Best Glamping near Ethel, AR

We visited Cane Creek over Memorial Day weekend. The sites were level. We did have several fire ant hills that we had to deal with and quite a few red wasps. We were able to watch numerous birds (pileated woodpeckers) and even saw a swamp rat swimming in the lake (resembles a beaver with a skinny tail). You have to walk through thick brush on a slope to reach the water. My husband mostly chose to walk down to the fishing pier and docks. It was about a two minute walk away from our site. We stayed in site 17 I believe.

There are water and electricity hookups with a bathroom close by. We rode bikes so it didn’t take long to get the the restroom. Our neighbors had issues with their electricity because they were trying to run an air fryer, and it kept throwing the breaker. We ran our box fan without any issues.

You can rent kayaks for very reasonable. Do it! The water trail is unlike any I have seen. Don’t miss out on the hiking trails, but watch out for ticks!

You can rent an RV here as well. It’s set up at the entrance of the campground. It seemed like a nice setup. We rode past it several times on our explorations of the park.

Our Review: The camp sites were very nice, all had either 30 amp or 50 amp electric hook ups and water. The electricity was super convenient with having the space heater in the tent. Most of the sites have nice views of the water too! It was a little too cold to fish but from what we’ve gathered from the visitor’s center they have some decent fishing and lots of other activities! Cane Creek offers several options like fishing, boating, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, biking, etc. There was a boat dock specific for campers closer to the campsites. We were very pleased with the bath house which was really clean and fairly central to all campsites. We will definitely be back when it warms up to test out the fishing!

This was one of the last parks available on the Memorial Day weekend. One of the great things for us was the proximity of some Arkansas State Parks such as Cane Creek and Arkansas Post. First we were in E campground and it was not very well taken care of. The pads for the campers were starting to become covered up with grass and tree debris. Our picnic table has a corner busted off and the water hydrant was combined for two sites to one hydrant spot. Our 25 ft hose was too short so we borrowed a hose from the camp manager till we were able to buy another 25 footer. There was no showers in E and the restrooms were just toilets, no sinks to wash your hands. We were told by several people that we would be all but guaranteed to see an alligator but we never did. Not that they aren’t there, we just never got that lucky. The dump station is probably a mile and a half from the campground so if you have a grey water tote tank that you pull behind the truck like me, expect a fairly long drive. Overall it was an ok park but the campground E was definitely on the decline. Other campgrounds seemed to be in better shape but still sad that part of the park is in such shape. I would not put this on the top of my list but it’s not the worse either.

We visited this park twice. The first time it was great. The second time it was unbearable because a hurricane had blown in trillions of "love bugs". Our visit was during the bugs' mating season. The bugs were so thick that you could not even go outside your camper without getting a mouth full, nose full, eyes full, and ears full of these bugs. It was like a plague! The air was black with the bugs. We were unable to do any outside activities because of the mass numbers of the bugs. This campground has water and electric on the sites. It has a dump station too. They have one rent a camp that is very nice. If the bugs are gone, I would recommend this campground. They have very nice fishing docks and boat docks. The water is only visible from 2 of the campsites. There is lots of shade. It is very enjoyable when the bugs are not present.