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This recreation area is part of Degray Lake
$15 - $50 / night
Alpine Ridge Campground sits on the banks of DeGray Lake in the foothills of the Quachita Mountains. The lake attracts visitors far and wide for fishing tournaments, triathlons, water sports and more.
Boating, water skiing, kayaking and other water sports are the biggest draw to the lake, and a boat ramp and sandy swimming beach are provided. The lake is also stocked with a variety of game fish, including plenty of hybrid striped bass, making it an ideal area for both boat and bank fishing.
Degray Lake is one of the region's five Diamond Lakes, known for their crystal clear waters. The lake flows from the Caddo River in western Arkansas and spans 13,500 surface acres. The first settlers around the lake were the Caddo Indians, whose remains have been traced back to 700 A.D. The early inhabitants were skilled in agriculture, and grew crops like beans, squash, maize and sunflowers.
The DeGray Lake Resort State Park offers golf courses, tennis courts, horseback riding trails and more along the 207 miles of lake shoreline. The Ouachita National Forest and Hot Springs National Park are both located nearby.
$24 / night
Legend
I love waterfront camping! There are some amazing sunset views here! Also, the wildlife is abundant. Great ranger led boat tour of the lake. Lots of nice level sites. Super cool yurts for rent that have the best views! Arkansas has the best State Parks!
LegendNice campsites, lakeside, lake view and in the woods, YURT rentals have the best location, DeRoche Ridge second best if you want to be right next to the lake. They also have a lodge if camping isn’t your thing or if you don’t have equipment. YURTs look very nice and have lots of amenities. There’s a full service marina with pontoon and regular boat, kayak, canoe, paddle board and pedal boat rentals. A restaurant and spa at the lodge and many hiking trails. Two gift shops. Bicycle rentals. Disk golf and 18-hole golf courses and horseback riding stables. It’s a really great place. We love it!
RangerThe grounds and campsites are fairly spaced and well cared for. Yurts are also available and have more privacy than the ones I’ve seen at other parks like Lake Catherine. For activities, there are plenty to choose from, like swimming or boating in the lake, horseback riding, golf, etc. There is a restaurant and playground nearby at the lodge.
RangerClose enough to Arkadelphia if you need supplies. State Park Marina and Caddo Point have very nice boat ramps with a lot of parking which is good because this place gets crowded. RV and tent sites are clean and shaded and there are yurts available for rental. Be sure to reserve well ahead of your desired dates. Great swimming beaches and shore fishing are available too. There’s a a Diamond Trail golf course across the road as well.
Great place with access to water sports and amenities.
GuideThis weekend we camped at DeGray Lake Resort State Park in Bismarck, Arkansas. We had a blast! DeGray Lake has a lot to offer for groups large and small wanting to get away. It has several camping spaces with water and electric hook ups (about $22/night), yurts (about $55/night), a lodge (about $100/night), a marina to rent boats or buy bait, several daily activities for children or adults of all ages (some free and some about $5-15/person), horse riding stables (no experience required, about $30/ride 1 hour trail), a full golf course, playgrounds, pavilions, overall clean facilities, and a restaurant. Although our bank fishing experience wasn’t so great, I’m sure with a boat it would have been better. And for those that want to make the camping trip into the ultimate family vacation, this park is about a 30 minute drive from Hot Springs, AR where there is tons to do like restaurants, mini golf, shopping, and we even decided to get ice cream at Scoops (24 homemade flavors and delicious)! We will definitely be back for a visit!!
LegendI stayed two nights at a nearby COE campground and enjoyed my stay but was ready for a change so I moved to this campground. Lots of fun things to do here. Hiking, biking, marina and water sports. There’s also a lodge with a restaurant and spa. I didn’t visit it but rode by and it’s very nice. Yurts if you don’t have a tent or RV and they have the best view of the lake in the whole park. Beautiful day use area with a playground, beach and picnic areas.
LegendNice state pro. Free admission for day use, nice picnic area, beach area with grills for day use. Tennis courts, disc golf course, 18-hole golf course, basketball courts, marina with paddle boards, rentals of kayaks and motor boats including pontoons with slides. They have several hiking trails. Three campgrounds with bathhouses. Yurts, lodge with a restaurant and a spa. The only thing missing is a partridge in a pear tree. Some campsites are on or near the lake some in the woods and some on the backside of the golf course. Lots of variety. No tent only area. All campsites are mixed use. Nice clear water. Very clean and large lake.
