Paint Rock River Access
A Park Service river access at River Mile 33 on the Lower Current, at the end of County Road 626 north of Van Buren, with MDC's Paint Rock Unit around it and Gravel Spring a half mile downriver.
Log Yard Campground
A Park Service backcountry campground and year-round boat ramp at River Mile 37 on the Current River: six reservable sites, a vault toilet, and some of the darkest night skies in the park.
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At River Mile 37, where the Current River passes from the park's middle district into the Lower Current, Log Yard pairs a backcountry campground with a year-round boat ramp. The Park Service describes well-kept campsites on the bank here, large gravel bars and bluffs along the water, and night skies dark enough that it singles this campground out as one of the finest stargazing spots in the Riverways.
The campground is small and basic on purpose: six sites with fire rings, picnic tables, and lantern posts, a vault toilet, and no electricity or water. Boaters are the core crowd. The Park Service calls Log Yard most popular with boaters, and its ramp works for everything from a gigging boat in season to a canoe starting the float down to Van Buren.
Sites are reservable through Recreation.gov at the park's back-country rate of $10 a night, and the park charges no entrance fee. The brochure route in is the long way around, north from Van Buren to Ellington and then Highways 106 and HH to the end of HH, which is part of why the place stays quiet: by the time you get here, you have earned the dark.
Good to know before you go
- Fees
- Camping is $10 per night for a back-country campsite (National Park Service fee schedule, rates effective April 15, 2022; Recreation.gov lists Log Yard's standard sites at $10). No fee is charged for river access or day use, and no entrance pass is required anywhere in the park.
- Hours and seasons
- The campground is open year-round and its sites are reservable through Recreation.gov; the Park Service describes the boat ramp as year-round. Campground quiet hours are 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. park-wide (Superintendent's Compendium). River conditions and flood closures can change access; the Park Service posts Current River levels and closures.
- Parking
- Parking beside the campground: five standard spaces and one ADA space by the vault toilet (National Park Service project record). Brochure route: north from Van Buren on Highway D to Ellington, left on Highway 106 for 14 miles, then left on Highway HH and follow it 6 miles to its end.
- Accessibility
- One ADA parking space is documented beside the vault toilet in the Park Service's vault-toilet replacement project record; no broader accessibility statement is published for the campground.
- Nearest town
- Van Buren, Missouri
- Coordinates
- 37.10866, -91.12041
- Access type
- Boat ramp (year-round)
What you can do there
- 6 reservable backcountry campsites with fire rings, picnic tables, and lantern posts
- Vault toilet
- Year-round boat ramp on the Current River
- Large gravel bars and bluffs on the river at the campground
- No electricity and no water at the sites
- Some of the darkest night skies in the park, singled out by the Park Service for stargazing
Best for
Filed under
Nearby places
Chilton Creek Boat Ramp
The Park Service's trailered-boat ramp on the lower Current River, about twelve road miles north of Van Buren on Route M: motorized vessels only, no floater access, with overflow parking shared with the Pin Oak access.
Watercress Recreation Area
The Forest Service's in-town Current River access: a double-lane concrete boat launch, five picnic sites, and concrete stair entries down to a river beach, a half mile from downtown Van Buren.
Songbird Trail
A half-mile Forest Service loop inside Watercress Recreation Area: past Watercress Spring, up a hillside to Civil War earthworks overlooking the Current River, and by a small cave in a rocky bank.