Float Camp Picnic Area
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- Season
- April 1 – October 1Open April 1 through October 1
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Float Camp Picnic Area is located only 150 feet from the cool waters of the crystal clear Current River. Visitors enjoy floating the river, fishing and hiking. A campground is only a half-mile away for those who want to stay longer than a day. Keep reading
Recreation
The swift-moving river allows for enjoyable float trips, as well as canoeing and great fishing. Swimming is also a popular pastime. Visitors enjoy horseshoe pits and volleyball courts, as well as hiking and other recreational opportunities nearby.
Facilities
The day-use picnic area offers an accessible group shelter that can accommodate up to 75 people. The site is equipped with electricity, tables and grills. Individual sites are available on a first come, first served basis. Accessible vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided.
Natural Features
The picnic area is nestled under a mature forest of hardwoods, which offers plentiful shade. It is adjacent to the Current River.
Nearby Attractions
Doniphan is four miles away and offers float trip outfitters, restaurants and lodging.
What the agency tells you
Drinking water is not availalbe at the campground
All vehicles are required to pay a day use fee, $5/vehicle, upon entering day use area.
Click here for more information on the Mark Twain National Forest.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
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.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…come, first served basis. Accessible vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…served basis. Accessible vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided. Natural Features…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Water sports
Nothing here to sleep in
The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| FLOA | 001 | day use | 15 amp | yes | 149 ft | 1,118 ft | $50 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Fourche Lake Recreation AreaMark Twain National Forest · 11 mi
Gooseneck Campground12 miGrubb Hollow CampgroundOzark National Scenic Riverways · 12 mi
Cedar Spring CampgroundOzark National Scenic Riverways · 13 mi
Clubhouse CampgroundOzark National Scenic Riverways · 18 miFrom Doniphan, Missouri, go 4.5 miles north on Highway Y. Go west on Forest Service Road 3210 for 0.5 miles to the recreation area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Doniphan, MO
Typical weather
Typical October night 45°F, day 72°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical April night 44°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Float Camp Picnic Area is in Missouri’s 8th congressional district. Its representative, Jason Smith (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
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- The member who votes the moneyJason SmithU.S. Representative · Missouri’s 8th 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Float Camp Picnic Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Jason Smith, I’m a constituent in Missouri’s 8th district. Float Camp Picnic Area, Missouri carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Float Camp Picnic Area (Missouri) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Float Camp Picnic Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Eric Schmitt, I’m a constituent in Missouri. Float Camp Picnic Area, Missouri carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Float Camp Picnic Area (Missouri) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Float Camp Picnic Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Josh Hawley, I’m a constituent in Missouri. Float Camp Picnic Area, Missouri carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Float Camp Picnic Area (Missouri) via campanac.com