to eat a meal at the little on site restaurant and enjoy the convenience store when we've forgotten things. Try the ice cream at the restaurant! Delish! We've only located one trail in the park: Pine Ridge Trail. It's a nicely maintained trail. We went at sunset and the view from the top was gorgeous. One of the conveniences of Montauk is cell service! You can actually use your phones here, unlike many Missouri State Parks. If you're looking to take your family swimming- I don't think this is a great park for this. There are literally people fishing everywhere and there isn't really a great place to swim. Campground does have a nice play area for the kiddos. Camp sites are generously spaced. We did have some nightly skunk visitors circle our camper, but they were so fat and cute and thankfully kept their stinky spray to themselves.
GuideThis is where my love of camping started. I spent many summers as a child camping at Montauk State Park with my grandparents. After those early years of riding my bike as a child around the campground loops, I now take my child there every year with the hope that he appreciates it as much as I do.
Montauk State Park is one of the Missouri Conservations four trout parks, and is located at the headwaters of the beautiful Current River. The Current along with the Jack’s Fork River make up the Ozark National Scenic Riverways National Park. Since it is one of Missouri’s trout parks you will find a majority of campers are there to fish. You can purchase a trout tag at the lodge for $3.00, and it will allow you to keep 4 trout per day with a possession limit of 8. The conservation will stock the Current on a nightly basis, based on number of tags sold the day before. The stretch of river from spring to the falls are some of my favorite fishing anywhere. I have a group of guys that get together every spring and fall for a trout fishing trip.
As the Current River winds its way through the valley, it creates one of the campground boundaries. This allows you to be near the river at all times, or even next to it, if you grab one of the spots on its banks. The campground is broken down into 4 separate loops, with loop 1 being the only basic section, all the others have electricity. I have spent more time recently camping in the basic section with the guys. We have used sites 115 for the space and 119 for the seclusion. Our family did camp on Mother’s Day on site 418, in loop 4. I would not recommend this site because you only have a small space between you and your neighbors.
There are two bathroom/shower houses with laundry facilities located in the campground, along with three campground host. You are able to purchase firewood and ice in the campground as well. Sites do go quickly so you will need to book months in advance.
The lodge has a full restaurant, as well as a diner style counter. My son love’s to go and sit at the counter to get ice cream. You will find menu item such as burgers, sandwiches, and salads, as well as a buffet on certain days. You can even order a sack lunch to take out to the river bank. The lodge also has a store stocked with camp essentials, souvenir items, and fishing supplies. If you do not have your own fishing poles, they have some for rent. You will also find the lunker board located here, so if you are lucky enough to catch a three pound trout bring it to have it weighed for your lunker patch.
If you decide not to fish, there are things to do such as take a tour of the mill when the naturalist does one of their demonstrations, hike the quarter mile trial to the springs (one of my son’s favorites, he likes to search for the water bubbling out of the ground), hike the longer 1.5 mile pine ridge trail, feed the fish at the hatchery, or take in one of the nature programs at the amphitheater. Also if you head out of the park on YY you will find Tan Vat Access located right outside the park on the Current. This is a great place to take young ones for a dip in its cool waters. Also you can take a gravel road out of the park to a funky little place called Bo’s Hollow. A family has built a small town in a field, where you can buy a bbq sandwich lunch, and take a model A ride to Ashley creek for swimming and a picnic.
I hope you get a chance to check out Montauk State Park. It is one of our family favorite destinations.
LegendFirst off, I don't know what is going on with this site but holy cow, let's get the name of the State Park correct - its the Bull Shoal-White River State Park. Not plural Shoals.
With that cleared up, this is a gem of a park that follows along the White River just south of the Bull Shoals Dam. You will pass the visitor center on the north side of the dam, go over it, and down into the park. Definitely stop at the visitor center. It's one of the best I've been to in Arkansas.
As the titled to my review indicated, this park is like watching the flyfishing scenes from the movie A River Runs Through It over and over (if you're lost, just Google images from the movie). The park is so picturesque that at times it seems like it can't be real. There is dense fog in the early morning because the water in the river stays about 40 degrees even in the heat of the summer. You can access the water from any site along the river as the terrain is sort of a gentle slope from each site down to the river. However, on the west side of the river, it is basically straight rock face, where the river has carved out its path in a mountain through the years.
The park is relatively small but the camp sites are large. The rv sites along the river are very large. Some have sewer, some don't; all have water/power. The marina and bait shop is in the center of the park. The tent and smaller pad sites are further from the river, but quite nice. The bath houses shine at this park. They are super clean, large and private. It is a "family-style" bathhouse with 4 separate and large bathrooms, all of which have a toilet, sink, mirror and outlet. I have only visited this park with my brother, but as a father of 3 little ones, I can say it would be very easy to get your kids clean in these bathrooms without feeling rushed. Each shower room has a separate door and locks. You can take as long as you need.
