Ruark Bluff East
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:06 UTC
- A night
- $10–$20Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 9083 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Ruark Bluff East Campground is a shady campground located on Stockton Lake in the scenic Ozark Mountains of southwestern Missouri. The lake and surrounding landscape offer countless recreational opportunities along its nearly 300 miles of shoreline, providing visitors with many ways to explore one of the most sought-after natural areas in the state. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating is always a popular pastime at the lake. Sail boating is especially popular and the lake hosts several races each year. The facility provides a boat ramp for easy access to the water. The waters of Stockton Lake are home to several species of fish including small and largemouth bass, crappie, white bass, walleye, catfish and sunfish, making it an ideal area for anglers. Several trails wind around the lake shore and through the landscape. The Stockton Lake Equestrian Trail continues approximately 15 miles between Hawker Point and Orleans Trail Campgrounds.
Facilities
Ruark Bluff East offers 91 campsites, two shower houses, a dump station, an accessible fishing dock and picnic area. Families also enjoy using the facility's swimming beach and playground. A boat ramp and beach are conveniently located just outside the entrance to Ruark Bluff East and West parks.
Natural Features
The land surrounding the lake contains hundreds of acres of native prairie grasses, rolling hills and thick forests that turn crimson in autumn. An abundance of wildlife lives both in and around the water, including wild turkey, great blue heron, deer and bald eagles. Visitors can learn about the lake's bald eagles by attending an annual eagle-watching event during the winter.
Nearby Attractions
Several full service marinas are located around the lake, offering groceries, gas, tackle and more.
Charges & Cancellations
There is a $10 cancellation fee for all reservations. A $10 fee is also applied when changing reservation dates. If you would like to modify your reservation during the original dates, you can do so for no additional fee.
What the agency tells you
Campground check in time is 4:00 PM. Check out time is 4:00 PM
Day Use Group Shelter reservations are valid from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM per reservation.
Ruark Bluff East is a campground facility. Campground for overnight stays only - day use prohibited. Reservations are subject to cancellation and removal from the park without valid camping unit (ie: tent, rv, etc)
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Customers may not call the park to make reservations
The campground is open year-round
Drinking water (community fill-up) and electric hookups are available during the reservation season, April 16 to September 30
One RV and two tents or three tents per campsite
Park Rangers and County Sheriff's Deputies routinely patrol this facility
Call the park (417-637-5303) or project office (417-276-3113) 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.
Shoulder Seasons run from (15 March-15 April) & (1 October-30 November) amenities are reduced
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 90 · 13 walk-in, 2 group
- Hookups
- 30 electric
- Longest rig
- 80 ft
- Paved pads
- 17 of 90
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 26 of 91 campsite records
- Showers
- Seasonal Showers
- SHOWERS (SEASONAL) on 26 of 91 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 26 of 91 campsite records, WATER (SEASONAL) on 10 of 91 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 70th darkest of 118 in MO
- Bortle 4
50 of 79 sites open on Sat, Oct 17read 15:06 UTC
recreation.gov lists 83 of the 90 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBooked
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 · 17
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $10–$20 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“There is a $10 cancellation fee for all reservations. A $10 fee is also applied when changing reservation dates.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:06 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
91 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 67 mapped sitesAll 91 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 67 of the 91 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Beach | Day Use Group Shelter | day use | ||||||
| EAST | A01 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $10 | ||||
| EAST | A02 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 56 ft | 71 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A03 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 41 ft | 72 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A04 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 41 ft | 73 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A05 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 85 ft | 148 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A06 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 43 ft | 64 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A07 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 39 ft | 67 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A08 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 39 ft | 80 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A09 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 48 ft | 93 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A10 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $10 | ||||
| EAST | A11 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 76 ft | 175 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A12 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 64 ft | 126 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A13 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 76 ft | 238 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A14 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 64 ft | 182 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A15 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | $10 | ||||
| EAST | A16 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 64 ft | 163 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A17 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 93 ft | 145 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A18 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 93 ft | 238 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A19 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 104 ft | 225 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A20 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $10 | ||||
| EAST | A21 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 206 ft | 137 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A22 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 83 ft | 241 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A23 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 83 ft | 167 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A24 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 60 ft | 366 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A25 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $10 | ||||
