Horseback Riding

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.

Sinking Creek Ranch

19 RV Sites, 5 Tent Sites, 4 Glamping Sites

Sinking Creek Ranch in Bunker, Missouri, offers 19 RV sites, five tent sites, and four glamping sites on a wilderness ranch in Reynolds County, with 30 and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 70 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout. Creekside back-in sites come in both full-hookup and dry configurations, in one of Missouri's least-populated counties. Nineteen sites run in creekside back-in and creekside dry configurations, the full-hookup sites carrying water, sewer, and electric on 30 and 50-amp, sized to 70 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. Five tent sites and four glamping sites round out the accommodations. A dump station, restrooms, showers, firewood, and WiFi handle the practical side. Check-in begins at 3pm and check-out is 11am, with self-check-in instructions sent before arrival and early check-in or late check-out available on request. The setting is the amenity. Walking trails run the forested property along the creek and pond, with fishing, swimming, hiking, biking, and horseback riding from camp. Off-roading is nearby. The night sky here is genuinely dark — Reynolds County carries almost no metropolitan light pollution, which makes stargazing one of the property's real draws. Pets are welcome. The ranch sits at the edge of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, where the Current River's corridor and the most remote interior sections of the Mark Twain National Forest converge with the spring-fed streams of the Ozark Plateau — one of the most ecologically intact landscapes remaining in the Midwest. Summer river recreation and fall color drive demand. With 19 RV sites in a remote setting, reserve well ahead.

from $15/night

Happy Pappy's Montauk RV Park

8 RV Sites

Near Salem, Missouri—in Dent County in the heart of the Missouri Ozarks at the edge of the Mark Twain National Forest, where the Current River begins its spring-fed journey south through the Ozark National Scenic Riverways—Happy Pappy's Montauk RV Park & Lodging provides a year-round base for the spring creek fishing, canoeing, kayaking, horseback riding, stargazing, and Ozark forest exploration that the Montauk area concentrates in one of Missouri's most celebrated outdoor recreation landscapes. With full hookup sites including 30 and 50-amp options, boat rentals, a boat ramp, dining on-site, a playground, clean bathrooms and showers, and the honor-system firewood and ice sales that characterize a genuine Ozark campground, Happy Pappy's delivers the essentials and lets the landscape do the rest. Full hookup back-in and pull-through sites with 30 and 50-amp service provide the RV infrastructure alongside the property's natural setting—fire pits and picnic tables at each site, WiFi connectivity, clean bathrooms and showers, and a boat ramp and boat rentals serving the Current River access that is the campground's primary outdoor recreation asset. A dining facility serves guests who want meals without driving to Salem, and horseback riding access puts the surrounding Ozark National Forest's trail system within reach for equestrian guests who want the Missouri hills from the saddle rather than on foot. The honor-system store with firewood and ice sales reflects the Ozark campground culture's trust-based hospitality tradition. Salem sits in Dent County on the Ozark Plateau in the Current River's upper watershed, in the upland terrain where the plateau's dolostone and chert bedrock creates the springs and cave systems that give the Ozarks their distinctive hydrology. Montauk State Park, a few miles east, protects the Montauk Spring—one of the largest springs in Missouri and the headwaters of the Current River—in a state park whose cold, constant-temperature spring creek is designated a Blue Ribbon trout fishery and stocked year-round with rainbow trout by the Missouri Department of Conservation. The park's historic trout hatchery, one of the oldest fish hatcheries in Missouri, supplements the wild-capture tradition with the managed population that makes the spring creek fishing consistently productive. The Current River and its main tributary, the Jacks Fork, are protected within the Ozark National Scenic Riverways—the first national recreation area created specifically to protect a free-flowing river system, established in 1964 to preserve the Current and Jacks Fork in their natural state. The riverways' 134 miles of protected corridor provide canoe and kayak float access through the Ozark forested corridor in one of the country's finest flatwater paddling environments, with the crystal-clear spring-fed water and the riverside gravel bar camping that make the Current River one of America's most beloved canoe rivers. The dark skies of Dent County's rural Ozarks, far from any significant urban light pollution, create the stargazing conditions that the property's own description highlights as an activity. Happy Pappy's operates year-round, with the trout fishing season in Montauk State Park running continuously through the year—the park stocking its spring creek throughout the winter when the cold water temperature keeps the trout active and the crowds thin. Summer brings the Current River's canoeing and floating to peak popularity from Memorial Day through Labor Day, when the gravel bars and the river's swimming holes fill with Midwestern families on the float trip that is Missouri's quintessential summer outdoor tradition. Reserve your site at Happy Pappy's Montauk and let the Current River's crystal water, the Montauk Spring's blue ribbon trout, and the Ozark dark sky deliver the Missouri outdoors at its most genuine.

