Looking to go camping/hiking/fishing and kayaking in Arkansas for spring break (march 14-18) where should I go?

Currently lake ouachita is leading

White river near Mountain Home.

I'd recommend the Rainbow Lodge, I've stayed there several times and have been more than pleased, it's also on one of the best brown trout runs on the whole river.

Lake Ouachita is extremely popular. There are times of the year where all of the campsites are reserved. You might make reservations asap, to ensure you will have a campsite when you get there.

Petit Jean state park is very nice, and well worth your time to investigate. It is one of their most famous state parks. There is a lake there, but it is not nearly as big as Ouachita. Also full at popular camping times of the year, so consider reservations there too.

I have heard that Devil's Den is very nice too, but I haven't been there.

You can search/dig for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park, in S.W. AR. Only place in the continental US that has naturally-occurring diamonds. The campsites are very nice, as they are in most of AR state parks.

The AR state park system has a very good website........

Good smallmouth fishery too.

I've been all over the AR parks sites the last few hours, they are very well set up.

Seems all the Army COE sites are non reservable/first come first serve....any one have experience with that?

Amazing what you can do when you have dedicated funding. Compared to Texas, Arkansas puts a lot of money towards state parks, part of the sales tax.

Devils Den State Park?

My vote would be buffalo, maybe starting in Marshall area

Lake Ouachita is one of my favorite lakes. Huge stripers in there. Google Ron Hawley if you need a local fishing guide.

quote:

---

Amazing what you can do when you have dedicated funding. Compared to Texas, Arkansas puts a lot of money towards state parks, part of the sales tax.

---

That's why we go there quite frequently. I wish some of "our" TX state parks had facilities as nice as many AR parks.

We leave tomorrow morning for AR.........

quote:

---

I've been all over the AR parks sites the last few hours, they are very well set up.

Seems all the Army COE sites are non reservable/first come first serve....any one have experience with that?

---

That's strange -- we reserve specific camping sites for specific dates at specific campgrounds when we use the US Army COE campgrounds in central TX. Are you using the Recreation.gov site?

Completely understandable. Texas state parks are usually hurting for money. In AR, they are usually looking for ways to spend what they have. Comparatively speaking. Missouri is very similar in that regards, and they instituted their state park funding mechanism back in the 70's.

Recovery from extended flooding is kill Texas SPs.

I wasn't, am now.

Still says not available online. The website brings up a calendar when I search for dates and it just says W(walkup)

For those of y'all saying Buffalo, would you recommend starting at one site and moving down the river or would staying at one site for a week be worth it?