Finding Dispersed Campsites in SE Missouri | Mark Twain National Forest & Ozark Scenic Riverway
We have always enjoyed camping out in nature, far from any other people. That is what prompted us to start backpacking years ago. Fast-forward to today, and that becomes a bit more difficult when you add a trailer into the mix. However, there are plenty of people on YouTube that are showing that it is possible, especially in our National Forests.
On one of our earlier trips this year, in the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas, we attempted to do some scouting for potential boondocking spots. For those of you who are unaware, boondocking (or dry camping), just refers to camping in a spot without any electric or water hookups. In places such as the National Forests, camping in this way is also know as dispersed camping, as these spots aren’t necessarily designated camping spots, but more of just places that you are allowed to camp. So, on the Arkansas trip, we did stumble across several spots. However, we were hoping to find places next to water, which we did not. We also determined that we were ill prepared for this type of campsite scouting at the time.
This sparked an interest in trying to find some dispersed campsites in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. We quickly planned a weekend trip to southeast Missouri, to see what we could find. Since we were going to be intentionally driving down some roads that we didn’t know the conditions of, we decided to leave the trailer at home, spend a night in a hotel, and get an early start in the morning.
We knew that we also needed to be more prepared this time around. We purchased an atlas which was recommended online, and we stopped at a ranger station to get the National Forest map for the district we were going to be in. That night in the hotel, we looked over the maps, and determined which spots looked promising. We also used Google Maps to check the satellite view of the places that we found. By the end of the evening, we had two areas that we planned to check out; one being the National Forest, and the other was the area along the Ozark National Scenic Riverway.
The next morning, we left the hotel, and headed toward the National Forest. Our first spot took us quite a way down a narrow dirt road through the woods. At the end, we found a few spots right along Courtois Creek (37.92842, -91.10197). Some of these spots had people camping in them, and others also looked well used. The disappointing part was how much trash was left in one of the fire rings. Other than that, this spot was amazing, and right along the crystal clear creek. The only other issue we found with this spot was that there were some dips in the road coming in, and I was debating on whether I could pull the trailer down there. I believe we can, but we will definitely have to take it slow.
After the promising start, our luck in the National Forest started to dwindle. We found a couple spots along the side of the forest roads, but nothing that was really exciting. We did come across Timberline Lake (37.87908, -91.05357), which had two spots that were both occupied. Either of these spots looked like they would be nice, and both had easy access to the lake.
We spent the rest of the morning in the National Forest. We then headed southwest, toward the Current River and the National Scenic Riverway. We have floated this river several times, so we were somewhat familiar with this area, and some of the spots that we would be checking out. The first spot that we stopped at was Akers Upper Access (37.37588, -91.56202). This spot was busy with people enjoying the river, and with canoe rental busses dropping people off for float trips. We decided that this spot may be a possibility in the off-season, but not while the float trips are going.
It was just a short drive down the road to get to Sinking Creek campground. This is a small first-come-first-serve campground operated by the National Park Service. When we arrived, the area was very busy, with many people were enjoying the river. Once again, we thought this may be a possibility in the off-season, but there were way too many people for us at this time.
Right across the road from the Sinking Creek campground is Echo Bluff State Park. It is a fairly new state park, and since we had never been there, we took a short drive through. Once we exited the park, I decided to stop along the road so that I could fly the drone over Sinking Creek campground, since I failed to get any footage while I was there. Shortly after getting the drone in the air, and near the campground, it started to lose signal and kept trying to land. I managed to keep in from landing in the river, but could not get it to come back. We quickly drove back down to the campground, to see if we could recover it. Based upon the coordinates of its last location (37.306097, -91.415316), I determined that the drone was on the opposite side of the river. At this spot, the river is pretty wide, and fast moving. Tammy and Bagheera stayed in the car while I walked through the woods to get closer to the drone. I eventually came to a spot where I believed the drone was directly across the river from where I was standing.
One advantage that I had was that as long as there was battery power in the drone, I could make it beep and light up once we were close to it, to make it easier to locate. So, I was standing on the opposite bank, debating on how to get across the river (with the controller and my phone, which I would need on the other side), all while watching the battery life on the drone diminish. Pretty soon, a couple in inner tubes came floating by, and asked what I was doing. Once I told them, they decided that myself and the guy could take the tubes across the river and look for the drone. I thought that sounded like a great plan, so we started figuring out how to keep the electronics dry as we crossed. It was at this point that the drone battery died.
The swim across the river was more exercise than I’ve had in a while. By the time I reached the other side, my legs were rubber, which was making difficult to even climb up the bank. I pushed through the thick underbrush until I was in the spot where the drone was supposed to be. Looking up, it was apparent that with the thick canopy of trees, anything that came down there would probably be stuck at the top. I continued to search for a little bit, then it occurred to me that Tammy had no idea where exactly I was, and I had not phone service to call her. I finally gave up, and decided to head back to the other side of the river.
Recall that it was a couple that stopped to help me. The girlfriend was sitting on the other side of the river the entire time, watching our stuff. We were not looking forward to swimming back across to come back to her. Luckily, as we were getting ready to come back, they were able to flag down a boat to pick her up and take her downstream to the campground. Then, all we had to do was float downstream and navigate across the river.
By the time I reached the car, I was beat, and scratched up from pushing through the woods in shorts. I took a moment to catch my breath, and even though I was disappointed that I lost the drone, I didn’t want to waste the trip there by going home now. We decided to continue south to check out some of our other locations.
Our next location took us several miles down a gravel road (CR 19-225). As we were traveling down that road we spotted the wild horses that live in that area, gathered off to the side. I had only ever seen two of them prior to then, and it was neat to spot them all out in the woods.
When we arrived to the next potential campsite, it was a somewhat muddy spot, but it was directly next to the Current River. At the time, we thought it was Grassy Creek, but later figured out that it was not. Although this site didn’t look like much, the view of the river could definitely make it worthwhile.
From this point, we continued down the road to the next spot. Keep in mind that we have a Subaru Outback, so some of these spots that we were encountering on the forest roads were a little sketchy. Pair that with the fact that we were several miles from a blacktop road (and our luck so far that day) made me even more uncomfortable. We had just made it though a particularly muddy spot in the road when we came to a water crossing. Tammy waded out, and found that the deepest spot was about knee deep. We decided that we really didn’t want to backtrack the entire distance that we had already traveled, so we gave it a shot. Luckily, we got through it without incident.
It wasn’t far after the water crossing that we decided to explore a fork in the road. This road went past a clearing, and pretty soon came to a gorgeous campsite right on the river. It even had a picnic table. We later determined that this must be Grassy Creek (37.24513, -91.35151). It was by far our favorite spot of the day, and one that we are going to try to camp at in the future.
We only had one more spot to check out before we headed home. On our way there, we passed a group of houses that were located right along the river. The view from these houses were amazing, but I’m not sure if I would want to live that far out in the woods. We also passed a boat ramp (37.24122, -91.29514) on the river, that looked like it was well used. Our final stop for the day was Jerktail Landing (37.22916, -91.30874). This area had signs off the blacktop, and was pretty popular. There was room for larger RV’s, however I think every bit of space was taken when we drove through.
After a very eventful day, and driving over 200 miles of backroads, we started the 4.5 hour trip back home. We’re looking forward to heading back down to that area with the trailer and actually camping in a couple of the spots that we found. We definitely think that this type of scouting is a good idea, as it gives you more familiarity with an area, as well as being able to rule out some spots. We also think that we tried to explore too large of an area on one day. We should have only focused on the area in the National Forest, or the Current River area, but not both.