Moonshine Beach Rec. Area
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Moonshine Beach Recreation Area is a very popular sandy swimming beach along the shores of Table Rock Lake. Unlike the smaller swimming areas at the campgrounds surrounding Table Rock Lake, Moonshine beach is spacious enough to make visitors forget they are actually on a lake and not at the ocean. Keep reading
Recreation
Whether on water or land, Moonshine Beach Recreation Area offers visitors countless recreational activities. Picnicking, swimming, scuba diving, boating, fishing, hiking and wildlife viewing are all popular pastimes at the park. Soaking up the sun and cooling off in the bright blue waters of Table Rock Lake are the most popular activities at Moonshine Beach. For visitors looking to spend some time exploring the shore, the adjacent Dewey Short Visitor Center offers a hiking trail leaving from the grounds. Table Rock Lakeshore Trail, about 2 miles long, runs from the Dewey Short Visitor Center to the Table Rock State Park Marina. During the spring hikers will see dogwood, serviceberry and redbud trees in bloom as well as many wildflower species. During the autumn months, visitors are treated to nature's colorful fall foliage. The trail also offers beautiful views of Table Rock Lake.
Facilities
Moonshine Beach Recreation Area offers a large group picnic shelter and can accommodate up to 75 guests. Moonshine Beach is the only sand swim beach at Table Rock Lake, and with the beach, boat ramp and picnic area all provided, it's the perfect destination for large parties or family functions.
Natural Features
Table Rock Lake is a beautiful body of water surrounded by a forest of oak and hickory trees. Its waters wind down through the valleys and hollows of the Ozark Mountains, from Branson, Missouri to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. More than five million visitors per year take advantage of this recreational oasis. Originally built for flood control, the Table Rock Dam has created a lake that boasts 779 miles of shoreline for the public to enjoy.
Nearby Attractions
The Dewey Short Visitor Center features interactive exhibits, great lake views, a film about the area and construction of Table Rock Dam. For more information please call 1-877-444-6777. The visitor center also contains exhibits about the natural history of the area. Those visitors arriving by boat can take advantage of the courtesy dock. Moonshine Beach Recreation Area is just outside of Branson, Missouri, which offers grocery stores, gas and additional tourist attractions.
What the agency tells you
Beach hours of operation, park is open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
No cash payment. Credit card/debit card only. Failure to pay day use fees, and or properly display applicable receipt, permit or pass is prohibited. All daily guests must pay a day-use fee and have day-use receipt properly displayed. Day passes may be purchased at the kiosk next to the booth.
All occupants entering beach area must remain in vehicle at all times, foot traffic is prohibited from entering beach area. Parking within the boat ramp parking lot for beach access is prohibited.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
No unauthorized vehicles are permitted (UTV, Golf Cart, Trailers, Etc.)
No pets allowed
No dumping of household trash, gray water, rubbish, black water or any other waste material or waste liquid. All waste generated must be disposed of at the dumpster or removed from the project lands.
Shower tents, changing tents, and latrines are prohibited.
Please be advised that providing business services within a USACE campground is prohibited per Title 327.18(a) The engaging in or solicitation of business on project lands or waters without the express written permission of the District Commander is prohibited. This includes services such as RV or tent delivery & set-up, firewood sales and delivery.
Please review the Title 36 brochure for complete rules and regulations. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-36/chapter-III/part-327
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach, Coast
- Biking
- Boating
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Visitor center
- 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 · 16
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.
| MOONSHINE BEACH REC AREA | Group Shelter (Pavilion) | day use | 15 amp | yes | 41 ft | 76 ft | $100 |
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
Indian Point2.6 mi
Old Highway 863.4 mi
Mill Creek (Missouri)7.4 mi
Cricket Creek8.6 mi
Aunts Creek9.5 mi
Baxter11 miFrom Branson, Missouri, take Highway 165 to Table Rock Dam. The park is just north of the dam.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Branson, MO
Typical weather
Typical October night 46°F, day 73°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 24°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 · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Moonshine Beach Rec. Area 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
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 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Moonshine Beach Rec. Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Eric Burlison, I’m a constituent in Missouri’s 7th district. Moonshine Beach Rec. Area, Missouri carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’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. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Moonshine Beach Rec. Area (Missouri) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Moonshine Beach Rec. Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Eric Schmitt, I’m a constituent in Missouri. Moonshine Beach Rec. Area, Missouri carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’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. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Moonshine Beach Rec. Area (Missouri) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Moonshine Beach Rec. Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Josh Hawley, I’m a constituent in Missouri. Moonshine Beach Rec. Area, Missouri carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’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. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Moonshine Beach Rec. Area (Missouri) via campanac.com