Lake of the Ozarks State Park

We've camped at this state park a number of times over the years. There are many sites and variety of settings from which to choose. We reserved our site on the lower level to be able to view the lake, though it has been a dry summer and the lake level is quite low. The cell signal is very weak in this part of the campground and we needed to access our email while driving to other parts of the park.

We stayed for enough days to try most of the trails in the park and really enjoyed the hiking.

The campground is well maintained and the campground hosts are very helpful and attentive.

A large state park with many hiking trails. Most are short, but interconnect for longer hikes. Several leave from campground, others need to be driven to.
Road biking ok—hilly and no shoulder on county roads, but not too much traffic.
Many camp sites are shady, some are on lake, some have peek-a-boo views, others forest views. Lots of deer roaming through camp, squirrels very active and armadillos roam at night.
Bath houses are well maintained. Showers are hot with good pressure.
No adherence to rule of no parking on grass, nor limit of two vehicles.
Some OTA tv stations.
Shoreline full of trash
Weekends were loud with campers, speeding boats and personal watercraft, and low-flying planes.

First time staying here and we liked the campground quite a bit. Our site #87 was perfect for out 26’ trailer and we had no one behind us and the next camp space outside our door was a ways away. Not many people there when we were there mid September. Laundry room was fine with two washers - $1.25 - and two dryers.
I thought the trails would be more bike friendly but they are not, not at all. Very rough even for a mountain bike.

Very confusing directions on Campendium. Led me to a picnic/day use area with no camping spots. I had to turn around and find the campground on a map. It was about 20 miles away. I chose a lake view site, in hindsight I would not do that again. It was a lot more crowded and noisy than the other loops. This is a huge state park, it was a good overnight stay.

This is a large campground and getting to our site seemed like a bit of drive to get to. We stayed on a Friday night and it was mostly full. We had a site that backed up to the lake. The lake view was nice but the site was sloped pretty good towards the lake. We had one bar of LTE but it was mostly unusable. We were also unable to receive any TV channels. We didn't have another site that close to us but there wasn't much privacy. Our campsite was under the approach path for the airport that is next to the airport. We enjoy that but some might not. The campground seemed to be pretty quiet. There's two dump stations which was nice.

At 43’ we were super tight getting around the park and backed into our site but we made it going slowly. The site is enormous and our view of the Lake is amazing. Water spigots throughout the campground and a couple of dump sites. Electric (50A) on our premium electric spot shows 121v on each leg, through the park is mostly empty and no one is running ACs due to weather. We couldn’t be happier with the site. Down by the lake in our spot was have one bar of ATT and enough service to do work/calls. Able to stream early in the morning and late in the evening. Verizon shows one bar but doesn’t seem to be working. Sites seem well maintained and ours has a new 7’ picnic table on it.

Great spot to enjoy the Lake. We camped near the docks near the beach area and enjoyed walking around and seeing the wildlife and the calming water. It was nice and quiet and very clean site with easy to access, level parking. Staff was welcoming. We didn’t stay long enough to try out the fishing and enjoy the area but would love to try to get in the future.

Nice park on lake with many shady spots; wonderful host Gay and park ranger took one look at our 27 ft. Airstream and told us we might not fit in reserved spot (Loop 2, /#36) and to come back for another after we took a look. Sure enough it would have been tight so they set us with a better spot on loop 3 overlooking woods and lake. Loop 2 is really for smaller rigs and spots are tight - wouldn't recommend. Loops 3 and 4 have best sites with loop 4 offering sites on the lake. Only a couple down there with electric so they go quickly. Quiet park but super busy on weekends - lots of tent campers. Deer are everywhere and have no fear of humans or cars so be careful driving through park Most cleared out on Monday. Laundry was just OK; cold water only and only one washer working; $1.25/wash & $1 dry. Numerous well-marked trails in park; only a few for bicycles and they are super rocky; not for a novice rider.
Osage Beach is nearby for any stores/supplies you need. We put our WIFI booster outside and did get enough to stream but there is no service down on lake.

Wooded and quite shaded. Our site Section 2 #46, unfortunately was on a non stop busy thoroughfare through the park. But, we did book just a couple of days earlier so we were just happy we had electricity for our A/C. Site is shaded but next to the dumpster. Campsite not maintained to my standards. Broken picnic table on cement pad which was not swept or blown off. There are a ton of camphosts driving around on golf carts but no one doing routine maintenance.

There are non electrical sites on the water. This time of year you need A/C though.

I might visit again, but plan waaaaay in advance to get a better site.

I was down by the lake (across the road), site 105. The weather wasn't conducive to going kayaking, but I would have loved it. My dog and I enjoyed hiking the trails, but the ticks were bad. Saw lots of deer, geese, turtles, and more. Staff were friendly. There is free WiFi, but I had 2 bars with T Mobile, which was sufficient for me to use as a hot spot to do my computer-based job.
Note: a lot of the sites by the lake do not have electricity, but running my generator during non-quiet hours was no problem.
Another bonus of this site was that I was beside the water supply, so I didn't have to move my RV to resupply my water.