Legend
Crater of Diamonds State Park is a place where you literally play the fun and exciting game of“finders, keepers.” The prize here being diamonds! In the middle of nowhere Arkansas(a.k.a. the town of Murfreesboro) is a field of 37 acres where for $10/day you can dig to your hearts’ content looking for diamonds making this the only diamond mine in the world open to the public. And don’t think this is a gimmick. Over 75,000 diamonds have been found in the“Crater” with an average of 600/year. The largest diamond found in North America was found at Crater of Diamonds topping out at 40.23 carats. In 1998, the Strawn-Wagner Diamond weighing 1.09 carats was graded by the American Gem Society as a 0/0/0“D” Flawless perfect diamond– a“one in a billion diamond”– and found right here in Arkansas.
The park was established in 1972 “to responsibly manage and interpret this unique site and to provide a meaningful diamond mining experience for all guests and future generations.” We find that pretty funny because we have never come across a state park whose intent is to provide a meaningful diamond mining experience mission. All the more reason we wanted to go! The parks campground is set among beautiful pine trees and offers full hook-up sites large enough to fit our 45’ RV without a problem. The campground has 47 nicely shaded RV sites with water/electric/sewer hookup(many of which have tent pads and five walk-in tent sites. The campground has two modern bathhouse with hot showers; one bathhouse includes a laundry and both were very clean and cared for all day long. If you need a dump station one is conveniently located as you leave the campground. There is also free Wi-Fi in the campground. There is a nice hiking trail that leaves from the campground and loops back around after venturing through the forest and along a river. It is not a long trail but a nice walk and we never saw anybody on it while we were there. Now back to diamond hunting. The“crater” is essentially a plowed field that is the eroded surface of a volcanic crater containing a variety of rocks, crystals, and gemstones. The field is plowed periodically to expose underlying layers of dirt and gems. The visitor center has interactive exhibits highlighting the unique history of the park and geology of Arkansas diamonds. They also tempt you with pictures of diamonds that have been found in the park. At the Diamond Discovery Center visitors learn about diamonds, but more importantly, techniques on how to find them.
Once you have rented (or brought your own) diamond digging equipment like trowels, shovels, buckets, sifting screens, etc. then it is time to head out into the crater. The techniques vary widely from walking along looking for smooth shiny diamonds (because dirt and mud don’t stick to the smooth surface of diamonds) to digging up a bucket full of dirt and sifting through water like gold mining. We talked to one man who uses a paint brush to lightly brush away loose dirt to reveal the diamonds. Diamonds come in a rainbow of colors but the predominant colors found here are white, brown, and yellow. If you think you found a precious stone, staff is on hand to positively identify it for you. And if you want it, you keep it! No matter what it is.
GuideThe Crater of Diamonds State Park is an exciting place full of rich history and, of course, finding lots of rough diamonds. The State Park is listed as the eighth largest reserve of diamonds in the world according to their website, and this park sets itself apart from anywhere else by allowing visitors to keep any diamonds that they find. Some lucky visitors have even found diamonds worth thousands of dollars.
This review will give you tips about the search area that are based on my firsthand experiences. It will allow you to develop a game plan of possible places to dig, as well as what indicators to look for before taking a trip to the famous Arkansas diamond mine. So, let us begin by identifying what type of indicator rocks that are mixed in with ordinary organic soil on the mine field. Minerals, such as Quartz crystals, calcite, magnetite, spinel, garnet, chromite, and diopside will be the main rocks you will want to look for while prospecting for diamonds. These rocks were created in a similar process during the heating and cooling process of the rock cycle.
Search Area Conditions
The best time to take a trip to the Arkansas diamond fields is after a heavy rainstorm, but keep in mind that you will get muddy during your visit so always wear the appropriate clothes and shoes while out in the search area. The Crater of Diamonds plows their fields, but the implements only turn over the top two feet of dirt repeatedly. Diamonds are found in gravel deposits within the mind field, but they will be below two feet anywhere on the search field.
Secondly, you must be able to probe correctly to understand what the ground is underneath. When probing things like vibrations and sound are your friends. Usually, a ground probe is a 10 ft. steel rod that allows you to hear and feel the vibrations. A 4 ft. rod will do for the daily visitor and a 10 ft. rod will be good enough for the most serious Rockhounds ready to dig deep.
