Looking for the best pet-friendly campgrounds near Brainard? Camping is an adventurous and unique way to escape the city—and you can bring along your furry friend. You're sure to find the perfect pet-friendly campsite for your Nebraska camping excursion.
$8 - $35 / night
$35 - $67 / night
Mahoney State Park offer Full Hookup, Electric Plus and Electric campsites. There are a total of 148 campsites. Lakeside Campground (100-148 campsites) are located close to Baright Lake and Owen Marina. Little Creek Campground (1-99 campsites) is close to a playground, basketball court and the coin operated laundry facility. Both campgrounds have drinking water, showers and modern restrooms. A dump and fill station is located conveniently near the park entrance.
Tent camping is available at Mahoney State Park in the two modern campgrounds. Tent campers will use the grassy area next to the pad site to set up their tent. Those tenting will pay the camping fee applicable to the site occupied. If making reservations, look for the site description of “tentable.” This means there is a level grassy space for a tent.
Reservations are accepted for half of the campsites in Lakeside and Little Creek campgrounds up to 180 days in advance of arrival date and paid in full at the time the reservation is made. All other camping at Mahoney State Park is first-come, first-served. Campers with advance reservations and those camping first-come, first-served must stop at the Lauritzen Administration building located at the park entrance to check-in or register to camp prior to setting up on a campsite. If arriving after hours, campers must go to the Peter Kiewit Lodge customer service desk and check in or register for a first-come, first-served site.
This modern state park is the perfect year round destination for a family escape. Families can visit the aquatic center and indoor playground, explore the park’s hiking and biking trails, adventure through the treetop ropes course, climb the observation tower and, when the weather turns cold, enjoy indoor rock climbing, sledding and ice skating. The jewel of the park is Peter Kiewit Lodge, which offers 40 guest rooms, most with balconies that offer a stunning view of the Platte River valley. The park also offers an arts and crafts center, an array of cabins, as well as camping opportunities. Mahoney State Park is located midway between Nebraska’s two largest cities, Lincoln and Omaha and is open year round.
There's plenty to do at this award-winning KOA, just a short drive from downtown Omaha and Lincoln. Enjoy the Jumping Pillow, mini zip line, pedal karts, banana bikes, large playground, swimming pool, mini golf, basketball, sand volleyball, badminton and horseshoes. Weekends (Memorial Day to Labor Day) feature breakfast in the Cornhusker Cafe, hayrides, ice cream socials, movie nights, tie-dye and other planned activities. Area attractions include the Henry Doorly Zoo, Strategic Air & Space Museum, Boys Town and museums, and the new beautiful Nebraska Crossing Outlet Mall. Nearby, enjoy wineries, casinos, top - rated golf courses and hiking/biking trails. Patio RV Sites and Deluxe Cabins make camping seem like a luxury vacation. Wings and freshly made pizza get rave reviews: You can even have them delivered to your site! Fido will love the off-leash doggie playground. Pool: Memorial Weekend - Labor Day Weekend. Max pull thru: 90 feet. Your hosts: Carrol & Eric Murray.
This West Omaha KOA campground offers Nebraska camping at its finest! Our campground is Big-Rig friendly, with 80-foot full-hook-up pull-throughs and 50-amp service available. You can also enjoy our scenic tent sites, or stay cozy in one of the cabins. Our cabins and deluxe cabins are all heated and air-conditioned for your maximum comfort. All cabins and RV sites have cable TV.
Once you're here, relax under a huge shade tree or activities, then refuel with a freshly made pizza - delivered right to your campsite! Or, enjoy breakfast in our tropical Cornhusker Cafe.
Canine owners will love our K-9 Park, where you can let Fido romp and play off the leash.
Your KOA hosts will be happy to provide you with information and maps to the many fun places to see. Come visit us - we'll make you feel welcome!
$30 / night
Platte River State Park is nestled halfway between Nebraska’s two largest cities – and makes a great place for camping near Omaha. Before it was a state park it was two separate camps – Harriet Harding Campfire Girls Camp and Camp Esther K. Newman – and a tract of woodlands. The charming, vintage cabins that once housed campers today provide cozy accommodations while the gorgeous new glamping cabins offer a luxurious yet nature-immersive experience. Other popular draws are the park’s picturesque waterfall, spray park, scenic hiking and biking trails and two observation towers that allow those who climb to the top a spectacular view of the Platte River Basin.
$10 - $165 / night
Very easy to find, free and simple. Pull up, park, sleep, enjoy lake in the morning!
