John C. Briscoe Group Use
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 15:04 UTC
- Sites
- 6In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
The scenic John C. "Jack" Briscoe Group area, previously named the M.W. Boudreaux Group Area, is an ideal place for families and groups to explore and enjoy Mark Twain Lake. More than 2 million visitors travel to the Mark Twain lake region to enjoy the overall magnetism of the area, thanks in part to the author's beloved classics, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and sequel, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Recreation Fishing, boating and hunting are very popular at John C. Briscoe. Deer and turkey are common wildlife, and bass is the most popular catch in the lake. Keep reading
Facilities
The John C. "Jack" Briscoe Group Use Area includes the entire campground, excluding the picnic shelter. The campsites offer paved parking for RVs, a shaded area for tent campers and an open area for sporting activities. All sites have electric hookups.
Natural Features
Mark Twain lake is large reservoir fed by the waters of the Salt River in northern Missouri. A variety of recreation areas line the lake, in addition to Mark Twain State Park on the western edge of the lake.
Nearby Attractions
Beside the lake is the village of Florida, where Mark Twain was born. Twenty-five miles east is the town of Hannibal, where visitors can tour the author's boyhood home.
What the agency tells you
Firewood restrictions are in effect to prevent the spread of invasive insects and disease; http://dontmovefirewood.org/ Click here for more information
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Guests camping in the Briscoe Group Camp may use the dump station facilities located at either the Ray Behrens or Frank Russell Campgrounds for the disposal of RV wastewater.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 6 · 1 group
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River
- Night sky · 63rd darkest of 118 in MO
- Bortle 4
Nothing to book until it reopensread 15:04 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 11
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at John C. Briscoe Group Use closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 150 miles · 3
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Berryman CampgroundMark Twain National Forest · 114 mi
- Lane Spring Recreation AreaMark Twain National Forest · 120 mi · 21 sites
- Hazel Creek CampgroundMark Twain National Forest · 121 mi
recreation.gov availability, read 15:04 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
7 records · the site map
All 7 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 7 of the 7 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. 1 of the 7 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| GRUP | Group Campground | group standard electric | 60 ft | 20/30 amp | 361 ft | 283 ft | $30–$100 | |
| GRUP | GRP2 | type not stated | 60 ft | 15 amp | 363 ft | 338 ft | ||
| GRUP | GRP3 | type not stated | 60 ft | 15 amp | 390 ft | 435 ft | ||
| GRUP | GRP4 | type not stated | 50 ft | 15 amp | 328 ft | 515 ft | ||
| GRUP | GRP5 | type not stated | 50 ft | 15 amp | 397 ft | 433 ft | ||
| GRUP | GRP6 | type not stated | 50 ft | 15 amp | 457 ft | 364 ft | ||
| MB04 | GS1 | day use | 15 amp | yes | 343 ft | 112 ft | $30 |
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 · the phone number
Where it is
Ray Behrens0.9 mi
Frank Russell1.2 mi
John Spalding Rec Ar2.5 mi
Indian Creek (MO)4.9 mi
Bluffview (Mark Twain Lake)5.4 mi
Dry Fork Recreation AreaMark Twain National Forest · 57 miFrom Hannibal, MO, travel west on highway 36 for 17 miles, then continue south on Route J and head south 10 miles. From Perry, travel north on Rt. J for 9 miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Perry, MO
Typical weather
Typical October night 44°F, day 67°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
John C. Briscoe Group Use is in Missouri’s 6th congressional district. Its representative, Sam Graves (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →