Big Spring

Great camping good staff

We love camping at Big Springs! We look forward to being here each year. The Springs are beautiful. It is so peaceful here. The water can be a bit chilly but, it is so clean and clear. Love, love love it here!

Very crowded because and not enough electric sites but beautiful place. Last twenty years we are praying to get more electric sites. Not enough space for trailer and truck to park. Not easy to get to the beach. No stairs and very steep.

What a hidden gem this area is! We camped at the Big Spring campground in the national park. Our favorites were Big Spring, Blue Spring, Alley Spring and Rocky Falls. This area is so well maintained! The trails were wide and level and the gravel roads were well maintained. We ate at Redbeard's Steakhouse outside of Van Buren. It was delicious! Just a beautiful area! And all of the people we encountered were so helpful and kind!

Beautiful and peaceful, workers are friendly and helpful. Definitely coming back.

Great place to stay

Well maintained sites and bathrooms. I also liked that they separated the electric and non-electric sites so you could tent camp away from the RVs. Most of the trails were maintained and easy to access from the campground.

I love this campground.

The campground was well maintained and had ample capacity even over a holiday weekend. Big Springs is such a lovely area, it’s on par with the more celebrated parks out West. It’s one of my favorite places to visit.

The 600 loop is a long way from the toilets and showers, but overall this is an excellent place to camp. Easy river access, and the trail over the spring is fun.

Always love visiting this place. Any possibility of installing more electric sites, and allowing reservations a year in advance.

Campground was well kept, and good location next to the river

I have found the site easy to use and navigate through.

We had a lot of fun and enjoyed playing in the current river.

We loved this spot. We floated all day and then set up camp. The neighbors dog barked constantly for the first 3 hours, even with the rangers there. There were two raccoons that were definitely not afraid of us and came up as we were eating dinner, trying to steal our plates from in front of us. Other than those items, we were pleased.

Beautiful campground and very well maintained! River access from the campsite was great (close) but difficult for those with mobility issues. Overall a nice place to camp but BEWARE - this place is absolutely overrun with raccoons that are habituated to camp food and have no fear of humans. They got into our cooler the first night and made a mess. The cooler was closed but didn’t have a latch. They tried very hard to get into the cooler that did have a latch. They constantly come right into the campsite. The campsite next to us had their s’mores fixings on the picnic table and they were standing as close as 5 feet from the table and raccoons (multiple) came out and took the food right in front of them and it wasn’t even dark. We had to keep every single food related item completely locked up unless we were actively using it. Other than that, it was a great experience to camp at Big Spring Campground.

Excellent location with clean campground, beautiful nature (springs, falls, etc)! Floating on the Current River is a must!

The electric sites are extremely small and there are very few of them. If you have a larger camper it is very difficult to be able to back into your site especially if someone else has something parked at the front of their site across from you. Don’t try to back up past the end of the asphalt even though there is gravel. They will call the sheriffs department on you. They will gladly allow you to have multiple tents smashing the grass down and killing it but don’t you dare put a tire on it! They will again call the sheriffs department on you. We have stayed at many wonderful corp of engineers campgrounds in the past 20 years of camping but this was by far our worst experience and we will not be back. Oh and if you bring your boat too good luck having a place to park it where you can keep an eye on it, you’ll have to decide between your boat and vehicle which one can stay at your site and which one has to be parked out on the main road for anyone to pilfer through.

Facilities were clean , park was great

Site 217. No water but the fill and dump station at the entrance to the park is easily accessible from both directions. Can’t see the river but there is access from several different points. It was about a 1.3 mile walk each way to the spring.

When we arrived at the campground was packed. We drove around to check out our site. When we saw how awful the conditions were, we decided to leave. I love big spring. It is so beautiful there. But the campground was small and cramped and no shade. We had to drive back into Van Buren and pay $65 to camp somewhere else.

Clean, quiet and the river was close enough we could walk to it while carrying chairs and bags. We attended the ranger led events in the evening and they were very informative and fun. We will be back.

The campground was clean and well maintained. The bathroom was also very clean. The shower house could have been cleaner, but it was okay. The setting is gorgeous. I got up early and had the spring to myself and it was so peaceful. We floated the current and enjoyed wonderful summer activities. The campsites were perfect for our small camper and a tent. The staff I encountered were friendly and knowledgeable.

Beautiful shaded campground on the banks of the beautiful Current River. Facilities were all very clean. Just wish it had water hook ups!

This campground is very clean and well planned out. There is a good amount of spacing between the sites, the roads are well maintained, and the sites are level. The hot showers were clean and a welcome bonus.

Beautiful place and Campground is very nice. We only booked it for one night on our way to the Smoky Mountains and wished we would have stayed at least 2 nights to look around the area. Big Spring is awesome to see!

Beautiful area and the others campers were great. My Chihuahuas were a big hit with the kids mostly and adults.

Had a great time , We had plenty of room and things to see

Clean, manicured sites, the rangers made several rounds and answered any questions we had, and clean bathrooms.

