Every morning of a float week on the Jacks Fork begins at an outfitter landing in the Missouri Ozarks, canoes stacked on the racks, a line of tubes running down to the water, and a shuttle loading paddles for the put-in. By midafternoon the same boats come up onto a gravel bar at the takeout in Eminence, everyone sunburned and soaked and still arguing about who tipped the canoe. The shuttle drops you back at the campground, where the motorhome hasn't moved since you arrived and the air has been running all day.
A rig earns its keep on that rhythm. You set up once at a campground on the river with full hookups, float a different stretch each day, and give one night midweek to Alley Spring, the Park Service campground west of town. Groups who'd rather wake up in a state park can base the whole week at Echo Bluff instead.
Circle B and the Jacks Fork floats
Circle B Campground is right on the Jacks Fork in Eminence, and it's the base the whole week hangs on. Its RV sites have 30/50-amp electric, water and sewer on a concrete pad, with a dump station, coin laundry and shower house on the grounds, so nobody is rationing the fresh tank after a day in the river. Reserve the site first and choose the rig second. If Circle B is full, Eminence Cottages and Camp has pull-through sites with sewer, water and electric up on a hilltop in town.
Float days start wherever the outfitter drops you. The popular put-ins include the Highway 17 bridge, Rymers and Bay Creek, which is enough new water for most of a week, and the park's authorized outfitters run the shuttles between them. Harvey's Alley Spring, the oldest outfitter on the Jacks Fork, picks up and drops off free at local campgrounds as of October 2026, which means the motorhome stays plugged in from the first night to the last.
A night at Alley Spring
Midweek, move the rig west to Alley Spring for one night. Alley Mill stands beside the campground, and once the day crowd clears out it makes an easy evening walk with the kids. Alley Spring is the largest campground in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways and it's often packed in summer, so this is the night to book before anything else, the rental included.
The campground has electric sites and a dump station, which keeps the air on overnight and empties the tanks before you head back to Circle B. Wake up there and you're already at the put-in for Alley Spring to Eminence, the most popular summer float on the Jacks Fork at about four hours, and the outfitter brings you back to the rig at the end of it.
The Riverways also make a lighter trip that keeps moving and takes in Johnson's Shut-Ins, and that one runs as a campervan route out of St. Louis. If it's just two of you heading on to Montauk, Bennett Spring and Roaring River, a smaller rig suits that run, and the Missouri campervan trips string those parks together.
Echo Bluff State Park and the Timbuktu Campground
The bluff that gives Echo Bluff State Park its name stands over the Timbuktu Campground, and the campground below is the state-park way to run the same week. Timbuktu has walk-in basic sites, electric and water sites, and full sewer, electric and water sites, with 50-amp service available and reservations up to 12 months ahead as of October 2026. A summer sewer site is worth booking the day the dates are set.
On float days you drive out to an outfitter and come back to the same pad at night, which suits a group that wants a state park around them when the river's done. For a week on Lake of the Ozarks or at Branson by rig, the Missouri RV trips cover the rest of the state.