Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Loup City, NE

3 miles East of Loup City is Trade Winds campground. It is privately owned so you don’t need a state pass. It has 12 cabins and 20 Rv/tent sites with electricity and shared water. The sites are very close together but have shade trees. Each site is back in with picnic bench and fire rings. There is a nice marina for food,bait, supplies. And it has a grill open on weekends. There is a coin operated shower house and laundry mat area. The Marina also has kayak, boat slip, and storage for rent. Everyone there seems to be nice. They even had a huge firework display.

Family and pet friendly campground

The only way to reserve a site is through camp spot and we have a little trouble with that because it did not let me pick my site number. We arrived Friday evening on Memorial weekend and it was crowded. The campsite is great on the pocketbook but you have to pay a $10 fee to lock in your site and I am so glad we did! There was only three other empty spots in the entire campground and they were all marked reserved when we got there. The campground was pretty busy We were a little disappointed in our site because it was very small and kind of sandwiched between two big campers so not a lot of privacy and not a lot of room. There were a lot of people fishing and kayaking and a lot of dogs. There are showers and bathrooms but they are up near the entrance to the campground although they did have porta potties near the campsites. Although the grounds were well maintained the grass was mowed there was volleyball net setup disc golf available a pet exercise area the fountain was beautiful and shady in most areas. We would probably return on a non-holiday weekend when it's not so busy.

Though located on the North side of the Missouri River, this campground is considered to be in Nebraska. Run by the US Corp of Engineers, there are no state permits required. We paid $16/night, but it’s possible that we could have gotten 50% off with our America the Beautiful pass. I just forgot to check and didn’t think to include the pass when registering.

The site was electric only and I don’t believe full hookups are a available at the campground. We snagged this site, in what is normally a fully booked campground, thanks to Campnab.

The site was paved and had an area covered with small rocks where the picnic table and fire pit were located. We had two trees at the north of our site that facilitated hanging the hammock with extended straps and also a tree on the west side of the site. The bath/shower house was a short walk (as was water access) and were very, very well kept and clean. Contractors live on site and clean several times a day. It was a great area for riding bikes and was very family and pet friendly.

We stayed here Sunday night of Labor Day weekend on a cross country trip. We arrived late, and were able to use after hours self check in. There were about 8 sites empty in the grounds, and we were happily surprised by how peaceful and well spaced the camping spots were, many backing up to a lake. There were also nice trails to walk with the dogs in the morning. 

Downsides: one of the electrical outlets didn’t work on our post, there were some crazy burrs we had to cut out of our dog’s fur, no recycling, and some amenities were hard/unable to find.

While camping at Morman Island, we went through one of the worst storms! 85 to 90 mile an hour winds with hail! It was bad enough to go through the storm but it really was bad that not one person from the campground came around to check on us the next morning! They really just concentrated on the clean up. The priorities were messed up. At the time of the storm there were only 25 campers in the whole place. How long would it have taken to check on the well being of those 25 campers! There was no prior warning of the storm from anybody at the campground. Other campgrounds that we’ve stayed at, we always have had a heads up. The pictures are from the morning after. Not just a little blow! Overall the visit wasn’t the best with the storm and all. There are several rules that are clearly posted throughout the grounds and at the pond. Dogs on a 6 ft leash. No floaties in the swimming area. No dogs on the beach. No parking on the grass. All of these were being violated and not one person from the staff could be seen addressing any issues. People were doing whatever they wanted to. I would have loved to let my dog go swimming but it was against the rules. The section we were in was a new section, but we could not even let our dog out in our camp site because of an abundance of stickers and burrs! She at one point just laid down because of her paws filled with burrs and could not walk any more. This was in our site. I’m not sure if anyone else had the same problem. The facilities were very clean. (They need a shower house in the new section). Making the reservation was very easy. The people we did talk to were very nice.

Nice trail around the outside that wove in and out of the trees for dog walking. Otherwise, I'm in an RV so no road noise. One caution for Verizon users who want to work during the day, the wireless is slow. Great after traffic slows but completely unworkable otherwise.

Nice campground

• paved & level parking pads
• decent bathrooms
• Showers could use a cleaning.
• very few campers on a Tuesday in Oct
• nice paths for an after dinner stroll with the dogs
• att cell service is good
• no internet
• easy acces from the Highway
• lots of Highway truck noise

My husband and I had a freaky experience here and I wouldn’t want it to happen to anyone else. Around 4:30 AM a car pulled in quietly and parked right next to our van (even though there were other camping spots available). The only reason we woke up was because our dog started barking and freaking out. A guy was outside smoking and putting some things in a bag. We started up the RV and dipped as fast as we could. It’s a shame because it was a nice, convenient, peaceful spot otherwise. Be careful!

