Frank Russell Campground

Another example of a great Corp of Engineer’s Recreation Area. We only paid $9 per night with Seniors Pass. 30amp electricity. Large paved sites will handle any size rig. Clean restrooms with showers. Looks like it could be busy on the weekends. We are here on a weekday in late September and only have one other camper.

Very nice campground. Good spacing between sites with trees and some bushes, so very private sites. Lake seems to have a non-developed shoreline, so campsites are on the hill and cannot see lake from campsites. We're here in the 1st part of October and there is only one other campsite in use. Several of the other loops were closed off and there was no attendant or campground host. Several of the campsites are reserved for this weekend, but virtually empty during this week.

Ditto the previous reviews. Our rate reflects the senior pass rate. We were there mid week the latter part of October and had the campground to ourselves. By chance we did run into a ranger after our first night so we could let someone know we had switched sites to be closer to the bath house. We didn’t spend any time there as we spent our time touring Hannibal, which was our reason for being in the area.

This is a beautiful campground in a forested setting. All sites are "electric only" but the power is solid and water and dump are available on site. This area is very quiet and makes a great overnight stop when traveling east/west along US36/I-72 corridor which we find to be a good alternative to I-70 which traverses many more large metro areas. Verizon and AT&T cell data service were quite good (VZ better than AT&T.) Many/most sites will accommodate larger rigs but be aware that front to back leveling a longer motor home can be a challenge in this campground. Unfortunately the reservation system does not address this so if you make a reservation it's going to be hit or miss (FYI, our site #38 is OK for a long rig.) We were lucky that when we arrived there were plenty of available sites from which to choose. Had we made a reservation "blindly" we might have ended up in a site where leveling a 38 foot motor home would be impossible.

Stayed one night on a trip from Ohio to Kansas. Camping bans had just been lifted so reservation was required. Arrived later than intended. Set up our site and staff came by to see if we needed anything. Very quite and spacey site. Liked it so much we stayed 2 days on our way back.

We generally love COE campgrounds but this is one we probably wouldn’t go to again based on the site we had. To be honest we didn’t check out the other loops and they could have been better than the loop we were in. This seems like a popular area for boating as we could hear them going by even though we couldn’t see them.
Our site had good tree coverage and with 90 degree temps that was nice. Trees were trimmed and we had no worries about overhang in our site. But the slope was so bad we had to use multiple blocks to build up the back end of our trailer so it could be somewhat level. We did not unhook from the truck, frankly we didn’t trust the trailer to not roll backwards even with chocks behind the wheels! Almost all the sites in our loop were sloped, some more than others. Too bad they don’t indicate the slope in the site details.

This is a COE campground that is absolutely beautiful with access to a cove on the lake (very steep hill). The sites are all paved and have really nice fire rings with grates. The are electric only with 50 amp service. The lake's namesake and legendary author and humorist, Mark Twain, was born in a town beside the lake. The 32-mile long Joanna Trail is accessible from the campground. Here, horseback riders, mountain bikers and hikers can enjoy the rough and varied terrain that meanders along the northern banks of the lake, across bluffs and over hills.

Backing around the trees that line the site was a bit of a challenge, but just take your time and get out an look often and you will do just fine. Nite time was very quiet with the exception of the crickets and other creatures of the nite. I will keep this one on my list to visit again.

Not much to add. As previous reviews have pointed out, very clean and well maintained. we were there during mid week in May and had the place to ourselves. Only 5 campers in the entire park!

We will come back again when we can spend more time.

Park just reopened after two weeks to clean up storm damage. Nice park.

Very nice COE campground. Nit busy now that school is open. Very good Tmobile 5g coverage.

Across the lake by marina is also a very nice campground albeit a bit more campers.

Frank Russell is all wooded, no grass.

Marina area wooded but has grass.

Not able to see much of lake, but woods makes it very quiet.