Cobb Ridge
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $15–$25Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 4945 on recreation.gov
- Season
- January 1 – December 31Open January 1 through December 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cobb Ridge Campground is adjacent to the Chadwick Riding area, which is popular among and off-road vehicles (dirt bikes; ATVs and side by sides 50 inches or less) enthusiasts. Numerous trails provide nearly 80 miles of interconnecting loops that vary from easy to difficult terrain, winding in and out of deep, forested hollows and down long ridge tops. Family and group camping is available, providing access to Missouri's beautiful Mark Twain National Forest. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors to the area mostly come for the plentiful off-road vehicle trails (motorcycle; ATVs and side by sides 50 inches or less). Some trail segments are very rocky, steep, rough, rutted and are technically challenging, while others that don't drain well have been built up with concrete. Hiking on the trails is also permissible but requires caution. If using the trails, you will need a Chadwick riding permit - they are available at our District office; Casey's General Store in Sparta, MO. Cost is $60 for an annual; $10/day for motorcycles, ATVs and side by sides. $3 for mountain bike. You will need make/model and VIN# of vehicle along with rider information. The permit is valid for the machine and cannot be transferred.
Facilities
The Cobb Ridge Campground provides a variety of campsite sizes, styles, development and locations. Single, double and triple camp units are designed to accommodate groups of various sizes. Campsites include traditional back-in units and easily maneuvered pull-through units; some with electrical hookups and others with only basic facilities. Tent camping is also an option. At each electric site, there are 30 and 50 amp service along with a 110 outlet. Most sites are fairly private, but some are close together and open enough to promote visiting between other camps. Additional sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. When available, an on-site host is at the campground. The sites are equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. Flush toilets, vault toilets, and showers are provided. Hydrants are located throughout campground for all campers to use - no individual water hookups available. Trash collection facilities are provided.
Natural Features
The Chadwick area is mostly forested with oak, hickory and pine woods on rocky ridge tops, with a few small open forest glades. Steep ridges break into narrow hollows with scattered surface rock and occasional rock ledges and patches of eastern red cedar.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is 30 miles from Springfield, Branson, Silver Dollar City and Shepherd of the Hills attractions. Lake Taneycomo is 20 miles south of Cobb Ridge.
What the agency tells you
Campers required to check-in with on-site host, if available, upon arrival.
Don't move firewood: To limit the spread of invasive tree-killing pests, firewood from outside the area is not permitted. Some states have quarantines and may confiscate your firewood. Please help protect our forests from invasive species by obtaining your firewood at or near your camping destination and burning it on-site. Visit dontmovefirewood.org for more information.
Click here for more information on the Cobb Ridge Recreation Area.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Helmets are required at all times for off-road vehicle riders under 18 years of age and anyone under the age of 16 must be under direct supervision of a parent or guardian when riding ATV, motorcycle, and side by side.
ATVs and side by sides must be 50 inches or less to ride on trails.
Working muffler and Spark Arrester required on all ATVs/side by sides.
No operator is allowed to carry passengers on an ATV or motorcycle unless designed by manufacturer to carry passengers.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 49 · 5 tent-only, 2 group
- Hookups
- 28 electric
- Paved pads
- 47 of 49
- Accessible sites
- 49
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…tables and campfire rings with grills. Flush toilets, vault toilets, and showers are provided. Hydrants…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Flush toilets, vault toilets, and showers are provided.”
- Store
- Nearby
Full this Saturdayread 16:14 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
4 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:03 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 28 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 22 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:14 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $15–$25 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 4
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:03 UTC
- Indian PointTable Rock Lake · 23 mi · 6 of 150 site-nights open
- Old Highway 86Table Rock Lake · 26 mi · 1 of 156 site-nights open
- Cape FairTable Rock Lake · 27 mi · 2 of 94 site-nights open
- Mill Creek (Missouri)Table Rock Lake · 28 mi · 2 of 136 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:14 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
49 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 45 mapped sitesAll 49 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 45 of the 49 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 49 of the 49 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| Loop A | 001 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 123 ft | 1,020 ft | 2,263 ft | $25 |
| Loop A | 002 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 127 ft | 881 ft | 2,132 ft | $25 |
| Loop A | 003 | standard nonelectric | yes | 123 ft | 995 ft | 2,152 ft | $15 | |
| Loop A | 004 | standard nonelectric | yes | 150 ft | 940 ft | 2,004 ft | $15 | |
| Loop A | 005 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 127 ft | 806 ft | 2,006 ft | $25 |
| Loop A | 006 | standard nonelectric | yes | 108 ft | 833 ft | 1,854 ft | $15 | |
| Loop A | 007 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 141 ft | 706 ft | 1,872 ft | $25 |
| Loop A | 008 | standard nonelectric | yes | 80 ft | 845 ft | 1,753 ft | $15 | |
| Loop A | 009 | standard nonelectric | yes | 80 ft | 856 ft | 1,677 ft | $15 | |
| Loop A | 010 | standard nonelectric | yes | 179 ft | 648 ft | 1,564 ft | $15 | |
| Loop A | 011 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 97 ft | 638 ft | 1,390 ft | $25 |
| Loop A | 012 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 97 ft | 658 ft | 1,296 ft | $25 |
