Best Tent Camping in Nebraska
Looking for tent camping in Nebraska? You can find tent campsites at RV parks and campgrounds, and even places to boondock for free. You're sure to find the perfect tent campsite for your Nebraska camping adventure.
Looking for tent camping in Nebraska? You can find tent campsites at RV parks and campgrounds, and even places to boondock for free. You're sure to find the perfect tent campsite for your Nebraska camping adventure.
Smith Falls State Park offers beautiful Basic campsites ideal for tent camping while floating the river or viewing the falls. The campground is located along the north side of the river. The campground has picnic tables, restrooms and pay showers.
$15 / night
Primitive hike in campground
$15 / night
Located south of Nenzel in Cherry County, this 116,000-acre national forest is a fantastic representation of the unique Nebraska Sandhills prairie ecosystem. Popular uses of the forest include hunting, fishing, horseback riding, camping and bird watching. There is one small campground located on the southwestern edge of the forest. Steer Creek Campground has 23 campsites, 8 horse corrals, potable water, and the 1-mile Blue Jay hiking trail. The Niobrara River Canoe Launch day use site on the Niobrara River for launching small water craft. Fishing is available in the nearby Merritt Reservoir. The Lord Lakes wetland complex has been recognized for its outstanding fishing.
We ended up choosing this spot as I’m assuming we’re “off season” as many other surrounding places were closed to camping this time of year. This place looks like it has a lot of time time campers. The sites are tight, like right on top of each other. The office closed early but they had the information outside.
The bathrooms were clean and warm. The playground was taped off with caution tape.
This was an overnight stay, the traffic is loud but not overwhelming.
This Campground is beautiful and cozy! Picnic table and fire pit at site with 30 and 20 amp. Note that it is a 4 day Max and you have to leave for 10 days before you can come back. New spots at Lucy Holm were not open as it was middle of November when we stayed. They have an 18 hole disc golf, tennis, volleyball, basketball, pool, and 3 playgrounds. They have really put a lot of work in this park. Would love to stay during the summer!
The only good from this Campground is its full hookup year round. It was dirty and very outdated. Most of the sewer hookups were broken and backed up and the electric boxes were broken and outdated. If you have a newer rv I would suggest not staying here or try to find a good electrical box. No fire rings, most sites just had a fire on the ground. This place is just run down and dirty, ok place for a night.
Cute little campground, electrical only. Picnic table and grill at each site. No fires. Shower house available until it's gets down to freezing weather. Dump station and water fill.
This is a perfect place to stop midway between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. Extremely friendly staff. Not about the amenities, just terrific service in a perfect stop over spot
Great fall camping. Big sites well spaced. Our choice of shade or open sites. This time of year it’s first come, first served. We had very few neighbors.
Free dispersed site. Coordinates: 41.82207,-100.31366. Camped here on Sept 6, 2024. Along Forest Road 203, on a short little used unnamed track which dead ends at a barb wire fence and gate. Campervan fit okay with some leveling was needed. Sandy, grassy base. No cell service. The drive down on the unpaved east side of FR 203 Bessey Circle Rd was okay; narrow is places, but no obstacles. There is a path next to the site which goes nowhere, but okay for a stroll. FR203 had some traffic on it due to hunting season. This was the only dispersed site that I found directly off of the east leg of Circle Road, FR203. There was nothing remarkable about this site; just okay for an overnight stay. There are other dispersed campsites along FR201 further south. This forest road is being reconstructed toward Whitetail Campground; high clearance 4x4 is recommended as one travels closer to this campground.
This campground is one of our favorites. It’s got clean restrooms and showers, plenty of water available plus the dump station. Nice lake for fishing or kayaking. Great trails for hiking or mountain biking. Super quiet place and some pretty great sunsets!
Free camp for 10 days every 60 days. Campsites had water, power, access to restrooms. Open April 1 to Oct 15!
Pulled in around 6pm to nice quiet lakeside park/campground w/just 3 others, but since dark at least 4 non-campers have trolled the grounds and then raced down the campground roads. Also within earshot of event facility and can hear bad rock band. Probably leaving (11pm).
Tried to find this park using the “Get Directions”. The place it took us there is no park of any kind. It was a residential neighborhood.
This city park has eight or nine spots available some have full hook ups and some have just water and some have just sewer and some have just electric. We stayed on spot nine, which had all three. Only downside to this little place was since it is the city park and there is a playground here, quite a bit of local traffic bringing the kids in. Nice walking trail around part of the golf course. When we were there, there was no place to pay, but I called the city clerk and she said just to put the money in a dropbox at City Hall, which is $20 now.pretty close to the road that goes through town so a little bit of traffic noise.
Perfect little spot right off the interstate. Clean, quiet, hookups. Nice park. Fun town.
Full hook ups at this campground and the spaces were fairly easy to get into. Reason I only gave it four stars was because it’s pretty close to the road with a lot of traffic noise. Husband said the showers were very nice. Sites were nice and level. Close to Valentine, if you needed to pop in to get anything. we were there the first part of October and there was still about six or seven other campers there.
