Canoeing/Kayaking

Camp Lakewood Campground

52 RV Sites, 3 Tent Sites

Camp Lakewood Campground in Effingham, Illinois, offers 52 RV sites and three tent sites within a mile of both I-70 and I-57, with 30 and 50-amp service and rigs accepted up to 120 feet. Premium pull-through categories, including one with a patio, join full-hookup and water-and-electric back-in tiers, with an outdoor pool, boat ramp, and game room. Fifty-two sites span back-in 30-amp, back-in 30/50-amp, back-in water-and-electric, premium pull-thru, premium pull-thru with patio, and pull-thru 30/50-amp categories, carrying water, sewer, and electric where noted with site WiFi, sized to 120 feet, with fire pits, picnic tables, and BBQ pits. One hundred twenty feet is among the most generous capacities anywhere and accommodates anything on the road. Confirm your tier, as the water-and-electric category does not carry sewer at the site. Three tent sites round out the lodging. A laundry, propane fills, dump station, restrooms, and showers handle the practical side. If you arrive after the office closes with a reservation, your name will be on an envelope with your site details. An outdoor pool anchors the summer, with a boat ramp for canoeing, kayaking, and fishing, and a game room, playground, and swimming filling the rest. Pets are welcome. Effingham is the crossroads city of downstate Illinois, where I-70 and I-57 meet — one of the most convenient overnight stops in the Midwest. Demand tracks interstate traffic rather than a season. Reserve ahead for holiday travel periods.

from $35/night

eXplore Brown County

11 RV Sites, 14 Tent Sites, 5 Onsite RV/Trailers

eXplore Brown County in Nashville, Indiana, offers 16 full-hookup RV sites, 14 tent sites, and five named retro camper rentals — Betty, Gladys, Lucy, Sophia, and Wanda — across 500-plus acres of hardwood hills, with 30-amp service and rigs accepted to 40 feet. Zip lines, a four-acre fishing lake, and an event gallery make this the most activity-dense outdoor complex in the state. Sixteen back-in sites carry water, sewer, and electric on 30-amp, sized to 40 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables; water-and-electric sites are also available. Fourteen tent sites and the five retro campers round out the accommodations. A dump station, restrooms, showers, firewood, and WiFi handle the practical side. Recreation is the entire proposition. Fourteen zip lines, two sky bridges, and a rappelling tower run through the canopy above the forested ridges, including the longest, fastest, and highest twin zip line in Indiana. A four-acre lake supports fishing, canoeing, kayaking, and boat rentals, with mountain biking, hiking, walking trails, volleyball, horseshoes, corn hole, and a playground besides. A recreation center and cabins fill out the property, and off-roading is nearby. The Gallery serves as a wedding and event venue, seating up to 165 guests indoors with additional porch seating. Pets are welcome. The property sits within the landscape of Brown County State Park, Indiana's largest, 15 minutes from the artists' village of Nashville. Southern Indiana's hardwood hills make this one of the Midwest's most celebrated fall color destinations. October foliage and summer adventure programming drive demand. With 16 RV sites on a property this busy, reserve well ahead.

Piney River RV Resort

117 RV Sites, 4 Tent Sites, 2 Glamping Sites, 1 Onsite RV/Trailer, 4 Tiny Houses, 7 Park Models

Piney River RV Resort in Bon Aqua, Tennessee, offers 118 full-hookup RV sites, 11 park model and tiny house units, four tent sites, and two glamping sites on the Piney River, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 80 feet, open all year. Pavilion Waterfront, Waterfront, and Super Premium categories join standard and upper campground tiers, with a splash pad, pool, and barn. One hundred eighteen sites span standard, premium, super premium, super premium upper campground, waterfront, and Pavilion waterfront categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric with site WiFi, sized to 80 feet, with fire pits, picnic tables, and BBQ pits. Eighty feet accommodates the longest coaches with a tow. The waterfront tiers are the ones to request. Eleven park models and tiny houses, four tent sites, two glamping sites, and RV rentals round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, dump station, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. The address is 6869 Piney River Road North. A splash pad and outdoor pool anchor the summer, with the river carrying canoeing, kayaking, water sports, swimming, and fishing. A game room, barn, sports courts, pickleball, basketball, a pond, playground, pavilion, dog park, and on-site dining fill the rest, with live music, hiking, biking, and strong stargazing and birding. A golf course, state park, and wine tasting are nearby. Fifty miles from downtown Nashville, minutes from Johnny Cash's farm, in the Western Highland Rim's cedar and limestone country. Summer drives demand. Reserve well ahead.

