Weigand and Burbach campgrounds face the jetties on the Nebraska shore of Lewis and Clark Lake, below a bluff where the chalkstone runs gold along the Missouri valley. Motorhomes park in a row by the water under the tree line, slides out for the whole week, while the sun goes down over the marina. On summer nights there's a free movie by the Weigand shelter, and the rig is an easy stroll back after the credits.
Gavins Point Dam carries the road across from Yankton, and once you're over it you're in Nebraska, under Nebraska's park rules. Lewis and Clark State Recreation Area is Nebraska Game and Parks ground, with full hookup, electric plus, electric and basic camping and over 150 electric sites across the area. The state's reservation listing shows 30 and 50 amp service at both Weigand and Burbach, enough to keep the air conditioning on through a July afternoon, and the RV dump station is at Burbach.
Reserve the pad before the motorhome, because Nebraska holds 75 percent of Weigand and Burbach sites for reservations up to 180 days ahead and the rest are first come, paid at the Iron Ranger. A family that rolls in on a summer Friday without a booking is counting on that last quarter. Once the site is locked, rent the rig that fits it.
Yankton makes the day off the lake, back over the dam. Walk the Meridian Bridge above the Missouri, stop at the Lewis and Clark visitor center, pick up groceries, and be back on the shore before the bluffs light up again.
Across the water, the South Dakota shore has its own Lewis and Clark Recreation Area, with Chief White Crane and the Missouri National Recreational River below the dam. For two people in something smaller, those nights are on the Yankton campervan page, and the state's other rig trips, from the Black Hills to the Badlands, start on the South Dakota RV page.
Cottonwood Campground below Gavins Point Dam
Mature cottonwoods shade the pads at Cottonwood Campground, and the dam wall rises about 100 yards off. Close by, Lake Yankton's roughly 250 acres of calmer water suit a kayak or a slow afternoon when the big lake is churning. Yankton is a short run downriver and the Nebraska shore is back across the dam, so the rig stays put while the days go both directions.
The Cottonwood listing on Recreation.gov shows all 77 sites with electric, every one reservable, and an RV dump station just north of the campground off Toe Road. The Corps' Gavins Point recreation page puts that service at 20, 30 and 50 amp. Because every site books ahead, it's the pad to check when Weigand and Burbach are full.
Over on the Nebraska bank, the Corps' Nebraska Tailwaters Campground is the angler's pad, set on the river right below the dam with 31 electric sites at 20, 30 and 50 amp and 13 without hookups. For a night in town before the lake, Spring Water RV Village has spacious lots on West 8th Street, which is SD Highway 52, on the west side of Yankton.