Round Spring Campground — Ozark National Scenic Riverway

Positives: Tranquil little campground with beautiful spring and cave. Quiet, shady, has two points of river access, group sites, and steaming hot showers.  Close to Echo Bluff State Park, Current River State Park, and Eminence, MO.  

Negatives:  Test sites are hit or miss. Sites 1-18 are fairly small and not very level. Sites 19-29 have larger, more level areas. 30-39 are kind of mixed.  Many sites have steps up of down to the site from the road.  There is no cell service available, so make sure you have made reservations before you get here. Closest cell service is up the road at Echo Bluff State Park. 

Other info: You may get lucky and see otters on your way to the spring, or some of the wild horses in the area. Go in the early morning to the spring trail to watch the mist roll off the water and enjoy the wildlife - so otherworldly. 

Cave tours are available June - Oct., but even if you visit is outside of this window, the walk to the cave is kind of magical.  

If you walk to the spring overlook, you'll also encounter a portion of the Ozark Trail. About a half a mile down the Ozark Trail you can cross the Current River on a pedestrian bridge which is a pretty cool experience.  

Bathrooms available on the upper camping loop, but the showers are located on the bottom loop (three family style showers).  Fantastic water pressure. 

Host was friendly even when he had to tell us we couldn't hang hammocks in National Park campgrounds. 

While you're there drive down to Alley Spring for a nice hike, another beautiful spring and historic mill, and at the camp store you can get a National Parks Passport stamp (located in the screened in porch) for the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. 

We stayed in site 13 which is located directly behind the bathrooms. Good if you have to go all the time, bad if you don't like to hear loud toilet flushes.  Very shady site.

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.

Round Springs in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways of MO is one of the smaller campground areas but it still has some options.

Single or group sites with nearby put in to the Current River make it ideal. Unfortunately the party climate of the area can make it less then ideal depending on who you get in the site next to or across from you. I love this area but it’s popularity takes away from the charm. Some people don’t respect their fellow campers and realize everyone wants to have a good time. Not much problem with wildlife the crowds keep them away but raccoons are still prevalent so store your food properly ;) Saw some deer but that was about it. People also use generators in the non-electric sites so you may be unfortunate enough to be next to them.

That being said it’s still possible to find some areas that are less populated and popular but still interesting to explore.Or if you are going to party, you will be in like company. Plenty to hike, float and explore in the immediate area!