As for the campground, I'll just start with the fishing since most of the visitors to this park come for that reason alone. This is obviously a fishermen's paradise. Trout fishing galore all year. We fished the river along the campground and we also went on a guided fishing trip. Piece of advice, pay the money and take a guided trip if you go to Bull Shoals. You'll catch more fish than you can keep and you'll have a blast. Unless you're literally a borderline professional angler, you won't have any luck without a guide. We ourselves had almost no luck fishing from the bank and/or in waders, and we watched many a dejected fishermen walk back to their site after appearing so hopeful when heading to the water.
The reason you need to pony up for a guide is because - literally - from sun up to sun down, there are fishing boats going up and down the river. The White River flows north through the park and toward the dam. Guide services launch by either the dam or from the marina that is located approximately right in the middle of the park. You can also rent a boat from the marina if you don't want to pay for a guide. The guide services carry fisherman south on the river right through the park (usually on the eastern side of the river closest to the camp sites) and they go as far south as they can before they cut the engine and float down the western side of the river in the deeper water. So, like I said, if you are hoping to stand in waist deep water and fish the bank, it's impossible to do so. There is a boat motoring right through your fishing spot about every fifteen minutes. When the guide service has floated as far north as they can, they turn their engines back on and speed back south down the river to take their place back in the line of floating boats that go all day every day. We ended up traveling south of the park towards Cotter, AR to Hurst Fishing Service (http://www.hurstdock.net/). We had a guide named Pete and he was fantastic. For me and my brother, it ended up being about $450, and we spent about 4 1/2 hours out on the boat. They provided poles, tackle, baited hooks, and a cooler full of drinks. Pete also cleaned our trout for us. We caught more fish than we could keep (see my pictures). It was an absolute blast. Without a guide, we wouldn't have caught anything absent blind luck. Pete put us right on top of fish, told us what to do, and we caught fish after fish, after fish, after fish. That's how every fishing trip should go - more catching than fishing. Highly recommend Hurst.
Beyond the fishing, the park is great for any kind of relaxing getaway. The constant noise of running water is unbelievably calming and, in fact, my brother gave me a hard time for sleeping about 3 hours in the hammock one day. It was amazing. There is a nice playground on the eastern side of the park away from the water, as well as a huge pavilion. There's also a basketball court. We were there in April so it wasn't too warm yet, but if you went with the intention of swimming in the river, I'm not sure how much you'd enjoy it. The temp of the water is very cold year around. Also, there are so many boats going up and down the river, I would be very, very nervous about any kids getting out in the river to swim.
One side note: when we camped at Bull Shoals, we ended up booking two sites even though we only used 1 pop up camper. We were in sites 42 & 43. The reason we did this is because they are directly across the street from the bath house, and because the sides are literally side by side - they share the same pad. We didn't want to be right next to another RV (literally maybe 2 feet away), so we just booked both sites. Doing this made for a HUGE! campsite area. For the price, if you have a family, I think it is absolutely the way to go. The sites on both sides of 42 and 43 are fairly far away so you end up having a huge area to yourself if you get both sites. I would recommend doing this for anyone camping with kids, but I'd say the same even if you had a group of 6 adults. Just gives you tons of room to spread out, set up tables, chairs, etc. without feeling like other campers are on top of you. Thats particularly true at this park because the sites are generally close together as they are set up diagonally along the river. Just look at the campground map when you book online through the Arkansas State Parks site (https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/parks/bull-shoals-white-river-state-park).
Lastly, in the event you have kids, which often requires a midtrip walmart run, you should know that this park isn't close to anything. The nearest walmart is in Flippin, Arkansas and it takes about 35 minutes to get there so it's a solid hour for a round trip to and from. I know from personal experience because we noticed that one of the tires on my brother's camper had a big bulge in it and we had to go to walmart to buy a new trailer tire. When we got back, we realized we didn't have the right size and had to go back to walmart to get the correct size. It ended up taking up about 4 hours of our last night on the trip. Yikes!! In other words, if you go to Bull Shoals, make sure you pull a santa and check your list twice, maybe a third time, and over pack everything. To that end, make sure to bring pants and a coat even if you go in the summer. The temps fluctuate about 20 degrees in the morning and evening because of the temperature of the river. You'll be cold at night without a jacket and pants.
Overall, I'd just say that as soon as we arrived and got the camper set up, my brother and I took in the view for a minute, looked at each other and said almost simultaneously: "We're gonna have to come back here again." We held the same sentiment on our last day as we drove our separate ways. This Park is yet another can't miss in Arkansas and I promise you, the Natural State will not disappoint.
Guide
PROS- First the floating was excellent on the northfolk River. Great wildlife along the way including cranes, turtles, ducks, fish. Fantastic on site restaurant with bar and grill that has Saturday karaoke and Friday live bands. The best showers with privacy and cleanliness. Has extras on site like cornhole, basketball, Foosball, and a pool table. The campsites were large. The tent sites were shady and grassy with even ground and near the river. CONS- The RV sites have zero shade and very little grass so it's mostly clay mud on the ground, which would have been fine but since it rained it made a giant mud soup mess. The cost is higher than the recreation government sites online for camping.
Cabin camping near Vanzant, Missouri offers a perfect blend of nature and comfort, making it an ideal getaway for families and outdoor enthusiasts alike.
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