from $49/night

Nashville Shores Lakeside Resort

49 RV Sites, 23 Cabins

Nashville Shores Lakeside Resort offers 49 RV sites and 23 cabins on Percy Priest Lake in Nashville, with 20, 30, and 50-amp full hookups, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 45 feet, behind a gated entrance. Lakefront premium and lake view categories join a water park, zip line, lazy river, and marina. Forty-nine sites span standard, lake view, lakefront premium, and pull-through categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric on 20, 30, and 50-amp with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 45 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. The lakefront premium category is worth requesting early. Twenty-three cabins round out the lodging. A general store, boutique shop, laundry, restrooms, showers, firewood, and boat storage handle the practical side. Recreation is extensive. A full water park, lazy river, and zip line anchor the summer, with a marina, beach, boat rentals, and kayak rentals putting guests on the lake for boating, fishing, paddle boarding, and water sports. A library, walking trails, sports courts, volleyball, horseshoes, corn hole, a playground, pavilion, dog park, on-site dining, and a snack bar fill the rest, with live music and planned activities through the season and strong stargazing over the water. Pets are welcome. One practical note for RV arrivals: GPS often routes you onto Mills Road after Exit 221 (Old Hickory Boulevard). Avoid that turn and follow the resort's posted RV directions instead. Summer is decisively the season. Reserve well ahead.

from $81/night

Elm Hill RV Resort

Nashville is many things — the country music capital, a culinary destination, a bachelorette party hub, a city of unexpected depth and creativity. What it isn't, by reputation, is a city with a 14,000-acre lake lined with sandy beaches and marinas twelve miles from Lower Broadway. That's the hidden advantage of Elm Hill RV Resort, a lakefront property on J. Percy Priest Lake that makes it entirely possible to spend your mornings on the water and your evenings on the Honky Tonk Highway. Every site at Elm Hill RV Resort is a full hookup site built on a level concrete pad, with 50-amp electric service, water, sewer, basic cable TV, and complimentary Wi-Fi. Each site includes its own fire pit and picnic table, bringing that essential campfire element to what otherwise feels like an upscale resort. Pull-through availability makes arrival simple for large rigs. The on-site marina, golf cart rentals, propane fill service, and gated entry complete a setup that handles both practical needs and leisurely wants in equal measure. Percy Priest Lake provides the natural centerpiece of the Elm Hill experience. The resort's private sandy beach is the gathering place on warm afternoons — swimming in the lake, lounging in the sun, and watching boats cruise in and out of the marina. On-site boat, kayak, and paddleboard rentals mean you don't need to bring your own watercraft to enjoy the full 14,000-acre playground. The boat docks accommodate guests who do bring their own. A covered playground with nearby seating for parents overlooks the water, and shuffleboard and cornhole courts provide easygoing entertainment for all ages. A brand-new bathhouse and laundry facilities round out the amenities. Nashville's magnetic pull means you'll spend at least a few evenings off-property. Lower Broadway's honky-tonks, the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Ryman Auditorium are all within a 12-mile drive. The city's food scene — from legendary hot chicken to farm-to-table fine dining — is reason enough to plan a trip. For nature lovers, Percy Priest Lake offers dozens of additional access points for hiking, additional launch sites, and quiet coves to explore by kayak. The lake's shoreline parks — including Long Hunter State Park — provide miles of well-maintained trails through cedar glade habitat that is ecologically unique to the Middle Tennessee Nashville Basin. Elm Hill RV Resort is open year-round, and the shoulder seasons of spring and fall are particularly rewarding — the lake is peaceful, the summer crowds have thinned, and Nashville's live music calendar never really slows down. Whether you're here for a weekend of lake life and live music or a longer stay to explore everything Music City has to offer, Elm Hill makes an exceptional home base. Book your site today and stake your claim to that private sandy beach before someone else does.