Beautiful park. Stayed there over Memorial weekend. My only complaint is in the camping section the bathrooms and showers did not get cleaned enough for the number of campers. TP ran out as well. They should be checking on and cleaning facilities at least once a day.

There was a rowdy group in the 300 loop who were screaming, several dogs not on leash and constant barking. I spoke to the camp host and she said there was nothing she could do, it’s up to the rangers. Rangers never went thru our loop. The group got worse. They partied with blaring music until 3 am.

Beautiful campground. Lots of walking and bicycling opportunities and fishing in the Current river.

Great campsite and campground. Great first camping trip with our Jeep Gladiator and rooftop tent.

Showers and bathrooms didnt get cleaned each morning. They were clean when we arrived on Thursday night. Showers were disgusting! They were not clean Thursday night when we arrived. The lights need to be changed to different color at shower house! Thousands of bugs inside and outside door swarming.

We recently stayed at the big Spring campground. The weather was perfect. Facilities were wonderful. All new black top the grounds were top notch. No street lights which was great. We will return as much as we can.

10 May arrived at campground and found 5 other campers in the assigned loop and no campground host The site, 215, was too short for my 16 ft Airstream and Tundra. The site would also have me open the camper door directly into a wall of vegetation. I elected to move to the next site over and tried calling the 877 number and after a very long wait spoke to an agent about changing my site. The agent and I myself, using the app, couldn't confirm a site change. I was provided the local office phone number but got a recording as it was Sunday and closed. I left my number as instructed but never over the next 2 days got a return call. The campground was overall a nice place and would return and confirm any space other than 215.

Large level sites, quiet, clean restrooms. Beautiful park, well kept and the picnic area at the Spring was lovely. The color of the water is amazing. A real treasure and treat we didn’t know about!

Great stay! Access to the river was easy and there were plenty of trails - long or short - for the dogs. Big Spring will become our go-to camping spot!

Beautiful park and well kept

Big Spring Missouri, THE BIG SPRING is the star of the park, amazing ! As for staying there. They Need to fix the exhaust fans in the restrooms AND showers and set the automated time delays on them to maximum ! ! Sweltering hot in there all day and night, even when it was 48 F at night. Loop 200 is 'Electric Only'. So anyone with RV's will need to 'stop at the entrance to fill up your water tank', and then when you leave you'll be able to dump your black tank in the same area, and if not staying on Loop 200, you will need your inverter system working right. Restooms at the park have running water, as long as walking a little bit isn't a problem for your crew. The showers are quite a walk, probably about 6 city blocks to get over there from loop 100 & 200, and quite a bit further from the other loops. There is a boat launch and parking area in the South end of the park, which also is a 'pickup point' for the local tube and canoe rental float company. While the float company boasts their process of taking you upstream from the US-60 bridge, we prefer the float from the the US-60 bridge down to the boat access. All of the loops are VERY close to the Current River frontage, but there is not much river beach area available to those registered in the park. There are gravel bars and beach areas close-by, FYI, those are all privately owned. Looked like there might now be a decent gravel bar available to park users on the very North end of the park/river, but only when the water levels are at or below normal. We have camped at Big Spring for many years. There is a wide mixture of people there, some are very freindly, some are better left alone, some never come out of the RV once they park, and some are actually pretty rude over the smallest things. So probably only a 15 percent chance you'll hit it off with your neighbor. And, like other parks we attend, you have Crows during the day, and Raccoons during the night, keep food put away when nobody is watching it

Excellent

Nice campgrounds, clean bathrooms, small rv pads

This is a wonderful place to stay. Always clean and well maintained. This is our 2nd time staying there.

Just an overnight stay at the halfway point of our journey. Roads on and out were freshly paved and marked and the pads were all new. The only oddity was a lot of the RV spaces had the picnic tables and fire pits on the wrong side of the RV.

Nice quiet campground. Not much to do but good for an overnight.

This was very nice area that I thoroughly enjoyed birdwatching and exploring. There was only one incident that was bothersome and that was the Rangers treated me like I was a criminal. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed my stay there.

Very quiet and peaceful .

Nice campground. Bathrooms were clean. You have to drive to get to showers. It was pretty quiet when we were there. Nice trail to the spring.

Bathrooms and showers were very clean. Was very quiet. Flies and gnats were plentiful though.

This campground is along a long beautiful road in, just know it has big hills and one tough corner. There were big rigs and we have a 34 ft Skoolie so nothing to stop you just a heads up. The campground could be so much nicer if they kept up on it better! I'm not sure if they are understaffed or if there's simply no desire to do what is lacking. The tables are all in odd places and we watched them push them aside into the treas to cut the grass and leave them so they're unusable unless you have two people strong enough to move them. The fire pits are not cleaned out and they have dead trees hanging out over campsites. The good parts are the natural spring adjacent to the campus is amazing, they have hot and cold showers and lots of spaces. Just read the info for each site as only 1 loop has electric and it gets pretty crowded in a wknd.