John Spalding Rec Ar
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:20 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Visitors at John Spalding are in the perfect location for recreation on Mark Twain Lake. The day-use area is the only facility within reach of the sandy public beach. It's also directly connected to the Joanna Trail, a 32-mile multi-purpose trail for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding. Tour the birthplace of world-famous humorist and writer, Mark Twain and explore the region that inspired his most beloved stories, such as "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." Recreation Swim and enjoy the beach all day, or take a boat out for water skiing and fishing. For hikers and bikers, the lengthy Joanna Trail lines the northern banks of the lake. Keep reading
Facilities
The day-use area is equipped with a swimming beach, showers and picnic shelters. Shelters have electric hookups.
Natural Features
The Salt River of north-central Missouri feeds Mark Twain Lake, the regions largest body of water, spanning 18,000 acres. A variety of recreation areas surround the lake, including the Mark Twain State Park.
Nearby Attractions
Visit Mark Twain's birthplace in Florida, Missouri or his boyhood home in Hannibal. The David C. Berti Shooting Range is below the dam and M.W. Boudreaux Visitor Center is above the dam.
What the agency tells you
No outside firewood; firewood can be purchased in campground; for more information click here
No alcohol allowed on beach or in lower picnic area
High water boat ramp open when when lake elevation is above 625 msl (mean sea level)
Everything else this campground posts · 1
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.
Facilities
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Biking
- Hiking
- Swimming
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:20 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 Spalding Rec Ar 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 · 117 mi
- Lane Spring Recreation AreaMark Twain National Forest · 122 mi · 21 sites
- Hazel Creek CampgroundMark Twain National Forest · 123 mi
recreation.gov availability, read 16:20 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
3 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 3 mapped sitesAll 3 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 3 of the 3 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| JOHN SPALDING REC AR | 1 | day use | 15 amp | yes | 631 ft | 437 ft | 174 ft | $30 |
| JOHN SPALDING REC AR | 2 | day use | 15 amp | yes | 543 ft | 496 ft | 474 ft | $30 |
| JOHN SPALDING REC AR | 3 | day use | 15 amp | yes | 543 ft | 268 ft | 673 ft | $30 |
The agency files 3 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Frank Russell1.4 mi
John C. Briscoe Group Use2.5 mi
Ray Behrens2.7 mi
Indian Creek (MO)4.1 mi
Bluffview (Mark Twain Lake)4.8 mi
Dry Fork Recreation AreaMark Twain National Forest · 59 miFrom Hannibal, MO, travel west on Highway 36 for 17 miles. Turn south on Route J, and travel 6 miles. Turn west on Oakland Drive and travel for 2 miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Monroe City, MO
Typical weather
Typical October night 45°F, day 66°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 18°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 Spalding Rec Ar 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 →