from $39/night

Pecatonica River Trails Park

30 RV Sites

At 400 Washington Street in Darlington, Wisconsin—in Lafayette County in the rolling driftless landscape of southwest Wisconsin where the glaciers of the last ice age missed the Driftless Area's ancient terrain and left the Mississippi River tributary valleys in a ridge-and-coulee topography that the Cheese Country ATV Trail and the surrounding Lafayette County trail network has made the most specifically mapped ATV recreation landscape in southern Wisconsin—Pecatonica River Trails Park provides 32 electric campsites along the Pecatonica River with direct access to both the Cheese Country ATV Trail and the Darlington ATV Club's local trail system, a canoe launch, a handicapped-accessible fishing pier, restrooms and showers, a dump station, a playground, and a lighted walking path in the Lafayette County park configuration that trail users and river paddlers find the most practically positioned camping option in the immediate Darlington trail corridor. The direct Cheese Country ATV Trail access and the Pecatonica River canoe launch at the same property define what makes this park specifically useful for the multi-recreation visitor. Thirty-two total campsites include 8 electric sites in a grove of walnut trees with 30-amp service and 22 open electric sites with 50-amp service, plus 2 non-electric sites. Each site provides the open space for the RV plus the tow vehicle and the ATV or UTV trailer that the park's trail-access orientation specifically accommodates with the additional ATV day-use parking for trail users not camping overnight. Restrooms and shower facilities serve the hygiene infrastructure. A dump station handles the black-water disposal need for the RV camping population. A handicapped-accessible fishing pier on the Pecatonica River provides the bank and pier fishing access to the river's bass, catfish, and rough fish population without requiring boat launch access. A canoe launch serves the paddling guest with the flat-water access to the Pecatonica's southwest Wisconsin corridor. A playground and lighted walking path complete the non-ATV recreation options. The park operates on a first-come, first-served basis with self-registration, reflecting Lafayette County's practical management of a rural park resource without reservation system overhead. Maximum stay is 14 nights in any 21-day period. The Cheese Country ATV Trail—accessible directly from the campground—is one of the most celebrated multi-use recreational trail systems in Wisconsin, covering 47 miles through Lafayette and Iowa Counties on converted railroad right-of-way that the trail authority paved and graded for ATV, UTV, bicycle, and snowmobile use through the driftless southwest Wisconsin landscape. The trail passes through the small communities of Blanchardville, Mineral Point, and Calamine, with the trail-access restaurants and bars in each community providing the mid-ride destination that organizes the all-day trail itinerary into an out-and-back or loop structure around a midpoint lunch stop. Darlington's Lafayette County Courthouse Square and the surrounding small-town Wisconsin commercial character represent the driftless region's agricultural community heritage, with the Pecatonica River's historic mill sites and the county's dairy farming landscape providing the context for a region that the Cheese Country trail name accurately describes as the productive agricultural center of Wisconsin's southwest quadrant. Pecatonica River Trails Park is open seasonally through the ATV trail season and into the hunting and late-season outdoor recreation calendar. Summer represents the peak ATV and paddling season. Fall brings the hunting activity and the driftless landscape's hardwood foliage color in the ridge-and-valley terrain that the glaciers' absence left in a more topographically dramatic state than the glaciated plains to the east. Arrive early for peak summer ATV weekends when the walk-in sites fill by midday, launch the canoe at the Pecatonica, and let the Cheese Country Trail earn the southwest Wisconsin ATV reputation that 47 miles of converted rail corridor makes available from the park's Washington Street gate.

from $25/night