Great little RV park in a park-like setting. Gravel roads with relatively level gravel sites. Shared services. Lots of big trees. Long pull-through site to leave the truck and TT attached. Cross the little covered bridge into Lake Helen Rec Area for a good walkabout. Visit downtown Gothenburg to see the Pony Express station. We liked it and would stay here again.
Had a great night here, the area is beautiful. Had to stop to admire the corn fields in the sunrise on the way out. Owner is lovely and kind. Electrical amenities are prime for anyone with an RV, but as a tent camper, I enjoyed our stay!
Like James reported, there are two very close sites with a third for handicapped. Quiet little town. My neighbor and I enjoyed a conversation.
We love that lots of small towns in this area offer camping at ball fields, etc. There are bathrooms and showers! The hot water in ladies does work, just adjust NOT to hottest setting. Only ones camping. Trains were close and often, but you somehow get used to it.
We stayed here for a mountain bike race weekend. Nighttime is great for stargazing and they have pretty stellar sunrises. We enjoyed the archery range and took plenty of walks. The shower facilities need a lot of updating and the RV spots are pretty dated with narrow roads. We were glad it wasn’t a weekend with a full campground and we think it would be pretty hectic during their peak season.
Clean, campground, everything you need is available. The river access is nice and our dogs enjoyed swimming. The train is annoying, blaring its horn at least hourly, if not more often.
We stayed here so that we would be within walking distance of Brownville. It took a while to figure out how to make a reservation (you call the River Inn Resort). When I made the reservation, I was told there is no electricity, which is fine since we have solar. However, we were not told there are no tables, or fire rings... there pretty much isn't anything other than land. The land that is there is pretty rough as well. There were very large burs of some sort throughout the grassy areas, which made it difficult for our dog to go anywhere during our trip. There were also an unbelievable amount of gnats, but that is probably due to the proximity to the river. The people at the River Inn Resort, where you check in, were friendly and helpful. However, we would not stay here again.
Peaceful spot by a lake all to ourselves. After dark highway traffic subsided and we were able to sleep soundly. There is some t mobile reception.
Bessey NF Rec Campground : (Scale 1- bad, 5-Very good
(72 yr olds in 27’ trailer.)
Overall Rating: 3.5. There are some nice sites, but many are in groups o 2 or 3. I took pics of some of my favorite somewhat secluded sites
Price 2024: $10 for electric sites and $15 for non-electric sites- both prices are w interagency pass
Security: no
Usage during visit: 1/2
Visual Privacy Between Adjacent Sites: most sites no
Site Spacing: depends on the site
Pad surface: gravel
Reservations: Yes. Current night and 3 nights out are first come first serve.
Campground Noise: Some OHV noise and voices during the day. Was quiet at night. Note there are a lot of OHVs in the campground.
Outside Road Noise: none
Through Traffic in campground:
Electric Hookup: some sites
Sewer Hookup: no
Dump Station: ye
Potable Water Available: spigots throughout the cg
Bathroom: yes
Showers: yes
Pull Throughs: some
Cell Service (AT&T): 2 to 3 bars
Setting: near a river with lush tree growth.
Recent Weather: highs are mid 70s to 80s
Solar: some sites.
Insects: not many right now.
Host: yes
Rig Size: large rigs fit in some sites.
Sites: sites near the water beginning with number 33 are not that great. They don’t have a good view. I took pics of some of my favorite trailer sites. Most of them, our 26’ trailer will fit in.
It’s been a few years since we stayed at Lake Wanahoo, but we decided to stay there over our anniversary weekend. The place is still great, and this time of year it was very quiet and peaceful.
I was able to fish at the lake, we used the trails for walking and biking. Being close to town allowed us to have a great anniversary dinner at a steakhouse!
We are definitely going to be using it more!
We found the Scenic Park RV Campground when we were looking for a spot to stay close to Sioux City, IA for a sports event for our sons. We were extremely happy with this city run campground.
The pads are in great shape. They offer full hookups. We did not have a full hookup site, but still had water, electric, and free cable tv. The view from our camper of the Missouri River and the Sioux City skyline was pretty great.
The staff is friendly and welcoming. The location is quiet and everyone staying there seemed very nice as well. Will definitely be back when we’re up that way again next year.
Any vegans might find this place too much. We may have hit it at the wrong time if the week. But the hundred thousand cattle across the tracks sounding like constant swarming bees might be too much for some. Or maybe imagine you are 5kms from a f1 gp track. Did I mention the trains?
We stayed the first week in October. We were the only campers in the campground. We found 30 and 50 amp power pedestals. We stayed beside a pavilion with a water hydrant. The pavilion has several picnic tables and 20 amp outlets. It's in a treed area with a nice playground. The whole area is very flat. Leveling was a breeze. The entrance was a little bit confusing. There is a pay box at the edge of the parking box. The bathrooms were locked, but being self contained, we wouldn't have used them. I'm sure we will be staying here again.