Overlook Park Shelters
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 · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Overlook Park is located to the east of the dam before Damsite Park’s entrance, and as the name suggests, has a great overlook of the lake and dam. These shelters are located south of the large parking lot. The Overlook Shelter #1 is located just below the entrance parking lot. This shelter has a playground and vault toilets nearby. Ther Overlook Shelter #2 is on the south side of the park at the end of the road. This shelter has a nearby playground. Keep reading
Recreation
Pomme de Terre Lake is popular among water skiers and anglers. A number of coves on the lake provide seclusion for ideal fishing conditions, regardless of power boating on other areas of the lake.
Facilities
The Overlook Shelter #1 has standing grills, 20-amp electrical outlets, and six picnic tables which can accommodate 36 people. The Overlook Shelter #2 has standing grills, 20-amp electrical outlets, and 11 picnic tables which can accommodate 66 people. Parking for the Overlook Shelter #1 is located just south of the shelter. Parking for the Overlook Shelter #2 is located just north of the shelter.
Natural Features
Pomme de Terre Lake is located in the rugged, tree-topped hills of the west-central Missouri Ozarks. The lake is long and winding with 7,790 surface acres and 113 miles of shoreline. Largemouth bass, crappie and white bass are common catches. Muskie is a popular and rare catch that draws many anglers to the region.
What the agency tells you
Shelter is reservable from 9:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. everyday from March 15th through October 31st.
All reservations must be made through the Recreation.gov website or app. Search for Recreation.gov on the Apple Store or Play Store to download the app for free. Reservations can also be made by calling the Recreation.gov reservation line at (877) 444-6777.
As of March 15th, 2027, cash and checks will no longer be accepted for shelter reservations. Recreation.gov and their reservation line will take credit and debit cards for payments.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Reservation tags will no longer be posted as of March 15th 2027. With current day reservations available, it is the user’s responsibility to check if a shelter is reserved.
Shelter reservations only include exclusive use to the shelter. All other amenities like playgrounds, ballfields, horseshoe pit, etc. are open to the public.
Extra picnic tables will not be authorized without a Special Use Permit. This permit must be filled out and approved at the Project Office with a $75 fee. The Special Use Permit must be approved seven days prior to shelter reservation.
Please wear a life jacket when participating in water activities.
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
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 2 campsite records
- Playground
- Yes
Nothing here to sleep in
The agency files 2 records here and marks every one of them 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 · 14
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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 records
All 2 records
| Overlook Shelters | Overlook Shelter #1 | day use | 15 amp | $20–$30 |
| Overlook Shelters | Overlook Shelter #2 | day use | 15 amp | $20–$30 |
The agency files 2 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
Lightfoot Landing2.5 miFrom Springfield, MO, take US 65 north for 60 miles to Preston, MO. Continue on Highway 54 west to Hermitage, MO., then take Highway 254/ 64 south to Carsons Corner and follow Highway 254 west toward the dam. The entrance to Overlook Park is on the south side of Highway 254.
The agency publishes this point for 6 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Hermitage, MO
Typical weather
Typical October night 45°F, day 70°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 22°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
Overlook Park Shelters is in Missouri’s 4th congressional district. Its representative, Mark Alford (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 moneyMark AlfordU.S. Representative · Missouri’s 4th 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 Overlook Park Shelters has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Mark Alford, I’m a constituent in Missouri’s 4th district. Overlook Park Shelters, Missouri carries 2 records 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 Overlook Park Shelters (Missouri) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Overlook Park Shelters has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Eric Schmitt, I’m a constituent in Missouri. Overlook Park Shelters, Missouri carries 2 records 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 Overlook Park Shelters (Missouri) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Overlook Park Shelters has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Josh Hawley, I’m a constituent in Missouri. Overlook Park Shelters, Missouri carries 2 records 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 Overlook Park Shelters (Missouri) via campanac.com