#1 River Ridge Bridge High Ground
RV/tent site · Sleeps 25 · Vehicles under 18 ftFive miles off HWY 44 and HWY 109, at Eureka, MO, (30 minutes west of downtown St Louis, 18 minutes from Six Flags) this place sits on a ridge overlooking great views above the Meramec River. A century-old, abandoned, iron trapezoidal truss bridge is a beautiful feature aging in place above the confluence of Labarque Creek. The creek is just below the ridge and has sand and gravel beach with swimming holes, fishing, canoeing, or kayaking. All this is just a short walk, 500 feet or so, from my gravel driveway. One can drive down to the creek with a 4 wheel drive. We have a half-mile loop trail around the small property and just across the road is the Young Conservation Area and down the road 2 miles is Glassberg Conservation Area. This is a great base camp or picnic stop for a group floating downstream from Pacific Palisades Meramec River Access Ramp. Most people take out a mile and a half downstream at Allenton River Access Ramp (near Six Flags). We also have one bunny, 14 chickens, 3 goats, fresh eggs, a vegetable garden, honey bees, and blackberries in summer. Thousands of acres of adjacent parks, plus river access ramps for boats a few miles upstream or downstream. We can shuttle your kayaks or even lend you one of ours by request as an extra. You can camp up top on the ridge or driveway. Use toilet tent nearer campsites. You can camp down by the creek at site #2. If this site is booked, you may request that I open up site 3 for booking. I can shuttle your gear (coolers, tent, chairs) down there in my 4wd pickup truck upon request. In the spirit of full disclosure, one may hear the local road traffic from two-lane HWY FF which is just a few hundred feet from the campsite. It's not so bad. Hipcampers report they can tune it out and late at night it gets mostly quiet. The other disclosure is if we have had a lot of rain previous to your stay, the bottomland can be intolerably buggy and damp or even flooded in the bottomland. If mosquitos, flooding, or damp ground is ever a factor, full refunds are available even if you give it a try and decide to depart early. Otherwise, we see bald eagles, beavers, otters, hawks, great blue herons, bats (at night), and lots of other wildlife every day. Side note: We often block availability on weekdays, but if you don't mind an after 5 pm check-in, we may open up availability on a weekday such as a Friday night by request.