from $69/night

Meramec Campground

30 RV Sites

Meramec Campground in Stanton, Missouri, operates year-round along the Meramec River corridor in Franklin County — a campground positioned where the river's spring-fed limestone clarity, the forested Ozark foothills terrain, and the proximity of one of Missouri's most dramatic cave systems combine to create a multi-day outdoor destination within the comfortable driving orbit of the St. Louis metro area. The campground's setting on the Meramec, a river known for its exceptional transparency and the cave systems that the region's limestone geology produces throughout the watershed, gives guests immediate access to the kind of outdoor character that draws generations of Missouri families back to this specific stretch of Ozark river country. RV sites, rustic cabins, deluxe cabins, and tent camping spots give guests a range of accommodation options appropriate to the full spectrum of camping preferences from fully self-contained motorhome travel to the basic tent-on-ground experience that the Meramec's wooded riverbanks have provided Missouri campers since before the highway era. Hiking trails through the surrounding Ozark hillside terrain, biking on the regional trail network, and canoeing on the Meramec from camp deliver three genuinely distinct outdoor activity channels that sustain multi-day stays without exhausting the nearby options. Pets are welcome throughout. Meramec Caverns, just miles from the campground, is one of Missouri's most visited natural attractions — a cave complex with decorated formations developed over centuries of guided tourism, offering one of the most accessible cave experiences in the Midwest in a setting where the geology of the Ozark karst is presented at spectacular scale. The cave's temperature holds at 60 degrees year-round, making it a particularly welcome afternoon destination on hot Missouri summer days. Boone's Lick State Historic Site, associated with the salt lick operations of Daniel Boone's sons, adds a historical excursion option that connects the Meramec region to Missouri's earliest Euro-American settlement era. Six Flags St. Louis, within driving range of the campground, provides the full-scale theme park experience for families whose camping trip itinerary includes a dedicated thrill-ride day. Meramec State Park, a few miles east, encompasses the river's most protected Ozark woodland terrain with canoe rentals, cave tours, and the spring-fed swimming and float experience that defines a Missouri Ozarks summer outing. The Meramec's water character — spring-clear over gravel and limestone through the park's forested corridor — offers the textbook Ozark float trip accessible without a major outfitter logistics operation. Meramec Campground's year-round operation gives guests access through Missouri's full four-season calendar, with summer float season and fall foliage representing the two peak periods. The river corridor's hardwood and shortleaf pine mix produces consistently rewarding October color, and the Meramec's spring clarity — before summer algae builds in the slower pools — gives early-season canoe trips exceptional underwater visibility. Reserve ahead for summer float season and Labor Day weekend, when the Stanton-area Meramec campgrounds fill from the St. Louis day-trip and weekend market that the river has drawn for over a century.

from $52/night

Four Corners RV Resort & Marina

79 RV Sites, 3 Onsite RV/Trailers, 2 Tiny Houses, 4 Boat Bungalows

Four Corners RV Resort and Marina in Nashville, Tennessee, offers 82 full-hookup RV sites and six boat bungalow and tiny house units on J. Percy Priest Lake, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 70 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout, open all year. Dedicated fifth wheel categories join lakeside and deluxe back-in tiers, with a marina, pool, fitness center, and bar. Eighty-two back-in sites span deluxe east, deluxe west, lakeside east, fifth wheel deluxe, fifth wheel lakeside, and fifth wheel standard categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 70 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. Dedicated fifth wheel categories are genuinely uncommon and worth knowing about if that is what you tow. Six boat bungalows and tiny houses plus cabins round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. Check-in is 2pm and checkout noon, with early and late options for a fee. The marina anchors the property, with boat rentals opening the lake for boating, paddle boarding, canoeing, kayaking, water sports, and fishing. An outdoor pool, fitness center, clubhouse, sports courts, pickleball, basketball, golf cart rentals, hiking, biking, a playground, pavilion, dog park, on-site dining, and a bar fill the rest, with live music through the season. Twenty miles from downtown means kayaking at sunrise and a Broadway honky-tonk by evening. Summer lake season and Nashville's event calendar both drive demand. Reserve well ahead.

from $54/night

Still Waters Campground

22 RV Sites

Still Waters Campground in Frankfort, Kentucky, offers 22 full-hookup RV sites with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 60 feet, in the state capital and the heart of the Bluegrass. Back-in and pull-through categories in both full-hookup and water-and-electric configurations sit beside a lake with a boat ramp. Twenty-two sites run in water-and-electric back-ins, 30/50-amp pull-throughs, and water-and-electric pull-throughs, carrying water, sewer, and electric where noted, sized to 60 feet. Cabins and group camping round out the accommodations. Laundry, a dump station, restrooms, and showers handle the practical side. The water is the setting. A lake, pond, and creek run the property with a boat ramp for direct access, supporting fishing, boating, canoeing, and kayaking. Walking trails, hiking, and biking run the forested grounds, with a barn and dog park besides, and birding is productive along the creek. A golf course is nearby. Pets are welcome. Frankfort sits at the Kentucky River crossing in Franklin County, which makes it a genuinely central base: Louisville, Lexington, and the Mammoth Cave region are all within day-drive range. The immediate attractions are dense — the Kentucky State Capitol, Liberty Hall Historic Site, the Buffalo Trace National Historic Landmark distillery, the Butterfly Greenhouse, the Salato Wildlife Education Center, Cove Spring Park, and the Sullivan House Visitor Center are all in town, alongside the horse farms and limestone gorge country that define the Bluegrass. Spring and fall are the most comfortable for touring the distilleries and horse farms, and carry the heaviest demand. Reserve ahead.