Using your probe comes down to the noise that you hear and feel. The first step is to make sure the ground is soaking wet to make the probe pierce the ground easier. Next, as you push down the probe remember there are objects in the ground and not every time your probe stops its diamond bearing gravel Gravel deposits can be as hard as concrete depending on how old the deposit is. You will run into tree roots and layers of hard rock. Keep watering the hole, push down and twist on the probe handle to continue downward in probing until you have met your depth mark.
Once that you have found a promising site by probing the next step is to dig down to to your chosen depth to see for yourself. Other ways of searching are in the form of walking around and picking up anything that shines or simple strip mining one area and separating the dirt from the gravel before starting with your chosen final diamond recovery process to condense the heavy rocks and gemstones to the middle of your screen or sarucca.
For more detailed step by step instructions on probing or the diamond recovery process check out the eBook "How to Find Diamonds" learn more at www.EliteMinersClub(dot)com
GuideThe Crater of Diamonds State Park is an exciting place full of rich history and, of course, finding lots of rough diamonds. The State Park is listed as the eighth largest reserve of diamonds in the world according to their website, and this park sets itself apart from anywhere else by allowing visitors to keep any diamonds that they find. Some lucky visitors have even found diamonds worth thousands of dollars.
This review will give you tips about the search area that are based on my firsthand experiences. It will allow you to develop a game plan of possible places to dig, as well as what indicators to look for before taking a trip to the famous Arkansas diamond mine. So, let us begin by identifying what type of indicator rocks that are mixed in with ordinary organic soil on the mine field. Minerals, such as Quartz crystals, calcite, magnetite, spinel, garnet, chromite, and diopside will be the main rocks you will want to look for while prospecting for diamonds. These rocks were created in a similar process during the heating and cooling process of the rock cycle. Search Area Conditions The best time to take a trip to the Arkansas diamond fields is after a heavy rainstorm, but keep in mind that you will get muddy during your visit so always wear the appropriate clothes and shoes while out in the search area.
The Crater of Diamonds plows their fields, but the implements only turn over the top two feet of dirt repeatedly. Diamonds are found in gravel deposits within the mind field, but they will be below two feet anywhere on the search field. Secondly, you must be able to probe correctly to understand what the ground is underneath. When probing things like vibrations and sound are your friends. Usually, a ground probe is a 10 ft. steel rod that allows you to hear and feel the vibrations. A 4 ft. rod will do for the daily visitor and a 10 ft. rod will be good enough for the most serious Rockhounds ready to dig deep.
Using your probe comes down to the noise that you hear and feel. The first step is to make sure the ground is soaking wet to make the probe pierce the ground easier. Next, as you push down the probe remember there are objects in the ground and not every time your probe stops its diamond bearing gravel Gravel deposits can be as hard as concrete depending on how old the deposit is. You will run into tree roots and layers of hard rock. Keep watering the hole, push down and twist on the probe handle to continue downward in probing until you have met your depth mark.
Once that you have found a promising site by probing the next step is to dig down to to your chosen depth to see for yourself. Other ways of searching are in the form of walking around and picking up anything that shines or simple strip mining one area and separating the dirt from the gravel before starting with your chosen final diamond recovery process to condense the heavy rocks and gemstones to the middle of your screen or sarucca.
For more detailed step by step instructions on probing or the diamond recovery process check out the eBook "How to Find Diamonds" learn more at www.EliteMinersClub(dot)com
LegendThis place would have gotten a full 5 stars, but there is a very unpredictable side to this campground. What is that you ask? Well, it isn’t large and that makes for some difficult reservations a times.
I had come through this area during a weekend and checked into a site well in advance only to discover that it was booked already. I had let a friend know about the site when they were traveling through and also the same results when looking almost a month in advance. But on a third attempt to book on a weekend it was as though all sites were nearly empty only a week out for the weekend ahead. So this site isn’t really consistent on being able to book in advance.
So what is the allure of this site in particular? THE DIAMOND MINE!! Yep, I said it, DIAMONDS!
For only a small fee you can go inside and hunt for your next big come up and even name your find, should you uncover one. And don’t think this is just some random tourist trap, because several diamonds are in fact found regularly there (most are not large). It is something the entire family can do together or you can do on your own.
But the mine, while the biggest attraction, is not alone. There is also a children’s waterpark area, hiking trails and many other fun things within a short drive back into town.
There are only about 5 primitive tent sites and around 40 RV or improved sites. So there it is the big kicker!
