Best Glamping near Willow Springs, MO

Having experienced many rustic & gravel campsites, paved campsites are a welcome change of pace. It’s a new park (opened in 2016) with amenities like (excellent) WiFi in the campground, clean bathrooms/showers, and a fully stocked camp store at the lodge. The staff was very pleasant and helpful. While there is not much seating in the restaurant dining room, the patio area has plenty of space for the warmer months.

There is a large, modern playground for kids to enjoy and pavilions to grab some shade. The creek is a short walk from the most areas of the park.

As time goes by, programs would be a welcome addition to the park - maybe even some geocaching or scavenger hunts. A small band of wild horses roam the park, but all we saw was evidence that they had been there.

All in all, a great experience.

Echo Bluff State Park in Ozark National Scenic Riverways near Eminence, MO is a brand new “old camp”. 

Opened in 2016 the history is rather interesting. From 1929 until the 1980s, Camp Zoe was a children’s summer camp, founded by Russell S. and Margaret McMahan Louis County teachers. There is one of the structures still on site with plaques and information. More recently, it was home to music festivals — and an open-air drug market. I didn’t find any plaques in relation to that. However when the government gained control of the land in a court proceeding it was decided to bring more business into Shannon County by opening a very nice campground for people not wanting to rough it. 

And “BAM” you have very pricey accommodations from lodge rooms, to cabins and two story condos. The campground is pretty nice too but lacking in shade and privacy. There are walk-in (uphill) sites and nice wagons provided to transport your gear. Not my favorite style of camping. Completely full and busy, which is why it got a 4 instead of 5 star. This may be your type of camping and you would say a 5 star. Reserve ahead, I mean way ahead.

There is a huge pavilion that can be reserved that overlooks the area. It has a large fire pit and mega size grill, one of the trails meanders below the pavilion. This would be a nice venue for an extended family get together.

This is a very nice, new, recreation creation. The playground was given two thumbs up by my granddaughter. Then the river, which you can see from the lodge and playground was given 12 paws and 2 thumbs by dogs and grandkids alike. Crystal clear ice cold water that you can walk across to the sheer wall of rock. Bring your water shoes, the rocks aren’t fun to walk on.

A very cool feature , if you are lucky , you will see the wild horses that roam the area. They are not for petting, so use caution. 

Aside from the abundance of people we enjoyed Echo Bluff SP.

I was able to get my 28' trailer in site 37 and managed to level it. There's a sign to keep car tires on pavement, but I wasn't able to and parked the Jeep on the grass next to the trailer. Unlike other sites at this campground, this site did not need stairs to get to the fire pit or picnic table; they were right outside the door. The fire pit was clean and I used the grill box everyday to cook all the meals. The weather was too hot to use the entire fire pit for a large fire.

Unfortunately, my view from the fire pit was of the shower building and watching people go in and out at the end of the day.

I have solar panels mounted on top and the large shading tree kept them from charging the batteries, but shaded the site very well. This made me look for portable panels after I got home. The lower branches should be trimmed to avoid damage to taller trailers. The branches barely cleared mine.

The ground is rocky and bent my flimsy tarp stakes. This made me look for better stakes when I got home. Haha.

The dump station is at the entrance to the campground and there were two issues with getting fresh water. The fresh water tower had the elbow nozzle and I couldn't get it unscrewed to put my hose on. To fill up using the elbow nozzle and trailer's gravity fill port meant parking the trailer in the exit lane. Not knowing what to do, I proceeded to site 37. There is water near the shower building and thankfully my three hoses spanned the length and was able to fill up while parked in the site. When dumping on the way out, there was no issue with unscrewing the other non-potable water tower's elbow nozzle and putting my own hose on to flush the tank. Maybe I wasn't strong enough to remove the fresh water tower's nozzle.

The host was really nice and so were the park rangers.

No signs about generators; I used mine during the day. I didn't hear anyone else using one though and felt guilty. Heard lots of music and barking dogs so not too guilty.

The river is awesome, cold, and a highlight of the campground. People take their dogs and chairs to the bank and I'm sure they love it, but it's a busy bank with boaters and not a lot of room to separate from others. Instead, we waded to the center of the river, and after several minutes of getting used to the cold water, sat in the rushing water. It was great and the noise of the rushing water around us drowned (haha) out the barking dogs and peoples' conversations on the bank.

The walk on the trail and across the bridge to the country store was nice and took 15 minutes. Worth the walk for wifi and ice cream. The trail to the store is not marked well but figured it out.

I will go back, but choosing a different site.

We are trout fishers. This place is perfect for easy stream and running water fishing. We stayed in loop 3, site 325. We walked over to the "river" about 75 yards from our campsite. The water is shallow and clear. it was perfect. You are off grid in this park with Verizon (our service) or T-Mobile (another guest looking for connection). The lodge has Wi-Fi and I was able to pick up signal to text and call when standing outside. No connection for any data at our camp site. No Over air TV stations. One FM radio station. I you want to have any entertainment, BRING DVDs.