| Loop A | 013 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 96 ft | 859 ft | 1,241 ft | $25 |
| Loop A | 014 | standard nonelectric | yes | 141 ft | 780 ft | 1,158 ft | $15 | |
| Loop A | 015 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 96 ft | 909 ft | 1,147 ft | $25 |
| Loop A | 016 | standard nonelectric | yes | 145 ft | 915 ft | 1,018 ft | $15 | |
| Loop A | 017 | standard nonelectric | yes | 132 ft | 990 ft | 1,231 ft | $15 | |
| Loop A | 018 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 150 ft | 992 ft | 1,380 ft | $25 |
| Loop A | 019 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 176 ft | 824 ft | 1,444 ft | $25 |
| Loop B | 020 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 91 ft | 1,468 ft | 384 ft | $25 |
| Loop B | 021 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 91 ft | 1,388 ft | 406 ft | $25 |
| Loop B | 022 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 72 ft | 1,609 ft | 291 ft | $25 |
| Loop B | 023 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 72 ft | 1,551 ft | 276 ft | $25 |
| Loop B | 024 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 78 ft | 1,484 ft | 291 ft | $25 |
| Loop B | 025 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 87 ft | 1,712 ft | 219 ft | $25 |
| Loop B | 026 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 84 ft | 1,638 ft | 186 ft | $25 |
| Loop B | 027 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 84 ft | 1,567 ft | 192 ft | $25 |
| Loop B | 042 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 110 ft | 1,337 ft | 511 ft | $25 |
| Loop B | 043 | standard nonelectric | yes | 164 ft | 1,364 ft | 634 ft | $15 | |
| Loop C | 028 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 162 ft | 1,903 ft | 233 ft | $25 |
| Loop C | 029 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 93 ft | 2,048 ft | 397 ft | $25 |
| Loop C | 030 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 93 ft | 2,065 ft | 372 ft | $25 |
| Loop C | 031 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 115 ft | 2,174 ft | 528 ft | $25 |
| Loop C | 032 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 115 ft | 2,197 ft | 507 ft | $25 |
| Loop C | 033 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 71 ft | 2,306 ft | 668 ft | $25 |
| Loop C | 034 | standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 71 ft | 2,331 ft | 666 ft | $25 |
| Loop C | 035 | standard nonelectric | yes | 53 ft | 2,459 ft | 842 ft | $15 | |
| Loop C | 036 | standard nonelectric | yes | 53 ft | 2,481 ft | 837 ft | $15 | |
| Loop C | 037 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 94 ft | 2,514 ft | 924 ft | $15 | |
| Loop C | 038 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 109 ft | 2,581 ft | 917 ft | $15 | |
| Loop D | 039 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 74 ft | 2,639 ft | 402 ft | $15 | |
| Loop D | 040 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 71 ft | 2,590 ft | 393 ft | $15 | |
| Loop D | 041 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 71 ft | 2,526 ft | 368 ft | $15 | |
| Loop D | GP2 | group standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 385 ft | 2,149 ft | 246 ft | $75 |
| Loop E | GP1 | group standard electric | 50 amp | yes | 428 ft | 1,415 ft | 1,280 ft | $75 |
| S&P | Electric S&P | type not stated | 50 amp | yes | $15 | |||
| S&P | Non electric S&P | type not stated | 50 amp | yes | $15 | |||
| S&P | Non Electric S&P | type not stated | yes | $15 | ||||
| S&P | S&P Electric | type not stated | yes | $15 |
25 of 49 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Bar-K Wrangler CampMark Twain National Forest · 5.6 mi
River Run Park15 mi
Beaver Creek (MO)18 mi
Indian Point23 mi
Moonshine Beach Rec. Area23 mi
Aunts Creek25 miFrom Chadwick, Missouri, take Highway 125 south about 2 miles, then turn right onto Highway H and continue past Camp Ridge day-use area, turning right onto Lookout Road (the first portion of lookout road is paved - if you get to the gravel you have gone to far) to Cobb Ridge Recreation Area. Fom Forsyth, take H Highway north approximately 14 miles, turn left onto Lookout Road (the first portion of lookout road is paved - if you get to the gravel you have gone too far) to Cobb Ridge Recreation Area. The campground is approximately .5 miles on Lookout Road from H Highway.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Saddlebrooke, MO
Typical weather
Typical October night 40°F, day 68°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 20°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Cobb Ridge is in Missouri’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Eric Burlison (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyEric BurlisonU.S. Representative · Missouri’s 7th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationEric SchmittU.S. Senator · Missouri
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJosh HawleyU.S. Senator · Missouri
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Cobb Ridge, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri
Dear Eric Burlison, I’m a constituent in Missouri’s 7th district. I tried to camp at Cobb Ridge, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 45 of the 49 campsites the agency files at Cobb Ridge, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 28 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cobb Ridge keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cobb Ridge. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Cobb Ridge (Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Cobb Ridge, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri
Dear Eric Schmitt, I’m a constituent in Missouri. I tried to camp at Cobb Ridge, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 45 of the 49 campsites the agency files at Cobb Ridge, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 28 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cobb Ridge keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cobb Ridge. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Cobb Ridge (Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Cobb Ridge, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri
Dear Josh Hawley, I’m a constituent in Missouri. I tried to camp at Cobb Ridge, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 45 of the 49 campsites the agency files at Cobb Ridge, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 28 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cobb Ridge keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cobb Ridge. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Cobb Ridge (Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri) via campanac.com