Riverfront Campground & Canoe — Hotel in Lebanon

We made a very recent trip to visit family @ River Front. The had booked a RV site as they had for many years for the weekend. We were invited for dinner. We arrive @ 6 pm. We can see our family waving at us front their RV site. We are stopped by individual getting out of a Dallas County Sheriff vehicle at the main entrance. He advises us to stop at the store, we will need a tag for our vehicle. Okay, no biggy. I go to " check in". I am NOT greeted, but instead two very young girls are chatting then realize they have a guest/ customer. I said Hi, I need a car tag, we are here to visit current guest. She says we do not sell day passes, in a typically gen Z attitude, mind you this is 6 pm. I said I am not after a day pass, just visiting friends we are not staying. She then asks, how many adults or children, I say two adults. She then punches buttons says that will be $22.00. Not realizing I had to pay that much, I said I will be back. We then called our family member currently staying at the campground. They are in shock.

When is it okay to enter a establishment and the " owners" want to hang out in the back drinking alcohol, watching there lilttle minions. I understand there are limitations, I understand certain individuals take advantage, but there are ways around that, vs. our tax dollars paying for a Dallas county sheriff officer / or whoever he was make sure people pay Misrepresentation of our police department and Sheriff's office.

There was a time in this area you had to get a tag for your vehicle so they knew who was on property for safety reasons and who needed to leave by a certain time etc.... I guess paying for security to monitor those situations is not cost effective for them, instead they seem to use citizens tax dollars with local law enforcement, buddy system. It's wrong. If we had planned to use amenities, completey get it. We arrived at 6 pm and left @ 9 pm.

We will...

After making my reservations, for float & cabin, and paying in full; I emailed them about a simple question I had in regard to the cabin. Email reply stated I had no cabin reservations. I called them and was put on a lengthy hold. I called a second time and spoke with a different person who confirmed all my reservations AND confirmed my reservations were paid in full. I was told “everything is paid for so you won’t need to worry about that at check in”.

UPON CHECK IN THERE IS AN ADDITIONAL CASH FEE (even with a zero dollar balance). Neither gal at the desk was able to communicate why I had to pay additional funds to check in. Be aware of this and be prepared!

The cabin we reserved: “Stillwater #5, Oasis” is near NO WATER, there is NO WATER FEATURES AT THIS CABIN. There IS poison ivy! The neighbors to the left of the cabin spent the first evening of our stay in a very loud verbal altercation. The dogs loved rolling around in the poison ivy and eating the prior tenants food left on the floor in the closets and BBQ leftovers strewn about the yard. The smart tv has apps that are locked to some child’s account, ‘Kaden’, you cannot access anything other than PG programming.

We asked to fish at the other cabins directly across the street (Stillwater 1-4) and were told to drive back to the river to fish instead. At the river, fishing was discouraged by the UTV riders driving into the river and apparently they also do not allow lanterns nor flashlights at the river (9p).

A local threw a ceramic mug full of coffee at one of my vehicles right before the entrance to the camp. I lost an entire suntea pitcher.

The stars were beautiful.

The river is cold and clean.

The bus ride with Bert was great.

The pool and hot tub...

We stayed in the Little Niangua cabin which had comfortable beds and everything we needed kitchen-wise. It is sandwiched between another cabin and a campsite so there wasn't any sense of privacy outside the cabin. We got boxed in because the neighbors did not keep the pull thru roadway clear. I had to interrupt them to ask them to move a vehicle so we could get out. That was a little strange. It was my first time staying at a private campground so I was going by the reviews and pictures online. We paid for shuttle service for our kayaks and they forgot to bring them (and a canoe for another couple) so we had to wait for them to bring them over delaying our start. Our time on the river was just okay. There is a place with two downed trees so plan for a small portage. I learned after the fact that it was a known hazard. I would have been good to know about that ahead of time. There were several strainers that were easy to avoid in a kayak but I'm not sure it would be so easy in a tube or raft. The beach areas are small but pleasant and the water was great. The shower house was clean and the hot water was actually hot. The campground in general lacks trees. There are many large fields and gravel roads for camping but limited shade. Porta-John's dot the landscape so there is usually a toilet nearby. I would not say it is a place to go to enjoy nature. It is a decent home base if you're planning to spend the day on the river or at Bennet Springs. I would not recommend the float from Moon Valley to Riverfront. People did not follow basic safety rules, and the river was super slow. Locals said that floats lower down the...