Big Spring - Ozark National Scenic Riverways — Attraction in Poplar Bluff

I've been visiting Big Spring State Park for many years and have witnessed the decline of the park through the years, especially since the historic flood in 2017. The campground consists of 3 separate loops, one loop has electric and the other two offer primitive sites (no electric or water) The electric loop is quite small and the sites are very close together and seem to be situated in an odd way on some sites. Our site had the picnic table to the back side of our RV.

During our last stay (Labor Day weekend 2018) the grass had not been mowed and stood a good 8-10 inches tall. I found this odd since it was a holiday weekend and park usage was expected to be high. The camp host was friendly, but you really didn't see him much despite having a campground across the road from our site. Fine with me except "quiet time" was not enforced and there were multiple kids carrying on, walking through others camp sites and riding bikes all into the night. I didn't mind too much since kids will be kids and you come to expect some noise when campsites or tight, particularly during a holiday weekend when park use is at it's peak. I'm sure others tired of the noise though.

Since the flood in 2017 there are no flush toilets in any of the three campsite loops. Porta-Potties are provided in each loop but they didn't appear to be cleaned or emptied regularly. One was complete full. Yuk! As you can imagine, they drew flies and bugs. There is one shower house that survived the 2017 flood that does have flush toilets, however, it is old and dirty and quite far away from the three loop. So far, most people drove to the showers. The showers are hot as promised. My family didn't experience cold showers even during peak use. The shower temp is NOT adjustable and my husband reported super hot water on the men's side to the point it was uncomfortable so that can be problematic especially for the young ones. During our many visits I have yet to see anybody clean the shower house. An occasional power washing would be an improvement.

The park used to have a restaurant and cabins but those were shut down a few years back for restoration. With the flood the restoration the project seems to be at a standstill. I wonder if they will ever be re-opened.

Many picnic pavilions have been leveled by the floods and not rebuilt and the hiking trails were still closed during our stay

The park has great potential. If they would update the showers, re-build the damage caused by the flood and convert the largest of the three loops (the most beautiful one) to electric sites it would be a park worth visiting.

Our family has been meeting at this park for our family reunion for the past 52 years, otherwise I don't think I would return. There are too many other great state parks that have so much...

When we first arrived at the camp ground we thought it was phenomenal. The facilities were fairly nice and the spring was beautiful. After a day on the water myself and my family along with 2 other groups of friends with children came back to our campsite to have dinner and relax by the campfire. After it was dark and all the children were tired and put to bed our friends and us continued sitting around the campfire talking when suddenly a park ranger appears from the darkness walking out of the forest and tells us that quiet time is 10 and we need to shut the radio off. After the Ranger walks off as mysteriously as he appeared into the darkness he headed in the direction of the campground host site and in a couple of minutes his ranger truck started and left as we set there we discussed that we believe the truck had pulled in several hours earlier and that he must have been sitting and watching us from the woods for several hours. And after all that we checked the rules and could not find any rule about having no radio at the campsite after 10 and as I said before we were not being loud the nearest campsite to us was over 200 yards away and I do not believe there is any way anyone could have heard us or bothered by it. In short we all felt harassed and maybe even a little violated knowing that someone was setting just out of sight listening and watching. After thinking about it all night I stopped at the Ranger Station to find out the name of the ranger on duty last night so that we could make a complaint about harassing us over a radio. The nice Ranger lady who answered the door and talk to us at first was very polite answer our questions and agreed with us and when we left she asked why we wanted to know his name and when we told her that we were going to make a complaint on Ranger "Pat Jackson" (he was the man watching us from the dark) came outside and told her. "I'll handle this" shut the door and became aggressive pointing his finger in my face telling me that I could go ahead and make a complaint if I wanted but this was his Park and he would do as he wanted in it and that we were lucky we were not ticketed for the radio offense. Keep in mind that we weren't a bunch of teenagers partying or causing problems I'm a disabled man missing one arm trying to take his four children to the river to have a good time for the weekend. I honestly felt threatened by his aggression when he came down the walkway pointing his finger in my face. After all that I would say our experiences at this particular Campground was extremely poor. That being said I still believe the majority of Park Rangers and park staff are decent people but this was not the case...

The park deserves 5 stars. Its a beautiful place and an excellent park, however I was stopped and harrassed by the park rangers for absolutely nothing. He claimed that I went over the double yellow line but he did see the gofer in the road I was attempting not to hit. Then he claimed he was trying to warn me about the storm that was coming. Then he said he thought maybe we needed help. Long story short he kept asking me if I had marijuana in my vehicle with absolutely no reason to be doing so. There is a dispensary right by the entrance to the park and they are trying to bust people for pot when they bring it inside the park. Its legal in the state but illegal on federal property. He was looking for any reason he could come up with to search me and he never even had a reason to pull me over in the first place. Ultimately he had to let me go because I wasnt doing anything wrong but If you do smoke weed or whatever else dont bring it in the park because they are running a racket here and they will flag you without...