from $49/night

Blue Springs Ranch

142 RV Sites, 33 Cabins, 65 Tent Sites

Blue Springs Ranch in Bourbon, Missouri, offers 142 RV sites, 33 cabins, and 65 tent sites on a spring-fed Ozarks property in Crawford County, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 65 feet. A zip line, horseback riding, kayak and boat rentals, and spring-fed swimming run on site, and the ranch is open all year. One hundred forty-two sites run in back-in, water-and-electric back-in, and pull-through configurations carrying 20, 30, and 50-amp, sized to 65 feet, with fire pits, picnic tables, and BBQ pits. Thirty-three cabins and 65 tent sites make this one of the larger and more varied properties in the Missouri Ozarks. A general store, laundry, dump station, RV storage, restrooms, and showers handle the practical side. The spring water is the difference. Constant clear cold water feeds the creek and ponds, setting the ranch apart from the warm-water lake resorts that dominate Missouri summer camping. Swimming, kayaking, paddle boats, boating, and fishing all run from the property, with kayak and boat rentals on site, plus a zip line, horseback riding, paddle boarding, an outdoor pool, and a beach. A playground, pavilion, and barn round out the grounds, with planned activities through the season and strong birding in the surrounding timber. The ranch also operates as a wedding venue. Pets are welcome. You can reserve a cabin or campsite any time of year, and groups can be accommodated year-round with notice. Note that floating and trail rides close from October 31 through April 15 — worth checking if either is central to your trip. Summer is peak for the spring-fed water. Reserve well ahead.

Ozark Outdoors Resort

Few Ozark destinations pack as much river adventure into a single address as Ozark Outdoors Resort, a sprawling riverfront property on the Meramec that has been welcoming families to Leasburg, Missouri, since 1960. The resort lines one and a half miles of the Meramec's scenic banks with more than 200 RV sites, motel rooms, cabins, and tent sites—enough variety to accommodate any travel style under the towering hardwoods and limestone bluffs that define this corner of Crawford County. A full roster of water-based recreation, aerial adventure, and evening dining ensures guests rarely need to leave the property once they've settled in. RV sites range from primitive to full hookup with 20/30/50-amp electrical service, water, and sewer, and a picnic table and fire ring accompany each site regardless of hookup level. Cabin options span rustic Country Log Cabins and Deluxe Kozy Cabins to motel rooms, condos, and group retreat lodging, giving the resort the flexibility to host family reunions, corporate outings, and church groups as easily as solo travelers. The Meramec Mercantile supplies camping essentials on-site, while the Paddlers Bar and Grill serves seasonal meals and cold drinks at the water's edge. Float trips on the Meramec, Courtois, and Huzzah Rivers form the beating heart of the Ozark Outdoors experience, with canoe, kayak, raft, and tube rentals available for half-day or multi-day journeys through crystalline Ozark spring-fed water. For those who prefer their adventure overhead, the Floating Treetops Aerial Park delivers 36 unique challenge elements across six ziplines suspended among the forest canopy—a course that engages first-time climbers and seasoned adventure seekers alike. Sand volleyball, horseshoes, and a swimming pool add land-based options when the river crowd thins in the late afternoon. The Meramec River corridor hosts some of Missouri's most spectacular cave country, with Onondaga Cave State Park just upstream offering guided boat and lantern tours through one of the Midwest's finest show caves. Meramec State Park, a few miles east on Highway 185, provides additional hiking trails, cave tours, and a family aquatic center popular with summer visitors. The resort's position between St. Louis—about 75 miles northeast—and the Missouri Ozarks interior makes it a natural launching point for exploring the Salem Plateau, Ozark National Scenic Riverways, and the Current River corridor to the south. Float trip season runs April through October, with June and July delivering the warmest water and the most festive atmosphere on the Meramec, when the resort's campground fills with the laughter of families who have made the Ozark Outdoors float trip an annual tradition. Spring and fall bring lower crowds, quieter campsites, and a more contemplative Ozark experience for those who prefer their river adventure without holiday weekend energy. Reservations are strongly recommended for summer weekends and holiday blocks—the combination of riverfront camping and the Floating Treetops aerial park draws visitors from across the Midwest, and popular cabin styles book months in advance.