This lake and campground are inundated with geese. We kayaked and I noticed “things” floating everywhere in the water. Goose poop. It was gross. Someone had also smeared (likely) human poo all over the walls and floor of the outhouse. I’m not going back.
We are avid campers, we are no strangers to all the things that come with camping including bugs. That said, the amount of mosquitoes here made any amount of time outside unbearable.
There was a lot of traffic through the campsite, not even people stopping to camp but literally just driving through, music blaring at 11pm.
And the GPS coordinates were wrong. They are closer to 40.63093° N, 96.57335° W
There are areas dedicated for daily use, primitive camping and electric sites. Great Lake for kayaking or a small jon boat. Has restrooms available, no showers. No dumpsite. Fire pit and picnic table available at sites.
Appears to be a quiet retreat with minimal campers.
Stopped here for the night while traveling through the area. Great stop. Clean and safe campground with full hook ups. Would recommend.
Brand new campground moving up quickly. The cabins are 5 star quality and they're still building more. RV sites are spacious, concrete patios w/ picnic tables, new fire rings. Baby trees were just planted to help with some shade, but there are a few mature trees too. Along the Big Platte River & has a pond for fishing only, with sites around the pond. The shower house is brand new and beautiful & very clean inside. Great place to stay in eastern Nebraska! Columbus has activities for kids too. Water park (the Pawnee plunge) & playgrounds (Centennial Park). There's a Walmart & Menards within 10 min. And plenty of food choices too.
Don’t forget the day use fee it’s $14 a day for out of state and seven dollars in state A decent number of mosquitoes on my visit in July in the evening
About 3 turns off the highway via dirt road. Very pretty, clean toilets, potable water, has picnic tables and grills. Definitely staying again on my way back east
Camped here previous year, and it was nice to come back to. Bathroom and lots of spots to set up. Also looks like it might be getting an update with the pavilion
Nice n quiet with a good breeze lots around for kids to do well kept n everything works as should I get back this way I will spend more time here next time .owners are real friendly and informative.
Populated but spacious. Friendly staff. Lots of greenery and trees. Only stayed one night but the list of activities seemed great. Safe, relaxing place. Bathrooms and showers could use some work but I was happy for a warm shower after traveling so long. Highway and trains can be heard from a distance but I found it soothing.
Did not stop to Camp!!, only dumped my tanks and filled up water. Wish I would’ve stayed. Looks like a very well done out-of-the-way and quaint park. $20 for dumping, or camping and dumping, seven dollars for tent campers.
Great little spot right off the expressway. Seems to be used mostly for RV's but has space for tents. Tent spaces are not marked but there are fire pits to give you a general idea of where to camp. Also, looks like they are constructing a picnic/gazebo area.
A short drive from Omaha, two rivers offers generally clean TV and tent camping sites across multiple campgrounds. I camped right by the river. Also a short walk to the outhouse and playground. Fun and quick trip if you’re in the Omaha area. My boys (4&7) loved it.
We spent Memorial weekend here in 2022. We had to park in a designated parking spot and walk in to set our tent. The site was shady and came with a picnic table, fire ring and We were right on the shores of the lake. It was a beautiful and very relaxing to hear the waves, although the wind coming across the lake was mighty fierce and destroyed the canopy that we had over the picnic table. And the beating of the tent all night long was a little hard to get some decent sleep. But the area was nice and close to the restrooms and spacious campsites
Small park with only 3 campsites. It has a hiking trail and a pond to do some fishing. Stayed for two days and would come back. Be wary though that there is limited availability
Nebraska campgrounds are never that stellar in my opinion often right by the freeway, but this one was the worst. The location is beautiful but the restrooms were the worst I’ve ever seen. It costs nearly as much as a site in a national park with the out-of-state permit, and music was played at all hours by people without any recourse. The cherry on top was our vehicle being pelted with rocks when the person next to us started mowing at 7am.
This is a nice small campground that is well taken care of. We stayed at site number 8 which may be one of the more unlevel spots. The passenger side of our 5th wheel was about 7" lower than driver side and rear of fifth wheel was about 3" lower than front before we levelled out.
Pros:
-Well maintained walking trails that are perfect for dogs
-Most sites have 30 and 50 amp hookups
-Fire rings and picnic tables at most sites
-$18 a night for electric hookups
-Quiet
Cons:
-Some sites are very unlevel
-No water or dump station
Great place clean facilities..heard a dog barking but.. kids ..dogs no issues here.. Nothing to stop wind so be prepared if your thinking of hanging out for a while Gravel road from highway to camp so keep dust in mind..
But for me it was all wonderful!!!!
