Ruark Bluff West
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 7564 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Ruark Bluff West 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 West offers 74 campsites, showers, a dump station and a boat ramp. Many of the sites have electric hookups. 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.
What the agency tells you
Campground check in time is 4:00 PM. Check out time is 4:00 PM.
Ruark Bluff West 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)
Customers may not call the park to make reservations
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Drinking water and electric hookups are available during the reservation season, Apr. 16 to Sept. 29
One RV and two tents or three tents per campsite
Park rangers and County Sheriffs Deputies routinely patrol this facility
Call the park (417-637-5279) 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
- 75 · 1 group
- Hookups
- 38 electric
- Longest rig
- 55 ft
- Paved pads
- 66 of 75
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- 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 · 69th darkest of 118 in MO
- Bortle 4
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 64 of the 75 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 18
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$30 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.
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
75 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 63 mapped sitesAll 75 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 64 of the 75 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| RUARK WEST | 01 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 77 ft | 214 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 02 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 66 ft | 179 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 03 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 171 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 04 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 68 ft | 142 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 05 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 94 ft | 174 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 06 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 94 ft | 263 ft | $20–$30 | |
| RUARK WEST | 07 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 93 ft | 171 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 08 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 84 ft | 236 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 09 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 118 ft | 128 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 10 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 88 ft | 69 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 11 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 118 ft | 98 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 12 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 44 ft | 151 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 13 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 77 ft | 66 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 14 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 44 ft | 147 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 15 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 77 ft | 67 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 16 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 69 ft | 128 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 17 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 92 ft | 42 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 18 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 69 ft | 128 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 19 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 88 ft | 44 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 20 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | $28 | |||
| RUARK WEST | 21 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 88 ft | 100 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 22 | type not stated | 35 ft | 30 amp | 199 ft | |||
| RUARK WEST | 23 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 73 ft | 120 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 24 | type not stated | 40 ft | 30 amp | 171 ft | |||
| RUARK WEST | 25 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 65 ft | 130 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 26 | type not stated | 45 ft | 30 amp | 155 ft | |||
| RUARK WEST | 27 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 65 ft | 75 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 28 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 47 ft | 82 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 29 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 47 ft | 107 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 30 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 57 ft | 146 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 31 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 77 ft | 165 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 32 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 77 ft | 222 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 33 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 50 ft | 213 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 34 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 50 ft | 203 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 35 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 77 ft | 273 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 36 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 84 ft | 311 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 37 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 77 ft | 322 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 38 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 96 ft | 396 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 39 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 95 ft | 269 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 40 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 82 ft | 281 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 41 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 72 ft | 199 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 42 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 78 ft | 282 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 43 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 70 ft | 194 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 44 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | yes | 68 ft | 342 ft | $28 |
| RUARK WEST | 45 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 63 ft | 266 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 46 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 63 ft | 274 ft | $28 | |
| RUARK WEST | 47 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 99 ft | 398 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 48 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 123 ft | 436 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 49 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 81 ft | 313 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 50 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 61 ft | 234 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 51 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 61 ft | 174 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 52 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 83 ft | 180 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 53 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 92 ft | 80 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 54 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 55 ft | 117 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 55 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 74 ft | 43 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 56 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 55 ft | 125 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 57 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 74 ft | 55 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 58 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 56 ft | 154 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 59 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 66 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 60 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 56 ft | 158 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 61 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 78 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 62 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 68 ft | 206 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 63 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 80 ft | 64 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 64 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 73 ft | 260 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 65 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 74 ft | 140 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 66 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 73 ft | 333 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| RUARK WEST | 66-A | type not stated | 35 ft | 308 ft | ||||
| RUARK WEST | 711-A | type not stated | 35 ft | 30 amp | 78 ft | |||
| RUARK WEST | 713-A | type not stated | 30 ft | 30 amp | 56 ft | |||
| RUARK WEST | 715-A | type not stated | 35 ft | 30 amp | 69 ft | |||
| RUARK WEST | 725-A | type not stated | 30 ft | 30 amp | 96 ft | |||
| RUARK WEST | 736-A | type not stated | 35 ft | 30 amp | 404 ft | |||
| RUARK WEST | 741-A | type not stated | 35 ft | 30 amp | 196 ft | |||
| RUARK WEST | 762-A | type not stated | 35 ft | 246 ft | ||||
| RUARK WEST | RUARK BLUFF GROUP CAMP | group standard electric | 30 amp | 3060 ft | 178 ft | $180 |
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 75 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Ruark Bluff East0.3 mi
Hawker Point5.8 mi
Cedar Ridge (MO)7.8 mi
Masters (MO)8.7 mi
Orleans Trail9.3 mi
Crabtree Cove10 miFrom Greenfield, Missouri, take State Highway H. north for 6.4 miles and turn left on 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 48°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 23°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 West 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 →