Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Sidney, NE

We can’t say enough great things about Oregon Trail RV Park! While traveling through the area with our dogs, we had planned to stay at Lake McConaughy, but the campgrounds there weren’t as dog-friendly as advertised during the off-season. Thankfully, Luke, the owner of Oregon Trail RV Park, stepped in at the last minute and gave us a place to stay. This park was exactly what we needed—easy to find, impeccably maintained, and truly welcoming to both us and our pets. The RV spaces were clean and spacious, with plenty of room for our dogs to enjoy themselves. Luke’s friendly and accommodating attitude made the experience stress-free, which is priceless when you’re on the road. If you’re in the Lake McConaughy area and looking for a quiet, pet-friendly RV park with excellent service, look no further. Oregon Trail RV Park is a gem, and we’ll definitely be back!

Well maintained grounds, restrooms and showers are clean and easy to access. Unfortunately there are trees but none are mature enough to provide adequate shading. Gas and convenience , shopping, and food located close by. Cabela's Sydney store is across the parking lot with plenty of things to browse for. Easy on and off I-80 access for RVs, vans, and tent campers with a nice playground for the kids and running room for your pets. Easy access horse Corral 🐎 for the equestrian motivated individuals. Overall when the trees mature to provide shade this will be a 10 for passing through and short stay campers. There aren't any sewage hookups but it does have a black and Grey water dump. Electrical rv hookups are in each spot and there's plenty of green grace to go around.

It’s a wildlife refuge so it’s a little different to stay than say North Sterling Reservoir. For now anyways...

This is the perfect place to go to stay close to our home and not a long road home. You are able to schedule time with friends and head down and save your camping spot a day or two in advance.

Pets and fires are allowed. Just keep them on a chain and put them out!

They recently restricted up by the water camping which is awesome for parties that have lots of kids! They aren’t running into traffic unknowingly!

There is practically no beach but if you know that going into it, it’s fine!! You pick your passions!!

We stayed on a Sunday night in April and we were able to get a campsite with no neighbors as far as the eye can see. There are long-drop bathrooms dispersed throughout the park that are pretty clean and have TP. The roads are gravel but in good shape and we had no trouble pulling our small travel trailer through the park. All facilities are free but they have a Dropbox at the entrance humbly requesting a $5-$10 donation to help the park maintain the facilities, which is very reasonable.

The only reason it received 4 stars is that there are multiple train tracks across the road and we were woken up 3 times between 11:00 and 6:00 by train horns blaring a bunch. Not just a regular “toot toot” but a “blaaaarn! Look out! Blaaaaaaaaaaaaarn” as if there were a deaf cat on the tracks 4 miles away. It didn’t overall ruin the night or anything but it sure does throw you off when you’re in happy dreamland then all of a sudden a hyper-aggressive freight train is chasing you through the dream.

I’ll reiterate that it was a great campsite and our dogs loved the freedom to run around our site off leash and we would stop here again for sure.

We had some difficulty locating this park and eventually asked a local where it was (Google maps will not direct you to the right place; the “campground” is located on East 11th Street and First Avenue). It is located uphill from the downtown area so don’t confuse it with another city park closer to downtown. Now, to review the campground. Western Nebraska campgrounds are unlike other places we are used to – perhaps it is because of summer heat (and biting flies) but most seem to be geared toward RVs. This one has three "sites", although they are not separated in any way save for the electrical and water hook-ups. Just room for three rigs on a gravel area. No tents for sure. Across the street from these “sites” is a nice lawn area with lots of trees and a covered picnic pavilion, which could make your stay more pleasant, as long as a group isn’t using it. There was a persistent barking dog nearby while I was checking it out. About the only redeeming thing I can think of for this place is the price: free for the first two nights but you would need to pay$10 per night after (I guess to discourage people from living there). Close to Chimney Rock and about 25 miles from Scotts Bluff but otherwise not much in the area.