Now with that said, what does this campground look like that it would rate 5 stars if it wasn’t so stinking challenging to get into?
It is nice, the facilities are well maintained, the roads are smooth, the trees are abundant and it is a quiet despite the traffic that flows in daily for the mine. Each campsite is large enough to not feel piled on top of your neighbor and has the typical amenities of a picnic table and fire ring.
It seemed when I was there it had been updated fairly recently in several aspects and perhaps it was because it was busy season but it was very well maintained in the restroom facilities.
I have stayed at a number of state parks in Arkansas and I am overall very pleased on how they are spending that little extra tax dollar to allow everyone to truly enjoy “The Natural State.”
TIPS:
Ranger
This quiet campsite is more tailored to primitive/tent camping with spread out spots including picnic tables and grill pits. For $10 a night (March 1 - October 31), this was a nice rest stop to cool off for a swim and hang out away from city noise and light.
Fully shaded so don’t expect Solar charging or satellite if you work from a vehicle.
LegendQuiet place. Clean, more primitive and not developed. Does have flush toilets. Great place to go tent camping.
ScoutGreat place alone or with kids. I keep coming back
GuideBigger campground with something like 50 spots. But I found a site right on the water and went for a swim which was great given how hot It was. Nobody else on my peninsula of the campground either which was great.
RangerLoved almost everything about de roche ridge! We stayed in 102 and 106 and had pretty views of the clear lake. Were able to park boat next to campsite and get kayaks and floats in and out of water easily. Boat ramp super close by. Fishing ok but hot so they were probably deep. Super nice workers at Marina, lodge and visitor center. Cute merchandise at lodge and visitor center. Had fun geocaching and deer sighting. Great to have sewer hookups so didn’t use the park bathrooms. Wish road was wider and wish check out time was your earlier than check in so ppl wouldn’t be in your spot when you get there at check in.
ScoutThe park is not overcrowded and very quiet and spacious! The sites are really big and clean. Many things to do and see also. We highly recommend this campground and will definitely stay here again!
RangerWell maintained, lodge on site, family and pet friendly.
GuideBeautiful State Park. Full hookup, paved and level pads with picnic table, fire ring, grill, tent pad, lantern pole. Bathhouse clean and well maintained. Area we were in is on a peninsula with water on both sides. No road noise, quiet and very peacefull. Say lots of deer. Would absolutely stay again.
LegendLake Degray has two (that we know of) very nice swimming areas. Grandkids has a blast. Life jackets were available as well. The park offers a lot of shade and was very well kept. We saw lots of deer and other wildlife. There are plenty of trails and just a lot to do. They have cabins which are beautiful. The bathrooms are quite nice. There is a marina and they rent party barges. Just overall a great experience and a beautiful location.
RangerFairly cheap for a nicely established campground with really nice bathrooms (with showers)! Water spigot right at our site. Park has 3 different loops and lots of amenities.
GuideDepending on where you are in the park you can see the Ouachita mountains in the horizon. Great place for photo enthusiast with Beautiful sunsets and an abundance of wildlife. I do not golf however they have a pretty nice golf course . The camping areas and restrooms / showers we're very clean . Very friendly and informative park rangers . This is also a great fishing lake.
ScoutDeGray Lake is very pretty, and calm. The sunrise and sunsets are serene. This is a very laid back area to camp. The trails are far from challenging, and the Park Rangers are very helpful
ScoutWalking trail, Waterview walking,The Degray Lodge close to campground is perfection. Marina is great as well!
Travelerno sewer. some camping on the lake but a lot of the sites cannot see the lake. great bathrooms.
GuideAnything you can think of you can find here. Downside is you have to drive to access the lake.
GuideThis place has it all! Horseback riding, golf, frolf, kayaking, fishing, a restaurant, a playground, you name it. We paid around $20 a night for a water/electric RV site, which were huge, spacious and spread out. Filled up on the weekend but pretty quiet during the week. I believe they had full hookb-up sites available but there is a dump station as well. Incrediblly well kept place overall with SO much to do at such an affordable price - it's like a KOA but a third of the cost. Can't wait to go back!
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular glamping campsite near Chidester, AR?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Chidester, AR is DeGray Lake Resort State Park — De Gray State Park with a 4.7-star rating from 30 reviews.
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TheDyrt.com has all 6 glamping camping locations near Chidester, AR, with real photos and reviews from campers.
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