Reviews of Big Spring National Park (Park)

Heather Ducote

Such a beautiful place to visit! The water is amazing, so blue and gorgeous. The spring is just a minute or two from the parking lot and you can see it from the car so it's nice for those who can't walk far. Once you get to the spring the trail gets rough with large stones and narrow walkways leading up into the woods over the spring and river. If you can do that part, it's a beautiful view. The main bridge was closed during my visit so we didn't really do anything else. The parking lot by the spring also has a playground. Up the road a bit is a restroom and some picnic tables.

Gwen P

I love this place. It is a hidden gem. If you're passing through Van Buren, you need to make time for this park. The spring is the prettiest shade of green and there is an easy to moderate trail around it. There are picnic tables scattered throughout so it makes a great rest stop. Add it to your list of "must see."

Samantha Brown

Such a beautiful place to visit. It's got a park with some swings and a slide for kids. There's several benches and picnic tables. There's a couple different trails you can walk. Good for visits alone or with family or friends. Also it is very common to see deer there early in the morning and later in the evening.

Kalee Silva

Great place for camping.

Donna Walton

Beautiful

Bill James

Beautiful area around spring. Campground is compact with shorter pads. Currently under renovation after 2017 floods. Not all amenities are available.

Cody Holland

My favorite park in the state

Justin Johnson

Go here often throughout the year. It is beautiful and peaceful. Never dirty. See a lot of wildlife around

81ealey

Great place to spend the day

Kenneth Thomas

The biggest spring in the state. Easy access, nice path to the spring. A must see!

Ginger Daniels

It is beautiful here

Brie Miller

Magical place.

Patty McGowan

Very cool place!

Amber Peters

Beautiful place!

Jacqueline Zettel

Super nice Place. The water was ok, i taste it. Mmh was cold and i don t get sick

David Thomsen

Beautiful!!!

Lisa Ham

Beautiful, peaceful park off the beaten path.

Mark T

Stopped to break up a long motorcycle ride. The springs are cool, but did not seem like much else was there. I did do a 1.8 mile hike that circled around and over the back of the springs and gave a few good views of the river as the leaves were still off.

Steven Capps

great place to check out water is cold

Carol Gomez

It was a beautiful place peaceful .It is a natural spring the water comes out of the ground there is caves it is a good place to visit

James Gee

Beautiful park.

Jen Champagne

Beautiful Area, Disappointing Campgrounds!! When driving in to the campgrounds, the surrounding area is beautiful and your hope is that you’ll be setting up a tent under the multitude of trees and vines. Nope, we pulled up to the campsites and they are practically open fields with no tree coverage, no shade and zero privacy! They are also very disconnected from the main attractions...not really within walking distance. I had high hopes, and they were all lost.

Rob ruebel

Beautiful

Kristi Epperson

Beautiful family friendly

Melanie Wood

Absolutely AMAZING

John Ruiz

Beautiful

Day Tripper

What a beautiful place! The springs beautiful aquamarine colored water and the story behind it is amazing ,the spring is surprisingly very loud, but tranquil.

Daniel Sigler

Beautiful and worth the time. Just wish there were more trails.

charlie wilson

Beautiful peaceful what more do you need to know

Richard Spradling

Been visiting here since 2008 with my father. Stayed in the cabins when they were open and still come back every year.

Cari Mounce

It's very beautiful place and quiet

May C

Just. Beautiful, worth the drive #

Carla Drollinger

Beautiful Spring. Very quiet and clean.

Kimberly Tipton

No swimming allowed. Cabins available to rent. Restrooms. Picnic tables. Benches. Trails to walk. Beautiful, clear, blue water.

Matt Conley

Great place to visit if your in the Van Buren, Missouri area. We come to the springs every year when we stay at The Landing. This park is a must visit. Well maintained and easy access for all ages and abilities.

Ethan McGue

Beautiful spring formed by water dissolving dolomite in the cliffs! Definitely check it out it if you're in the area!

Kevin Baker

Not many spring around like this one it's ice cold and Crystal clear.

Ashley Tubbs

Love the beautiful water

Arron W

Aqua blue water at 13,000 liters per second

Frank N Beans

A river comes roaring to the surface from underground....need I say more

Lindsey Spradlin

Loved it beautiful State Park if you get a chance go

Kasey Christ

Such a beautiful place I love going and tak .ukkng pictures with my kids and letting them play on the playground, I got there almost every weekend when we have time, thanks for keeping such a lovely place for my family to visit

Darriel Keeling

This Spring is a lovely place to visit. You won't be allowed to swim or wade in it but there are some easy walking trails in the surrounding area. Best part about it is that it's not a very crowded area, I was there on Labor Day and there were only 5/10 groups the whole time we were there.

Quen Thomas

Beautiful, peaceful, remote

KcCbdGuy

Absolutely breathtaking! The park was just beautiful and the deer were everywhere

Hannah C

We really enjoyed this place.

