Cuivre River State Park

If you happen to be an introvert, as some may say I am, Cuivre River SP is not the place for you to camp in mid to late October. The campgrounds transform from the usual campfires and kids on bikes to elaborately decorated campsites full of ghouls, goblins, Yoda’s and, yes, kids on bikes. This campground embraces the Halloween spirit and then some. Campers ranged from retirees with enormous 40+ foot campers to young families in tents.

We have stayed here twice, once this spring and now in October. Both of our visits to Quivre River were very pleasant. The campgrounds are clean and well maintained. Its close proximity to St. Louis makes it an ideal weekend getaway. The sites are a bit close together but there are large trees around each site and you can back in large rigs at most places. The people at the Visitor’s Center were very friendly and helpful. They sincerely wanted campers to enjoy their weekend. If you want the Halloween experience, you should make reservations 6 months in advance and sites go FAST.

Arrived late afternoon on a Saturday and just a few non-electric sites left. Would have been there sooner, but GPS had us taking a long, curvy, hilly route....finally found a person for directions to CG 4 miles from 1st entrance.
Got a couple dollars veteran discount.
Not far from Troy which has a Wal-Mart and lots of amenities.
Would have given a better rating, but we had to sanitize and clear the cobwebs from the vault restroom before daring to use it.

This is a wonderful park with well-layed out campsites. The fall colors are great...lots of hardwood trees in the area.

But the registration “system” is a mess. We tried to make a reservation on line for the same day but, no, Missouri doesn’t allow that. So we drove to the park and the campground which is way back into the park. We passed about 15 signs that said Campground Full, Reservations Required. Got to the campground booth and the nice person there says, oh, we have campsites. So we got a site and love it! I counted 7 unoccupied sites just in our loop. Dumb.

Update: Missouri State Parks now allow same-day reservations. See https://www.mostateparks.com/same-day-reservations

NOT for any rig over 12 feet MAX height !! STAY AWAY IF YOU HAVE A TALL RIG !!!! Primarily for travel trailers and tent campers. Lots of low hanging branches, some tree trunks leaning out over road. Park does not keep low hanging branches trimmed off. I made it in here with my 35ft 5th wheel which is 13ft 4in tall by driving on the wrong side of the road many many times, even around blind corners, to avoid low hanging branches and tree trunks leaning out over the road. I am a very experienced Class A Commercial truck driver (30 plus years 48 states oversized loads ect) and even with all my commercial driving experience in mountains and on narrow tough roads I was very stressed out by the time I made it to the gate for the campgrounds.
The campsites themselves are great for RVs less than 35ft long, My rig is 53ft long with truck and trailer combined and I had to get off the road into the brush somewhat to get backed into my campsite. If you have a travel trailer (30ft) or motorhome (35ft) or less you'll get along just fine. We had full hookups. Typical above ground water hydrant and well water, about 25psi to 30 psi water pressure. Water was good in general but like always use a good water filter. Electrical was 50amp pedestal with 30amp and 120volt hookups. My surge protector and EMS (onboard electrical management system) showed all good grounds and properly wired pedestal. EMS showed 118v/119v volts. Sewer dump hookup is 4inch PVC just below ground level. No threaded connection, you will need one of the rubber cone type adapters (doughnut style). Campsite is gravel pad that was fairly level. Concrete pad for the picnic table. Fire rings for campfires and must get the firewood from the park. You can not bring your own firewood into the park. Asphalt roads to campsite in campgrounds. Campground roads are 2 way traffic and narrow. Park personnel are friendly and try to be helpful. Verizon cell signal (4g LTE) was decent with 2mbs - 3mbs speeds. email and web browsing was fairly decent but videos had to buffer a lot. T-Mobile/Sprint was weak and dropped connection many times. I do not know about AT&T (don't have AT&T). No detectable campground Wi-Fi. I did not go to the lake so I don't know anything about it other than there is a sand beach swim area. I was going to try to go fishing (catfish) but I ended up leaving a day early because of the possibility of rain storms on the day I was scheduled to leave. I did not want to fight with the low hanging branches on the park roads going out of the park in the rain. Would I ever camp here again? NO WAY!! I dread trying to get out of here without tearing up the roof or ACs on my 5th wheel. I'll make it but it isn't going to be easy or enjoyable.

Has a nice bathroom with laundry, multiple dumpsters to dump trash, a playground and a nice lake with a trail around it. You can see the lake from some of the sites.

We booked site 14. When we got here, there was not enough cell service for us to work. Since the campground was relatively empty, we drove around looking for an available site with cell service on Verizon. Once we found a site, I called customer service and asked if we could switch sites. They said no. And since we had used the online check in they emailed us earlier that day, they would not reimburse any of our stay. It was late, cold and getting dark, so we ended up just paying for another site for the entire week. So, we now have bought 2 sites and the campground was still mostly empty.

With that said, it is a beautiful park. The electric only and primitive sites are very well spaced apart. The full hookups are a little closer together than we like but not terrible. If you need cell service, anything around sites 1-4 was okay without boosting but good enough for 2 of us to work with boosting. And full hook up area was pretty good all around.

Stayed in site 88. This part of the campground is basically a field with campsites and full hookups. Kind of cramped by MO state park standards. Site was at 90 degrees to the road so backing in was a test of skill, but we managed with our 38’ travel trailer. Weak Verizon signal, worked sometimes.

We planned to stay for a four-day weekend, which happened to be Easter. We're in the FHU field at site 73. It's crowded (nearly every site is taken). Backing in at a 90 degree angle is a challenge. The bathrooms, showers and laundry facilities don't open for another week, as it's technically off season. Our hook-ups are fine. If we come back, we'd definitely stay in an E/W site, as they are more private. The trails are great, though don't forget your tick repellent. Lots and lots of barking dogs, including neighboring private properties.

Absolutely beautiful campground! You are deep in the woods and it is beautiful. The lake is not far from the campground. You just feel tucked away in heaven. I’ve stayed here a couple times and I just love it. The camp hosts are the very best I have ever encountered!

We stayed in 63 which was a basic site, no hookups. Good for small rigs, shady and close to the bathroom which was very clean.