We had a very different experience at Cuiver River State Park. I'd like to start by saying that I love the State of Missouri Campgrounds. But, this particular instance I fell out of love and may not go back to this one. We usually make reservations for holiday weekends. But this time we forgot and at the last minute just a week before Memorial Day made reservations for Cuiver River, but we did make reservations. There were five campsites open in the State of Missouri when we reserved. We chose this one because it was the only one available with a handicap space as my mother-in-law was going with us and was nearest to home, in case we had problems with our new camper. When we reserved, we knew it was in the equestrian campground. But no where in the state rules or on the site did it say, you could not stay there if you didn't have horses. We would have never booked it if there was something available elsewhere, but there wasn't. When we got there, the campground hosts refused us our space because we didn't have horses. We are two hours from home WITH a reservation and were being refused. We were mad, to say the least. My husband ended up having the hosts, go through the chain of command. The next guy up the chain, the park ranger, said nope, no horses, no stay. They ended up calling the head guy of the state who told them, you can't do that. No where do we say that you HAVE to have horses and these people have a space reserved, give it to them. So, we stayed and the hosts apologized, but it didn't make for a wonderful start to the weekend. The thing I noticed though, the entire weekend, one half of the campers in the equestrian campground did not have horses, it wasn't just us. The ones who did have horses camping near us, when we told them the story said the handicap site is never taken unless the campground is full. It was just an aggravating situation. And with our lesson learned, we now make our reservations earlier. Cuiver River equestrian campsites and bathrooms were clean. We didn't use the showers as we have a self-contained unit. The area is beautiful. It rained and stormed while we were there and we got great images of orange sky rainbows as it was clearing off. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.

Very nice campground. We stayed in the full hookup area, but even those aren't too packed together like many full hookup areas are. The electric only sites are really spread out and private. Cuivre River is a big park with a nice lake (including swimming beach), lots of hiking and equestrian trails. The Visitors Center has excellent information on the history of area as well as displays on the plant and animal life in the park. Some of structures in the park date back to the Civilian Conservation Corps days, and are well preserved an interesting to see. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.

Very nice campground. One of the few Missouri State Parks that have full hookup. 30 full hookup sites are available in a section of campground all to itself. Nice setting with the center of the full hookup camp area being very open and grassy, an excellent place for children, as well as adults, to play yard games without disturbing campers. Roadways are mostly level once in the camping area and great for biking, skating and scootering. Easy accessible dump station as well. Only one shower/bath house but seems to be able to handle the entire campground without a problem. Other restrooms, including a vault toilet are available. The restrooms are very clean, and cleaned twice daily during the busy season. There is access to a small lake with a swimming beach and also boat launch; fishing is also an option. You can see Cuivre River from afar from some of the bordering basic campsites. A new playground was put in last year in a convenient area to most campsites. A lovely drive back through the park to the campground, however a word of caution--the road is curvy and very steep in some places and can make towing a challenge the first time or so. The park is about 15 minutes from grocery stores and fast food if wanted. One campground host has become a permanent fixture there and can be credited for keeping the park as nice as it is. A very family friendly, safe environment for all. We always enjoy camping here. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.