| EAST | A26 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 60 ft | 333 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A27 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 178 ft | 163 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A28 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 178 ft | 138 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A29 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 88 ft | 133 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A30 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | $10 | ||||
| EAST | A31 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 41 ft | 122 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A32 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 36 ft | 125 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A33 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 36 ft | 105 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A34 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 68 ft | 182 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A35 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $10 | ||||
| EAST | A36 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 111 ft | 531 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | A37 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 111 ft | 618 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | B01 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | yes | 83 ft | 260 ftStockton Lake | $20 |
| EAST | B02 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 74 ft | 225 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B03 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | 96 ft | 278 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B04 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 74 ft | 187 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B05 | standard electric | 80 ft | 30 amp | $20 | |||
| EAST | B06 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 30 ft | under 10 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B07 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | 30 ft | 13 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B08 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | 61 ft | 42 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B09 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | 76 ft | 83 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B10 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | $20 | |||
| EAST | B11 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | 36 ft | 103 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B12 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 36 ft | 132 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B13 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | 57 ft | 148 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B21 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 286 ft | 367 ftStockton Lake | $10 | ||
| EAST | B22 | group standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 286 ft | 552 ftStockton Lake | |||
| EAST | B23 | type not stated | 35 ft | 573 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | B24 | type not stated | 50 ft | 597 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | B25 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | $20 | |||
| EAST | B26 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 462 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B27 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 379 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B28 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 426 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B29 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 61 ft | 353 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B30 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | $20 | |||
| EAST | B31 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 61 ft | 322 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B32 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 372 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B33 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 61 ft | 303 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B34 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 345 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B35 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | $20 | |||
| EAST | B36 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 326 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B37 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 97 ft | 161 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B38 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 325 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B39 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 97 ft | 237 ftStockton Lake | $20 | |
| EAST | B40 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | $20 | |||
| EAST | B41 | type not stated | 45 ft | 30 amp | 283 ftStockton Lake | |||
| EAST | B42 | type not stated | 45 ft | 30 amp | 303 ftStockton Lake | |||
| EAST | B43 | type not stated | 50 ft | 30 amp | 340 ftStockton Lake | |||
| EAST | B44 | type not stated | 50 ft | 30 amp | 359 ftStockton Lake | |||
| EAST | B45 | type not stated | 45 ft | |||||
| EAST | B46 | type not stated | 55 ft | 561 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | T01 | walk to | 56 ft | 106 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | T02 | walk to | 38 ft | 73 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | T03 | walk to | 38 ft | 62 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | T04 | walk to | 92 ft | 53 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | T05 | walk to | ||||||
| EAST | T06 | walk to | 92 ft | 11 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | T14 | walk to | 78 ft | 110 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | T15 | walk to | 47 ft | 130 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | T16 | walk to | 24 ft | 150 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | T17 | walk to | 24 ft | 152 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | T18 | walk to | 46 ft | 141 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | T19 | walk to | 46 ft | 155 ftStockton Lake | ||||
| EAST | T20 | walk to | ||||||
| MUTT | Mutton Creek Group Camp | group standard electric | 30 amp | 6471 ft | 458 ftStockton Lake |
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.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 91 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Ruark Bluff West0.3 mi
Hawker Point6.0 mi
Cedar Ridge (MO)7.7 mi
Masters (MO)8.7 mi
Orleans Trail9.5 mi
Crabtree Cove11 miFrom Greenfield, Missouri, take State Highway H. north for 6.4 miles and turn right onto the park access road. Follow signs into the park area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Arcola, MO
Typical weather
Typical October night 46°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
Who answers for this land
Ruark Bluff East 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 →