Spillway Recreation Area
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 27 of the next 30 nights read 16:15 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Spillway Recreation Area's iconic outllet structure has delighted visitors to Wappapello Lake since 1937. Feeding the St. Francis River, the spillway banks are a favorite location for fisherman. A one lane boat ramp provides river access, the lower boat ramp area is also an ideal location for kayakers with easy bank access for launching. 11 picnic areas and 2 accessible picnic shelters are available for use year round. Each shelter has a large capacity grill, electricity, water fountains and water hydrants available, Shelter 4 has a large wood burning fireplace in the covered area. Keep reading
A 6 stall, accessible restroom is centrally located within the recreation area. A sand volleyball court, large playground, horseshoe pits, cornhole boards and a Lake View Trailhead offer recreational opportunities for all ages and interests. Click here to take a virtual tour of the facilities at Wappapello Lake!
Recreation
Boating and fishing are the most popular activities with largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill, white bass and channel catfish, among other species. Pine Ridge Natural Trail, a 3/4-mile double loop, starts at the Spillway Recreation Area and provides an excellent way to explore the beautiful woodlands.
Facilities
This day use area includes two large picnic shelters, 8 picnic sites, a volleyball court, playground, horseshoe pits and bank fishing.
Natural Features
Wappapello Lake has a seemingly endless string of secluded coves hugged by a winding, wooded shoreline. The public recreation area spans 45,000 acres in the southeastern Ozark foothills. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (573) 222-7500.
Nearby Attractions
The extensive 33-mile Ozark Trail, starts just south of Sam A. Baker State Park and winds along the west side of the St. Francis River and Wappapello Lake.
What the agency tells you
No overnight camping allowed
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.
Existing day use shelter reservations may be cancelled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers if the facility is closed due to flooding, elevated security threats, maintenance problems, etc. Reservations may also be cancelled when the reservation conflicts with large public special events that would negatively impact a private event at the shelter. For these reasons, customers should consider an alternate date or location in the event a closure is necessary. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provides free, family-oriented programs throughout the calendar year, for more information about scheduled events you can contact the management office at 573-222-7500 or on the Wappapello Lake Facebook page.
Attention All Recreation Users: If you would like to hold an event or wedding at any of the project’s day use shelters, boat ramps, or any recreation area please call or visit the USACE Wappapello Lake project office to obtain the special use or event permit REQUIRED. These permits are required if you are hosting: a large gathering greater than 50 people, fishing tournaments, 5k’s, weddings, use of a bounce house/water slide of any kind, ETC. Please note that if events are held that require, but do not possess a special use or special event permit may be subject to a WRITTEN CITATION. Per Title 36 CFR 327.21(a) If you are planning on hosting an event and it does not fall under these specific criteria, please contacting with the USACE Wappapello Lake Project Office at 1(573) 222-7500 or messaging us on our Facebook page.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 2 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE FLUSH TOILETS on 2 of 2 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…has a large capacity grill, electricity, water fountains and water hydrants available, Shelter 4 has a large…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Fishing
- Water access
Something open on 27 of the next 27 bookable nightsread 16:15 UTC
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.
OpenBookedNot reservable
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:15 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 records · the site map
All 2 records
| SPILLWAY REC | S04 | day use | 15 amp | yes | 275 ft | $50 |
| SPILLWAY REC | S06 | day use | 100 amp | 148 ft | $50 |
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.
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Redman Creek Recreation Area0.1 mi
Eagle Point Recreation Area0.7 mi
Peoples Creek1.5 mi
Snow Creek Campground5.2 mi
Greenville Recreation Area15 mi
Markham Springs18 miFrom St. Louis, Missouri: Take I-55 South to US Highway 67 South to State Highway D (located just South of Greenville, Missouri). Take State Highway D south for 20 miles to State Highway T. Cross Wappapello Dam and take the first left onto a paved road and watch for signs.
From Poplar Bluff, Missouri: Take US Highway 60 East to State Highway T North. Go North on State Highway T for 22 miles and watch for signs.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Puxico, MO
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 28°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
Spillway Recreation Area is in Missouri’s 8th congressional district. Its representative, Jason Smith (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 moneyJason SmithU.S. Representative · Missouri’s 8th 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 Spillway Recreation Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Jason Smith, I’m a constituent in Missouri’s 8th district. Spillway Recreation Area, 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 Spillway Recreation Area (Missouri) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Spillway Recreation Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Eric Schmitt, I’m a constituent in Missouri. Spillway Recreation Area, 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 Spillway Recreation Area (Missouri) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Spillway Recreation Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Josh Hawley, I’m a constituent in Missouri. Spillway Recreation Area, 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 Spillway Recreation Area (Missouri) via campanac.com