FREE CAMPSITE - Vandalia Lake - Farber, MO

Free Campsite- Vandalia Lake

If there’s one thing that we’ve learned over the past year, it’s that sometimes the best campsites are the unexpected ones!

While driving through central Missouri, we decided, once again, to try and find a free campsite. We didn’t just find a free campsite, we found an entire free campground!

Location

The GPS coordinates for the exact spot that we stayed are 39.234864, -91.535721 . Click here to open in Google Maps.

This free campground is about 2 hours Northeast of Lake of the Ozarks State Park, which is where we camped the night before.

You are allowed to stay here for up to 14 days, FREE OF CHARGE! See more info on this Missouri Department of Conservation website.

Getting There

The road you will take to get to this area is Audrain Rd 524. The road is gravel for the last few miles, so be prepared to get a little dust on your rig!

There is a sign on that road that indicates where to turn into the Vandalia Lake Conservation Area.

vandalia lake sign — This is the sign that directs you into the campground.

From there, simply follow the road in to see the campsites that have gravel driveways and are moderately level.

This photo (courtesy of Google Maps) shows the layout of the campground.

Amenities

Being a free campground, we had our expectations low for any additional benefits, other than a free place to park. There are no electric, water, or sewer hookups here.

This is the sign with the rules for camping.

There are, however, several perks to camping here. First of all, there is a toilet building with clean pit toilets, that looks to be brand new.

Each campsite has a fire ring and picnic table.

Another bonus was the dumpster that was available, as getting rid of garbage is sometimes a hassle when boondocking.

Lastly, there is a nice picnic shelter, and a boat launch!

Our AT&T hotspot had 2 bars of service here.

Our Experience

We camped here for 1 night in March. It was a little windy and chilly, but the sun was out, which made it tolerable to be outside.

Just like the night before at Lake of the Ozarks State Park, we were the only ones camping here! It was nice to see a sheriffs deputy drive by on two different occasions, ensuring that the park is safe.