Meramec State Park

Love it here, been coming since I was a kid. Lots of good river access. Nice RV/​Camping, & Cabin rental available. Plentiful trails for hiking and a few caves that you can enter. Visitors Center is a little outdated but still interesting for someone not from the area.

My favorite place to camp. Even though the camping just reopened after high water the sites are clean and the river open for camping again. Have my site reserved for the entire weekend. Waiting on family and friends to show up tomorrow.

Meramec State Park is one of Missouri’s 4 trout parks. And while trout parks are one of Missouri’s outdoor crown jewels, this is the trout park I like the least. And it has nothing to do with the park or the amenities, it’s the people that frequent it. I’ve run into some of the rudest individuals here, and had floats on the Meramec River almost ruined by the drunken frat boy attitudes I’ve encountered.
If you can get past the rude and clueless visitors the park has many things to warrant the drive to it. It has a trout hatchery, plenty of stream access for fishing, and the park has caves that are sometimes open to the public. It’s also a good starting point for a float trip, but due to what I mentioned earlier I won’t float the Meramec again. There’s also trails and camping but again be aware that depending on where you camp, being around a bunch of 18 to 24 year olds with coolers of beer does not bode well for anyone around having a good camping experience.
As much as I want to be excited about this place, I just don’t like it. 3 Stars is the best I can give it.

Something you might not know about me: I freaking love to camp. Growing up, my parents took us camping probably 10 – 15 times a summer, and it’s just in my blood. There’s nothing like being somewhere beautiful in the middle of the woods and having no cell phone reception — especially these days.
Meramec State Park is a GREAT place to go camping. We used to go to Meramec Caverns all the time but honestly, that place has gotten pretty rough and it feels kind of dirty. MSP is a very good alternative, and it’s a lot bigger than I thought. This being prime camping season, it’s very busy so you should call to reserve your spot at least a couple of weeks ahead.
This park is very clean and has plenty of space, and also has a camp store (which I love. You can find many useful items in there and also many weird ones, which is even better.) Don’t worry about bringing your own firewood unless you want to because they sell bundles for pretty cheap. What’s even better is if you forget something (or if you’re like my family and you run out of booze), there’s a Wal-​Mart in Sullivan just ten minutes away from the campground. As much as I hate Wal-​Mart, it can come in handy if you need more food, or a jacket, or some spiced rum…
The park patrol people take their job seriously and can be a little rude, hence the docking of a star. We had a huge screen set up and watched movies during the night, and they absolutely hated us even though quiet hours didn’t start until 10pm. Guess who was back at 9:59pm on the dot? Park patrol. We were going to turn it off anyway but they were just flat out annoying and mean.
I’d definitely go back here and I think I am in late October. As Will Ferrell as Robert Goulet would say, «Naaaaaaaature! Goulet.»

great place to relax with friend. BBQ, Beach, etc. Water was high but bugs were not. It takes less than an hour to travel from St. Louis and once your there, your can forget about what you left behind. The only complaint was that there were no trash cans so we had to put all of our trash in our trucks till we got somewhere where we could through everything away.