Just a short drive down dirt roads off highway. Easy to find following diirections on Maps app. We were the second campers til another rv showed up during the night. RVs camp in gravel parking lot where toilets are. Unable to review toilets as we didn't use them. Large grassy area with trees and a couple teeter-totters, covered picnic area with electrical outlets, bbq grill and campfire grill. There's a floating dock with picnic table, perfect for enjoying a morning cup of coffee. A great quick overnight spot overall.
Camping in the teepee was hands down our worst camping experience ever. The teepee was hot, dirty and falling apart. We stayed in the“big chief” teepee and it was on a horrible slope with tons of ruts on nothing but bare uneven dirt. There was no privacy as the other two teepees beyond this one were set up so other campers were constantly walking by your camp. Even the door placement to the teepees were bad. There was a more well placed teepee they save for first come first serve camping, not reserved camping. That makes no sense. The worst teepee should be reserved for unreserved campers. There are also bike trails directly around the teepees so in daylight, meaning early and late, you will hear groups of bikers riding around a technical course and lots of whooping and cheering as well as hard landings. To make things worse, they didn’t tell us about an ROTC event they were hosting in the park where groups of ROTC young people were constantly walking by our camp from early morning to afternoon, looking for markers for a kind of seek out practice for them. This was highly disturbing. Zero calm and privacy. The teepee was shabby and the indoor outdoor carpet was dirty and old, and you got the feeling you were sleeping and living over everyone else’s ick. Also, right over the teepee there were loads of huge dead oak branches. With the high winds, we were pretty scared a branch might fall on us. It’s just a matter of time before someone gets hurt, or worse. There were many loud people in cabins with dogs, even dogs barking and crazy dogs running loose the whole time we were there. There was also a lot of trash and littered personal items scattered around in the woods and on the campground area. In the end, it is a very poorly planned campground for comfort, beauty, safety and privacy. We would have been better off to stay home. Like many things now, Platte River State Park feels overrun with activity and under preserved. The exact opposite of why one wants to get away from the city and camp in nature. Waste of time and money.
Pulled in around midnight. We were under the impression that there was a gravel or dirt road that goes around the water to get to the designated tent spots. I didn’t find out until the next morning there was not and couldn’t explore upon arrival as there was a camper parked where I believed the road began. With no other way around, we parked the car in the lot and set up a tent on the first grassy area we could see. Once I got out of the car, there was constant barking that echoed around the area from around 12:15am throughout the night and next morning. The person with the camper had their dogs chained up outside all night and they would not stop barking. We were tired from driving all day and found a flat spot in the grass and set up as we couldn’t keep our eyes open to keep driving to another spot. The fun doesn’t stop there!
As if the constant barking wasn’t enough, there were coyotes yipping all night too. It sounded like a lot of them and it sounded like they were getting closer and closer. That mixed in with the ‘mooo-ing’ of cows all night as they were right across the road. The person with the camper also had their loud generator running all night. Nothing like some
All in all, it was not a good night of rest with all of the noise although it was nice to wake up there near the water. Could obviously do without all the barking and generator sounds but hey- that’s life right?
I understand wanting to keep state parks available for those that live in the state, but charging out of state people double for a daily pass seems a little unfriendly. $12 daily fee + $30 electric site = $42 for a state park. The park itself was very peaceful and had a similar number of reserved and drive up sites. The drive up sites has nice mature shade trees and were spaced for privacy, which we appreciated. The bathrooms were clean and well maintained. They had shower rooms, but bring your quarters if you like being in there for very long. The electrical sites are paved.
The park is well maintained with nice bathrooms, water and 50 amp electric hookups, and a couple of fire pits and charcoal grills. Quiet and safe, a couple other campers were there but there was plenty of space even for a late arrival on a Friday. Entrance to the campground is on elk street which is around the block from what google maps said.
Two other car campers there already when we rolled in close to midnight. Gravel road leading to the campground was in good condition. Convenient to I-80, but far enough removed that we had no freeway noise (my goal). Parking lot had a nice bright light. Clean vault toilets. Small playground.
Well maintained. $15/night with electric only hook up. Has restroom on site. Weather was pleasant..always windy in Nebraska.
Whether you sleep in your van like we did, or you like to stay in a tree house (they appear to be building one as rental cabin) or need a tent platform, the place is huge and sprawling, with wooded sites and open lawn. Friendly and peaceful and definitely one we'll go back to.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular dog-friendly campsite near Brainard, NE?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular dog-friendly campground near Brainard, NE is Branched Oak Lake State Rec Area with a 4.2-star rating from 26 reviews.
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TheDyrt.com has all 67 dog-friendly camping locations near Brainard, NE, with real photos and reviews from campers.
