Big Spring

As with many national parks, there are no sites with water hook ups. It’s odd that a place built around a water feature and a river has no access to water for campers. So fill your tanks and adjust accordingly. And there was only one fairly small loop of about 20 spaces that had electricity. Mind knew there were six camping areas, but only one with electrical hook up. So if that’s important, no before you go. The listing for this site showed it to be shady. It wasn’t. It said it was a waterfront site. It wasn’t. It said it was a concrete site which was half right. Half was concrete and half was dirt that had washed in making it less than level. The general consensus after four years of travel is that state parks are run far better than national. The amenities are better. There needs to be more information about where you can swim at Big spring. And this is no fault of the park, but the gnats and flies around anytime you were near the water we’re almost unbearable. Might have been the time of year, but it made being near the water less than enjoyable.

We love the Ozark National Riverway area. Big Springs Campground is our favorite! So peaceful and has been maintained nicely even after this spring flooding. We stayed in early spring before flood and again this fall. Great stop over for us. Excited to see what they do when the cabins and dining hall opens up next year, we hope.

Chiggers but so beautiful

We were on a cross-country driving trip recently, arrived at Big Spring to camp in the HUGE campground (100+ spaces), and every site was marked "reservation only" through recreation.gov. There were a grand total of 3 other campers there that night! And not an official park person to be found!! We had already encountered the system at Great Sand Dunes, where we pulled in and were also told all sites were by reservation ONLY--tho there were still some empty ones.

The website is difficult, if in remote area often don't have connectivity, and when on the road can't always reliably know where we will end up for the night. This reservation-only system does NOT work and we do NOT want it. It deprives the parks of income (could certainly have sold empty sites on first-come, first-serve basis). More important, it deprives visitors of the unique chance to camp under the stars in our amazing national parks. Ditch it and go back to hiring more NPS rangers!!

Rose Houk

Campsite was clean and the amenities were in good order. This was an incredible location. The springs are beautiful and the river is crystal clear. We will definitely be back!

Beautiful and the facilities are great! Enjoyed our stay.

Sites were merely reasonable; some shaded some not. No wifi or cell service available.
This relatively low rating is probably partially due to the time of year we visited. It was untolerably hot and the area was absolutely swarming with flies.
On a positive note, the campground host was extremely helpful and very friendly.

What could you say when everything and everyone was just perfect. Thank You but wished the CCC buildings were open.

We had a great camping experience (camper). All the facilities buildings were in excellent shape and very clean.
The camper sites are a bit on the smaller side and close together. It gets very busy during the evening but during the day when everyone is out on the river the campground is peaceful.

We stayed 3 nights in August. It was hot & buggy. The bugs were gnats & they were relentless. We never saw campground hosts but saw their spot. One morning, we had a very loud family packing up BLASTING music with curse words BEFORE 7:00. It was so loud. The next NIGHT, a group of young people were up drinking and playing very loud music until after 2:00 AM. I honestly was worried a fight was going to breakout because of how loud it was. The scenery is beautiful but the camping environment should have been different; it should be peaceful at a campground.