Murphys Meadow

We stayed two nights in a 30 foot travel trailer. An absolutely amazing place! Just fabulous. Full hook up sites on concrete pads with lake views for only $14. If you have an America the Beautiful pass you get 25% off, so the cost is only $10.50. Payment is by iron ranger so bring exact change cash. We stopped here in late June just to recon the place. There were only two rigs here then. Now there are five, counting ours. Lots of wildlife to see and beautifully manicured grounds. The bathrooms and showers are old but usable. The laundry facility was completely covered in insect life and spider webs and looks like it hasn't been used in many months. Very quiet all day and a ghost town after 5 PM when the base workers go home. This place is a hidden gem.

GOOD: Location! We were transitioning from Dallas to Springfield, MO. Very quiet campground with warm showers and a large laundry room. PX was open and well stocked. Beautiful setting on the lake. BAD: Water was turned off at the site. No one was available in the office. All of the toilets in the women’s bathroom were broken/leaking. Large sheets of paint were falling from the ceiling in the men’s bathroom. There were no dumpsters available for trash disposal. UGLY: In the morning, the bathrooms seemed to be a regular stop for every other employee on base! Steady stream of vehicles coming in to do their morning paperwork. OVERALL: This campground has great potential but has been neglected for a while. It needs some $ and some love!

When you arrive by way of SR 69, be sure to take the road to the right designated as the "Truck Entrance". You will have much difficulty navigating the multi-lane auto entrance. We were told to proceed about 1 1/2 miles and turn in at the sign "Murphy's Meadow". No sign either direction. We should have turned one street before the large headquarters building. Instead, we wound around the narrow housing area until we could turn around. Maybe they'll put up a sign soon. There are now 17 RV sites on concrete, each with cement conglomerate tables and b-b-que grills. In spite of what the text says, there are 6 W/50a/sewer and 6 W/50a/no sewer. There are 2 with W/30a/sewer, and 3 with W/30a/no sewer. There are NO grass sites available, but it may be possible to pitch a tent at some places around the lake edge. The price is still 12$ for any RV site, but 25% off for Golden Age, with came to $10.50 a night. We drove around the cabin area, and they are really, really nice looking, large duplex cabins if that's your thing. On our first late afternoon stroll around the site area, we saw 5 deer and one tiny fawn, a gaggle of Canadian geese, 5 wild turkeys, a turtle, a racoon, red squirrels, an egret and a blue heron. Of course plenty of the normal life of robins, fly catchers, crows. We found the laundry to be pretty clean, but the restrooms and the separate shower building were not very clean. Bugs and spiders that haven't been swept out since the end of last years deer hunter invasion. The facilities are nice, just ill-kept. There is a large brick bar-b-que and several nice sized shelters with tables. The campground was vacant the first day (Thursday), but on Friday a trailer came in. Our last day will be tomorrow, a Saturday which might bring in more people. It's very quiet here and an abundance of huge shade trees. The trees could be problematic for high rigs since they are not well trimmed. I had to lop off a pine limb that was touching my RV. Several sites here I simply couldn't have used at all because of the limbs. The lake is really full right now, and there is a catch and release program, though we saw nobody fishing. Overall experience was pleasant. I have photos to attach of each site and some of the facilities. Maybe I can figure out how to do that! If this camp is on our route, we would come back.

E.K. left this review using the Directory software: - Passing thru and stopped for the night. There is no camp host, but security personnel drove thru campground several times. Personnel at facility gate and security personnel all very friendly and helpful. Fill out envelope at entrance, enclose your check and your done. We were only campers on site, but enjoyed lake view and all the Christmas decorations. Will come back.

Spent the most part of a week here in January. This is a very nice campground. A lot of empty spaces. Never saw anyone who looked like they were running or maintaining the campground. Filled out the form, wrote the check, put it in the drop box. But the campground is obviously well maintained. No facilities to speak of post. However, Walmart and a large number of dining establishments are just down the road in McAlester. Would recommend the Isle of Capri in Krebs, OK if you are into Italian food. This is one of the better military campgrounds.

We arrived here on a Sunday late afternoon. Nobody was here. A little difficult getting in the gate because of the weekend. Paid for the week on Monday morning (great price). Laundry room was buggy. Extremely quiet with just a few RV'ers coming and going during that time. Most spots were shady. This was a very nice place.

K.H. left this review using the Directory software: Not much to do on post but the campground is fantastic, except for 30 amp max electricity.

K.H. left this review using the Directory software: This is the best campground we have ever stayed at for the price, and one of the better ones at any price. Both bathrooms were immaculate and so was the laundry room. This place is one of the best kept secrets in military camping.

This was the first time we came up US75 normally we drive I35 to Springfield. I am sure glad we did the campground is great, we were met by 2 bucks and 8 Does just feeding on the grass as we park in spot 10 the geese came up looking for hand outs. After we got set up we seen an Eagle flying over the water looking for food, just soared around for a while. Now the hard part was getting checked in, we didn't see the drop box at the entrance so I called and got directions to MWR but they didn't say they were at equipment issue building (711). But all in all it was something to laugh about and have something to talk about at the evening meal. We used the Elk's in town and they had a great meal for the price in fact we had so much we had to take part of the meal with us, next time we split the meal. Small PX but who cares. My biggest complaint is about the previous campers, they left their trash inside the new BBQ's. As we walked around that is the biggest problem campers NOT cleaning up after themselves. If the Smart chapters wanted a place to hold a muster this would be a great place, 2 large BBQ pits, lot of tables for out side dinners or what ever. We I come back, you bet I will in fact I'll stay longer since I found out there a few things to see in the area. Only 4 campers now. Remember 25% off for golden age pass so that's $9.00 a night!

L.R. left this review using the Directory software: Arrived on a Sunday afternoon, thinking the deer hunters would be cleared out. But campground was still full, so went on down the road. First time I'd been there since the new truck & RV gate had been built, made entry and exit much easier.

We stopped here as a halfway point between St Louis and Oklahoma City, and we are really glad w did. During the day you might here the ammo testing, but it gets very quiet after that. We loved having all the wildlife around us. Mind you, we didn't come during deer hunting season. Very clean facilities, nice level back-in slabs (we seemed to pick the ONLY spot without sewer!), beautiful location on the lake. You want to try Brangus Feed Lot on George Nigh Hwy (Hwy 69) in McAlester...best steakhouse around but a bit pricey. Go at lunch when steaks run around $10 instead of $30 at night! The PX was small and had limited hours but had good emergency supply and the people working there were really friendly and helpful with local info.

It very clean, well maintained campground. Many of the RV's were moved in by MWR as rentals over the weekend. Close enough to McAlster for Walmart and good Restaurants. We did not drive throughtout the base, so cannot comment on more than seeing a very small PX that was not open on a Saturday. They do have a club that has a couple special meals and dancing each week. Will definetely try to map my way through this area for another stay.

Several full hookup sites are in an open area on cement slabs - accdeptable for any size rig, but all are back in sites. The rest of the sites are in amongst big oak trees with low, hanging branches. Good for a stop-over. Caution - campground fills up to overflow situation during deer hunting season.