Agency-listedNPSFee
Baptizing Hole Campground
Dispersed · National Park Service · MO · 37.05163, -91.63270
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →National Park Service lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Baptizing Hole Campground
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 831 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Baptizing Hole CampgroundNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Baptizing Hole Campground · National Park Service · MO
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- GGrocery4 mi
- FFuel4 mi
- ShShower12 mi
- DDump12 mi
- OOutfitter12 mi
- @Mail13 mi
- RxPharmacy18 mi
- +Urgent care18 mi
- MMechanic18 mi
- EVEV fast charger25 mi
- HHardware25 mi
- WWater25 mi
- AAir-up25 mi
- LLaundry26 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 25-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 4 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Baptizing Hole Campground
Access
Dispersed
Land
National Park Service
Elevation
831 ft
Ground slope
7.5% · gentle
State
MO
Coordinates
37.05163, -91.63270
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Baptizing Hole Campground · National Park Service · MO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureJacks Fork · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townMountain View · ~5.5 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelAnchor Gas Station · ~4.5 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~12.2 mi
- GroceriesGrocery · ~4.4 mi
- PharmacyLakeland Pharmacy · ~17.9 mi
- Hospital / clinicMercy Clinic · ~18.0 mi
- HardwareMeek's · ~25.2 mi
EV charging — from Baptizing Hole Campground · National Park Service · MO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger24.9 mi straight-line SW — 1634 N Porter Wagoner Blvd, West Plains, MO · EV Connect · CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach1 within 25 mi · 4 within 50 · 45 within 100 · 225 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)59.7 mi — Saint Robert, MO - Tesla Supercharger, St Robert
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO27.8 mi — DNR MSP MONT DCFC EV1, Salem
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)24.7 mi — TOYOTA OF WP STATION 3349, West Plains, MO · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 322992 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Baptizing Hole Campground · National Park Service · MO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomJF BH Blue Spring CXT Vault Toilet 552 · ~0.3 mi NW · NPS
- RestroomJF BH Buck Hollow CXT Vault Toilet 568 · ~1.9 mi W · NPS
- RestroomJF PM Rocky Falls CXT Vault Toilet 365 · ~4.1 mi E · NPS
- RestroomJF BH Rymers Vault Toilet 559 · ~4.1 mi E · NPS
Coming out here — Baptizing Hole Campground · National Park Service · MO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Jacks Fork as a perennial stream, under 0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 7.5% — gentle. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (10 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Baptizing Hole Campground elsewhere
Other camps near Baptizing Hole Campground
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Blue Spring Campground (Jacks Fork)~0.3 mi · fee
- Bachers Campground~0.8 mi · fee
- Rymers Campground~4.1 mi · fee
- Bay Creek Campground~8.4 mi · fee
Who holds the land at Baptizing Hole Campground
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Ozark National Scenic Riverways, manager on record: National Park Service (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Baptizing Hole Campground
Fire rules
Campfires are permitted at designated campsites and must be contained in the metal fire ring provided.
Stay limit
14 nights (14 days in a 30-day period)
Source
public land records
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Jacks Fork / Middle Current district backcountry campground. The NPS backcountry page lists it under "Blue Spring (Jacks Fork) -- Includes Baptizing Hole"; recreation.gov books it as its own 2-site campground. FEE: NPS backcountry-campgrounds page -- "Starting April 15, 2025, backcountry sites will require a fee year-round." Standard site (up to 6 people) $10/night; cluster site (7-20) $25/night; group site (15-45) $65/night. "All backcountry sites are non-electric." RESERVATION: "Reservations are required for all backcountry campsites and must be made through Recreation.gov." STAY LIMIT: "Camping stays are limited to 14 days in a 30-day period in the same campground." (nps.gov/ozar/learn/management/camping-regulations.htm) FIRE: campfires must be in the metal fire ring provided; "During periods of elevated fire danger, open fires may be restricted or prohibited." Fires are prohibited in caves, within 50 ft of cave mouths, and within 50 ft of designated river accesses/landings except during gigging season. ACCESS: recreation.gov -- "Baptizing Hole is located on a spur of OO-493 on the right, just before you drop down into Blue Spring campground." NEAREST TOWN: Mountain View, MO. COORDINATE: mean of the per-campsite coordinates recreation.gov publishes for this campground (www.recreation.gov/api/camps/campgrounds/10344874/campsites, read 2026-08-17) (2 sites). SOURCE: https://www.nps.gov/ozar/planyourvisit/backcountry-campgrounds.htm | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Baptizing Hole Campground
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Whether the fire rule stated above still stands today — what we have is a dated reading of the agency's listing, not a live restriction feed
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Baptizing Hole Campground
Water on public land →Fire rules & restrictions →Off-grid communication →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →