Columbus-Belmont State Park Campground

We stayed at Columbus-Belmont 7/10 to 7/14/2022. This is a beautiful well maintained park, with lots of mature trees providing shade, new asphalt pads, short hikes and great views of the Mississippi river. Remarkably well preserved Civil War era earthworks, with many explanatory exhibits and artifacts, are easily accessible within the park. Longer nature trails exist in the undeveloped North end of the park. Unfortunately the small museum was closed when we were there. We made area day trips to Cairo, Ill., New Madrid, Mo., Wickliffe Mounds, and other sites. If you leave or approach the park from the north, GPS may route you on KY-123. Be aware that there is a very steep and rough RR grade crossing at Ballard. (We crossed it several times with TV only.) I avoided it with TT in tow by exiting the park via KY-80E to US-51.

Good place to see sunsets over the Mississippi River. If you travel with a dirt bike or a side by side there is a public ATV park called Wright's Area 252 just north of the campground. Call phone service was spotty. I had to use a booster on my hot spot to get a solid signal, then connect my phone to that WiFi to make a call.

The camp host was friendly and will deliver wood and ice to your site. The bathrooms were clean and the showers were hot. My site was on a hill and required some blocks to level my camper.

Easy arrival as long as you follow the signs on 123 as you get close. Our RV safe gps wanted us to take a city street that was clearly marked “No Campers.” Spacing is okay between sites but you can feel close to your neighbor if you’re on the inside of the loop. Note that not all sites have full hookup. Very friendly camp host family in June! They spent a lot of time checking on guests. Bring your bug spray though. Sites 25,28,26,27,11 would be preferable in that order. Most sites decline quite a lot. A few incline. Very few are level. Bring your blocks! All in all, it’s a quiet place to relax.

The park as a whole is what the other reviewers have stated (clean, beautiful, well maintained, etc.) however I was not impressed with the layout of the campground. It was small with very little privacy. The campground is basically a loop and my site was in the middle so I felt like I had campers all around me. The sites on the outside of the loop would have been better. Also, the dump station is right in front of site number 8 (which is the handicap site). The tow vehicle of any long trailer blocks the site’s access while at the dump station.

The state park is on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. We didn't make a reservation and the camp host assigned us a vacant site for one night. Weekend reservations are hard to come by. A few sights have fantastic views but those would be the first to go. Sites have electricity and water; a few have sewer too.

The camp host is affable He offered me a good deal on firewood, but we didn't want a fire that night

The utility building in the center of the loop has flush toilets and showers. And it also has a coin laundry.

Wi-Fi is offered but is weak. We found it adequate for emails.

This is a great park if you are not working needing internet access. Verizon in the park is minimal to non-existent. They have Wifi available slightly good enough to watch streaming Netflix and YoutubeTV and Amazon video did not work. Very quiet area, many historic features to see. Very small town. Nice view of the Mississippi River. May try to visit again when we are fully retired. Staff is great, very accommodating. Facilities are a little dated but clean and well kept. Coin Washers and Dryers are available. Very little noise from River barge movement. Site 6 side gets noise from Grounds keepers in the morning. Site 19 side and river side are very quiet.

One of the best state parks I have ever stayed at. Located on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. This is a location of a former Civil War Fort, interesting history. Campground is very clean and well kept, very clean shower and toilet facility. I had a "premium" FHU site that had a view of the Mississippi River. There are 10 FHU sites that cost $28 and 25 W/E sites that cost $20. Campsites are asphalt and will require leveling. Reservations needed and must be made through Reserve America, reservation fee applied. Several playground areas and several reserveable pavilions for group functions. A group camp area is available also. There is a museum and a snack shop that has hamburgers, hot dogs, soft drinks and snack items. WIFI is available for a fee (all Kentucky state parks have it). I didn't know where the check in office was but when I drove in to look around one of the workers saw me and took care of it. He later gave me a tour of the campground on his golf cart. There area several porch swings located in the park to view the river. The town people are mostly river barge workers. There are no restaurants nearby and no grocery stores either. About 15 miles to nearest one so take enough food for your stay.

We devoted nearly one blog post on the drive to this State Park and Campground. We were nervous it would be a terrible experience, but it turned out to be one of our favorite state parks! Our arrival onto the actual campground was a bit shaky as there was no one around, initially. We found our site and were about to pull onto it when not only the camp hosts pulled up in their golf cart, but so did the lawn maintenance man, who asked if he could mow it first! Now that was a reception. We ended up really enjoying the camp hosts and know they made our stay enjoyable. The only thing that could have made it better would be sign on the office door that they will return at XX time. It was a small campground and if one made a reservation, you'd know your site #, which we did.
This was an absolutely beautiful and VERY well-maintained State Park. Granted, it is small, so that may help. We just loved EVERYTHING! We do like to hike, and while the hiking was not challenging, we found great paths on hollowed grounds. I read reviews others wrote about the "hiking" and one has to be adventuresome to find a more challenging area than what is the most well known.
No negatives! Just loved everything. We wrote three blog posts, attached.