Kristi Austin

Absolutely beautiful

Rose Ann Fuller

Peaceful setting. Short paved walk. Beautiful colors, and nature sounds. What's not to love!

Douglas Koehn

You gotta see this if your going through Van Buren,its amazing

Mark Buxton

Place of natural beauty

B.C. Hill

Must see if in the area. I love it. You can park within 100 yards of the water output. Walk is flat with no effort. Very heavy water flow and loud. Relaxing and beautiful.

Brandie Elliott

Amazing place! The spring is lovely despite the flooding earlier this year. Truly magnificent...

Nikki Hill

This place is so beautiful and easy to get to.

Timothy McGarry

This place is amazing. I could not hardly believe it and it is beautiful. Worth seeing any chance you get.

scott reid

A fantastic must see place, very cool. We were here during the spring flooding and the spring was still great to see. Looking forward to seeing it in a few months.

Justine Gartner

Always beautiful! Be aware the bridge over the "river" is under construction. Just follow the detour sign and you will quickly be there.

Curt Lovan

When we first arrived at the camp ground we thought it was phenomenal. The facilities were fairly nice and the spring was beautiful. After a day on the water myself and my family along with 2 other groups of friends with children came back to our campsite to have dinner and relax by the campfire. After it was dark and all the children were tired and put to bed our friends and us continued sitting around the campfire talking when suddenly a park ranger appears from the darkness walking out of the forest and tells us that quiet time is 10 and we need to shut the radio off. After the Ranger walks off as mysteriously as he appeared into the darkness he headed in the direction of the campground host site and in a couple of minutes his ranger truck started and left as we set there we discussed that we believe the truck had pulled in several hours earlier and that he must have been sitting and watching us from the woods for several hours. And after all that we checked the rules and could not find any rule about having no radio at the campsite after 10 and as I said before we were not being loud the nearest campsite to us was over 200 yards away and I do not believe there is any way anyone could have heard us or bothered by it. In short we all felt harassed and maybe even a little violated knowing that someone was setting just out of sight listening and watching. After thinking about it all night I stopped at the Ranger Station to find out the name of the ranger on duty last night so that we could make a complaint about harassing us over a radio. The nice Ranger lady who answered the door and talk to us at first was very polite answer our questions and agreed with us and when we left she asked why we wanted to know his name and when we told her that we were going to make a complaint on Ranger "Pat Jackson" (he was the man watching us from the dark) came outside and told her. "I'll handle this" shut the door and became aggressive pointing his finger in my face telling me that I could go ahead and make a complaint if I wanted but this was his Park and he would do as he wanted in it and that we were lucky we were not ticketed for the radio offense. Keep in mind that we weren't a bunch of teenagers partying or causing problems I'm a disabled man missing one arm trying to take his four children to the river to have a good time for the weekend. I honestly felt threatened by his aggression when he came down the walkway pointing his finger in my face. After all that I would say our experiences at this particular Campground was extremely poor. That being said I still believe the majority of Park Rangers and park staff are decent people but this was not the case at this place.

Doneda Swenson

Beautiful

David Alfred

Awesome park with gorgeous scenery.

Cheryl Bednarek

Beautiful and Peaceful!

Matt Alvino

Amazing spring that is super accessible. Very blue, cool water. We started the Slough Trail from here and came upon a wood frame staircase that we decided to take. It was a happy accident because I think it was an unmarked but well laid, gravel trail that wrapped up above the spring and river. It was fairly strenuous due to a couple long, sharp inclines, but worth it. Got some great views of the valley below. We came out by one of the old stone cabins not far from the lodge/dining hall. Not sure why it's not marked in any way.

Mark Pace

Beautiful. The color of the water coming out and the pool against all the moss covered rocks is amazing

Adam Moritz

Clean HUGE park

Kathy Kunzman

Very nice! Interesting and easy to find.

David Maxwell

Beautiful place

Robbin Scuras

Beautiful!

LaDonna Kelly

Was closed

Margaret Cole

Great camping good fishing price right beautiful place to pinic.

Jimmy Vaughn

Love it

Jeffrey DeVore

Stunning spring, easy access, and it's free!