We stopped at this KOA on our way home from the Black Hills. It's just off the highway and pretty big. Nice pool and large playground for the kids, a small dog run (with all the room they had, you'd think they could make this a bit bigger), a pizza place that makes it right there and delivers to your camp site. We were impressed with the quality. Not the BEST PIZZA EVER, but certainly better than expected and nice when it's too windy out to grill. Plenty of sites and hook ups for everything from the biggest RV to the smallest tent. A good choice for a stop along the way. Watch the spring time weather though, it can get nasty!

Lots of work and upgrades in progress to facilities like bath house and hook ups etc. Porta-Potties available and free remnant firewood boxes for fire rings. Picnic tables metal wire on cement slabs. RV pull thru on gravel. Easy to call for details and upgrade status; nice staff. Peaceful Camping. Spent two nights for Nebraska Junk Jaunt.

Love Victoria Springs! It is a hidden gem in the Nebraska Sandhills.  It fills up on the weekends but during the week you can have the entire campground to yourself.  Beautiful trees, nice shade, and electrical hook-ups.

Did a quick overnight visit here driving through Nebraska. It was a little too close to the interstate for my taste and it could have been a little cleaner, but overall was a nice enough campground and conveniently located. I'd stay there again under similar circumstances but probably not as a getaway location.

I've stayed 3 times at the Fort Kearney SRA for convenience only.  Nebraska Game & Parks has a punitive price model that charges out-of-state visitors $12/day to enter a park with a campground (no Senior discounts either) and then $15/day for a primitive campsite (no water or electric) that is a looong ways for the dirty and rundown restrooms.

I grew up in the towns next to the Davis Creek Dam which is managed by the NRD. This is a great , once upon a time small campground right on Davis Creek Dam. You’ll enjoy this campground that is far away from road noise. Supplies can be purchased in North Loup, Scotia or Ord Nebraska, roughly 6 and 16 miles way respectively. This campground gets busy over summer holidays but other than that I’ve found that you can reserve same day spots without worry, especially if you are tent camping.

Nice camp ground with helpful gate attendants, this Nebraska park represents the conundrum of many public campgrounds. Here, there are plentiful showers (yes, 75 cents for three minutes, woopdeedoo) but no water spigots and few usable pit toilets. There are primitive sites, 30 amp (yellow) and 50 amp (red) sites so no generator noise and all sites are near stocked ponds. A mix of overnight and long term visitors. Sandhills cranes can be viewed in the adjacent corn stubble in April. Limited cell service and no WiFi

The sites are mostly level and well groomed grass with 2 new concrete handicap spots. The 30 amp and 50 amp power was proper voltage and dependable. Access to clear line of site to south for Dish or Directv is difficult due to heavy tree population. Non-Nebraska resident requires $14 pass in addition to the $30 fee with electric.  Potable water is available and dump station is easily accessible with a rinse water source. Ingress and egress is good with gravel road surfaces in park. The restrooms and showers are very clean and accessible.

Located in the center of Nebraska, Victoria Springs is a 27 site campground and a couple of rental cabins. You can rent paddle boats for the small lake. Merlin counted 10 different bird sounds here in April. The park has a basketball hoop, horseshoes, and a playground across the creek by the lake. Most sites are electric and 6 that are non-electric, and water hydrants are sprinkled throughout the campground. There is a shower house with flush toilets (not open in April) and a vault toilet at the end of the loop. While I like Bessey a few miles away, this is much quieter without trains every 10 minutes. Cell service available with both T-mobile/Mint (strongest) and Verizon/Visible.

After much deliberation, and with great regret, I am declaring myself a Nebraska State Parks campground anti. There are three interlocking reasons for this decision:

1. Both the campgrounds I have been to (this one and Rock Creek Station SRA) seem to treat tent sites as an afterthought: each park has a very small number of tenting spaces that are kind of on the margins of the campground. At Fort Kearny, the sites that were available were also either totally slanted or full of trash. It does seem like other parks might not share this problem, but it at least indicates a pattern to be aware of.

2. In addition to the campsite fee, there is a $12 DAILY out-of-state vehicle entrance fee. This means that a $15 campsite is actually a $27 campsite. I will say, in fairness, that the $12 also allowed my car to enter the Fort Kearny historical site next to the campground.

3. The showers are coin-operated. This isn’t a cost problem so much as it is a logistical one: who has quarters anymore? Also, because the showers are timed, you can’t turn the water off and back on again, which ruins my entire haircare routine.

Obviously, these reasons won’t apply to everyone. If you have a camper or RV, your calculus will be totally different. If you’re in-state, and you only have to pay $6 for your vehicle instead of $12, I could see these sites being worth it. And if you don’t have hair that you need to condition, the shower thing might not bother you. But if you are like me, a long-haired out-of-state yokel trying to cross the country with a Honda Accord and a backpacking tent, you might take these considerations into account.

I will say that this campground is beautiful to drive through, with all the little lakes and the cottonwood trees. Also, the camp hosts offer free bikes for guests to use around the campground and presumably on the nearby hike/ bike trail, which is very kind of them and which I wish I had time to take advantage of.