Jellystone Park™ Pittsfield

90 RV Sites, 52 Cabins, 5 Tent Sites, 4 Glamping Sites, 6 Cottages

Jellystone Park Pittsfield in Illinois offers 90 RV sites, 52 cabins, five tent sites, and four glamping sites on a private lake, with 30 and 50-amp full hookups and rigs accepted to 60 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout, open all year. Back-in and pull-through categories at both amperages join a splash pad, beach, jumping pillow, and boat rentals. Ninety sites run in back-in 30-amp, back-in 50/30-amp, and pull-through 50/30-amp categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric with site WiFi, sized to 60 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. Fifty-two cabins, five tent sites, and four glamping sites make the lodging inventory unusually deep. A general store, boutique shop, laundry, propane fills and exchange, dump station, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. Day passes run 11am to 6pm and include the jumping pillow, wibit, pool, slide, splash pad, paddle boards, and kayaks. A splash pad and outdoor pool anchor the summer, with a private lake, beach, and boat rentals supporting swimming, boating, paddle boats, paddle boarding, canoeing, kayaking, inflatable water toys, and fishing. A jumping pillow, arcade, game room, gem mining, sports courts, volleyball, gaga ball, horseshoes, golf cart rentals, walking trails, hiking, biking, a recreation center, playground, pavilion, dog park, bar, and snack bar fill the rest. Pike County sits where the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers define the western Illinois landscape. Summer is decisively the season. Reserve well ahead.

from $43/night

Soggy Bottoms Campground

11 RV Sites, 3 Tent Sites

Situated alongside the Green River in Casey County near Liberty, Kentucky, Soggy Bottoms Campground is a family-owned outdoor retreat that takes its name from the bottomland character of the river floodplain and delivers a genuine rural Kentucky camping experience centered on the river's fishing, paddling, and swimming resources in a wooded setting well removed from commercial campground infrastructure. The campground's position along the Green River gives it a natural foundation for outdoor recreation that combines the productive fishing and paddling access of a south-central Kentucky river system with the quiet woodland character appropriate to a family-owned property committed to an unhurried outdoor pace. The campground accommodates guests across primitive tent camping and hookup RV configurations, with the wooded riverside character of the property providing natural shade and the ambient sound of moving water that defines the Soggy Bottoms guest experience. Campfire cooking and outdoor cooking on the fire rings are standard features of stays here, and the campground's family-owned character translates to a personalized attention to the guest experience that guests frequently cite as central to the campground's appeal. Clean restroom and shower facilities serve the daily hygiene needs of guests choosing the full-stay experience over a simple overnight stop. The Green River provides the primary recreational focus for guest activity at Soggy Bottoms—a south-central Kentucky river with productive bass, catfish, and panfish fishing accessible from the campground's river frontage. Kayaking and canoeing on the Green River's Casey County section offer paddling on a waterway that flows through wooded lowlands and limestone bluffs in a section of the river upstream from the better-known sections closer to Mammoth Cave National Park. Swimming in the river during the warm summer months is a traditional activity at Kentucky river campgrounds, and the Green River's Casey County character provides a natural pool environment in the wooded bottomland terrain. Casey County and the surrounding south-central Kentucky landscape occupy a position between the Knobs topographic region to the north and the transition zone toward Tennessee's highland rim to the south—a varied terrain of forested ridges, limestone-underlain valleys, and the river systems that drain them toward the Ohio through the Green and Cumberland watersheds. The broader region's connection to Kentucky's outdoor recreation corridor includes access to Green River Lake State Park, Dale Hollow Lake, and—within a longer day-trip distance—Mammoth Cave National Park, one of the world's most extensive cave systems and the natural attraction that most defines south-central Kentucky's visitor identity. Soggy Bottoms Campground is open through the warm-weather outdoor season, with Kentucky's spring through fall climate providing the extended river recreation window that the campground's fishing and paddling orientation demands. Summer is the most active period for Green River swimming and casual fishing, while spring and fall bring the best conditions for more ambitious paddling excursions on the river's wooded Casey County stretches. The campground's family-owned scale means reservation windows can be competitive on summer holiday weekends, and advance contact with the campground is recommended to secure preferred dates during the peak season.

from $15/night