Lyn Jameson

I've been visiting Big Spring State Park for many years and have witnessed the decline of the park through the years, especially since the historic flood in 2017. The campground consists of 3 separate loops, one loop has electric and the other two offer primitive sites (no electric or water) The electric loop is quite small and the sites are very close together and seem to be situated in an odd way on some sites. Our site had the picnic table to the back side of our RV. During our last stay (Labor Day weekend 2018) the grass had not been mowed and stood a good 8-10 inches tall. I found this odd since it was a holiday weekend and park usage was expected to be high. The camp host was friendly, but you really didn't see him much despite having a campground across the road from our site. Fine with me except "quiet time" was not enforced and there were multiple kids carrying on, walking through others camp sites and riding bikes all into the night. I didn't mind too much since kids will be kids and you come to expect some noise when campsites or tight, particularly during a holiday weekend when park use is at it's peak. I'm sure others tired of the noise though. Since the flood in 2017 there are no flush toilets in any of the three campsite loops. Porta-Potties are provided in each loop but they didn't appear to be cleaned or emptied regularly. One was complete full. Yuk! As you can imagine, they drew flies and bugs. There is one shower house that survived the 2017 flood that does have flush toilets, however, it is old and dirty and quite far away from the three loop. So far, most people drove to the showers. The showers are hot as promised. My family didn't experience cold showers even during peak use. The shower temp is NOT adjustable and my husband reported super hot water on the men's side to the point it was uncomfortable so that can be problematic especially for the young ones. During our many visits I have yet to see anybody clean the shower house. An occasional power washing would be an improvement. The park used to have a restaurant and cabins but those were shut down a few years back for restoration. With the flood the restoration the project seems to be at a standstill. I wonder if they will ever be re-opened. Many picnic pavilions have been leveled by the floods and not rebuilt and the hiking trails were still closed during our stay The park has great potential. If they would update the showers, re-build the damage caused by the flood and convert the largest of the three loops (the most beautiful one) to electric sites it would be a park worth visiting. Our family has been meeting at this park for our family reunion for the past 52 years, otherwise I don't think I would return. There are too many other great state parks that have so much more to offer.

Joe DeFur

Our Family came to the area to canoe but current river was up so we stopped in to see this and we were so surprised to see how nice this place was. I highly recommend for families who like walking trails and seeing some of the most amazing things in this state.

Zaelin Swann

One of the largest springs in the world! So cool to see the water gush out of the ground!

John Adams

Great views. Great picnicking areas.

Racheal Johnson

Beautiful place. Great history. Must see.

Joy Martin

Beautiful place!

Chris Schuster

Excellent place....water is cold.. i would recommend bringing a picnic basket. Place is beautiful.

Leslie Brown747

Most beautiful place in the world

Jeri Teixeira

Love this spring I could sit and listen to the sounds all day. Very peaceful and clean!

DeAnne Goforth

Great adventure!

Míguel Acosta

A Day Hike to the Largest Spring in Missouri, was not disappointed. The volume of water this spring generate, is impressive. If you haven't been here yet, add it to you list of places to visit.

Thom Buras

20150508 - Arriving on a Friday and expecting somewhat of a crowd, I find this campground open but completely empty. Except for one couple at the spring, I believe that I am the only one here this weekend.

Todd Phillips

Excellent place clean rooms great bar an food

Travis Eggeman

If I hadn't seen it I never would have believed it was in Missouri.

Steve E. Taylor

The natural spring is so calming. There are so many deer wandering around with little fear of sightseers.

Christian Bankhead

Beautiful spring easily accessible for all.

Charles Ellis

Beautiful

Fred Moore

An amazing spring!

Craig Moore

Crazy cool! You should go

Frank Raimann

Big Springs was fun had a deer herd of its own camping this was on a Monday so it it was very slow had a lot of room to do what you wanted to do

Marti Ervin

We would give her 10 star's if they had it. She is a wonderful lady and very accommodating. Definitely the place to be in BIG Springs

Eduardo Crue

Awesome speechless

Cole Payne

This is a really nice park that's a great place to camp a couple nights or do a river float trip. The spring is really pretty and the area as a whole is very scenic.

Sherie Loverkamp

We were passing through Van Buren on our way to Branson and stopped off to see Big Spring. What an wonderful display of God's handiwork. Beautiful bubbling underwater spring and gorgeous rocks to climb on. A MUST SEE if you are in the area.

Miguel Juan Cultiva

Top 3 largest spring in the world, this place has a ton of color and wildlife. Small cave accessibility, trails, rivers, and of course the spring.

Richard Stone

What can I say? Other than Beautiful!

Willy Kristin

Beautiful

Jason Baker

We seem to have "sprung" a water leak mother earth!......

Jerry Faughn

Beautiful Park, picnic place!!

Stephanie Jenkins

Great place to float. Had a wonderful time there

Mindi Lamar

We stopped here for lunch and a short hike. The bridge was closed for repair so didn't go all the way across. The spring is beautiful and the trail is nice.

Andy Bennett

Beautiful!

Leslie Hedrick

Beautiful awesome place. Totally amazing. 288 million gallons daily. Just hard to imagine.

Amanda Cook

A beautiful place to visit! Wildlife everywhere and a great campground.

Jeff Sutton

Very Beautiful

Patricia Sievers

Beautiful, please Google for updated Park Info.

Thaddeus Holtsclaw

Beautiful place to visit.

Ana Rea

Beautiful place!

Linda Smith-Sepac

Beautiful!