Best Tent Camping near Kirby, AR

Definitely my favorite park in Arkansas so far. It’s a really big park at the lake with lots to do. I was there in the fall so I didn’t do any lake stuff but still had a great time tent camping. There’s a nice hiking trail to explore. Also, the bathrooms were the cleanest I’ve ever seen at a state park. All the tent sites have a gravel pad, grill, picnic table and fire ring. There are also walk in tent sites on the peninsula which are nice and quiet. If you get one at the end I’d say it’s probably 200 meters to the parking lot and bathrooms. I peeked into one of the cabins and they look really nice. They also have camper cabins that have heat/air but no bathroom. In all there are 93 RV/tent sites, 8 cabins and 4 camper cabins. The park is also near Hot Springs so there is lots to do.

So I was super excited about this campground when I read about it online. It seemed perfect! The drive into the campground is very curvy and has lots of blind spots. When we arrived, there was no one on duty, so we just filled out a card and proceeded into the campground, following the map posted on the official website. That's where we ran into our first issue. The map was all wrong. We spent nearly an hour trying to find our spot. Finally, we asked the volunteer on duty. He showed us an updated map and we found out that our campsite wasn't even where we had picked it based off the old map. The tent sites are walk in only. They have electric but the closest water spigot is at the parking lot. The scenery is nice but the boats are loud, as to be expected of a lakeside campground. The bathrooms aren't very well maintained, the showers are gross, and the park goers tend to be obnoxious, revving their engines and hooping and hollering. We actually ended our trip the next day. Overall not a bad site IF you're here in a camper. Not suggested for tent camping.

A lot of RV and tent site camping sites. Nice scenery and the park host was very helpful. We stayed in area C (A, B, C are the different areas) on a super busy weekend and weren't to cramped. Spacious tent sites just off a creek with fire rings, picnic tables, and good proximity to clean toilet/shower facilities. Would visit again.

Quiet place. Clean, more primitive and not developed. Does have flush toilets. Great place to go tent camping.

The tent camping is so beautiful right on the lake! Very calm and peaceful. Beautiful scenery and the lake is super nice

It's it's a nice place to Camp RV but not for tent camping it would be better if they have places to put up a tent instead of on concrete.

The Hot Springs NP campground was closed for the season so we stayed at Lake Ouachita SP Campground for 3 nights. We are tent camper and this was the best it gets! The tent sites are well separated from the RVs and generators. The sit right on the lake so they can get windy but are peaceful and beautiful. Each tent site has a level pad for tents, picnics tables, and fire-ring. A small down-side, you have to park and walk your gear to your site but it's not terribly far or a big deal. The lake is beautiful and all tent sites have access to the water. It's a bit of a walk to the bathrooms but they are wonderfully clean (and heated). The camp store had decent wood for sale. The only thing to beware of is the crows. They are relentless and even took a bag of sealed, in it's original container, tortilla chips and tried carrying them away and pecking the bag open. So don't leave anything unsupervised (even in closed container or bags).

Tent camped with a view of the lake. Facilities were well maintained. Hosts were very friendly. Easy to collect firewood. Definitely recommend even if you don’t have a boat.

Stopped in while traveling with no reservation on my bike. The campground was full but they did find me a spot for tent camping for the night. The staff went out of their way to assist me with getting a spot, helping me with onsite facilities, and they even made phone calls to assist me with local road closings for my next days route. Very clean bathrooms and shower facilities. The laundry facility was nice and well kept. The park is set up more for RV use but once again they were very accommodating. Although I didn’t use the pool it did look nice a several kids made use of it while I was there. The only downside and only if you’re tent camping there is traffic noise due to being close to the interstate, however it is also convenient if just passing through.

Just stayed one night passing thru for work but enjoyed my site and scenic veiws the next morning. Tent sites have pea gravel beds for tents for level ground and plenty of trees for hammock hanging. Shower houses are adequate but recommend good shower shoes.

My husband, myself, our dog and two friends tent camped for the weekend. We were lucky enough to have a site on the water. It's a nice park we hiked, rented a canoe and did some swimming. Very peaceful and nice campground. We will be back for sure.

I stayed at two different sites for two separate nights in a tent. Both of these sites had minimal space for tent camping and barely fit my tent, but it works. However, it was beautiful because I could sit and look/listen to the creek. The bathrooms were well maintained, landmarks for sites were obvious, and the volunteers that work there were incredibly helpful and nice.

Beautiful, clean, great location. Camped here in Feb 2020, right on the river. Full hookups, mostly back-in but some pull throughs. Paved, level. Tent sites, too. Clean bathrooms, little camp store. Close to town. Would camp again.

I've reviewed this state park before but this time we stayed at the walk in tent sites and it was even better. The campsite was perfect. Steps from the water and shaded. The bath houses were nice and clean.

We got the prime spot for tent camping. It was a haul to get all our gear to the end but the have carts available to help. Stayed here and then would travel to the hot springs NP. Bathrooms were awesome but a little bit of a hike from where we were.

We stayed in tent site 22 for a weekend camping trip. You can’t tell by looking at the Recreation.gov reservation site but tent pad 22 is one of 4 in a grouping of tent sites. 21-24 are so close together. If you are with friends or a large family group then it would be ideal but if don’t want people right on top of you then pick another site. Thankfully, we had some cool neighbors but it was a very noisy and bright spot to camp. Also, your neighbors have to walk through your campsite to get to either of the two water spickets that serve all 4 campsites. There is no where to park your boat unless you rent an RV spot and there is no boat ramp in the camp ground. All of the spots were very shady and cool. We had a good time but we wanted to warn others so you know what you are getting into.

This is an absolutely beautiful state park 30 minutes Northwest of Hot Springs, Arkansas. It is massive with a Marina, multiple swimming beaches, RV and tent camping plus cabin rentals.

We stayed in campground Area A, on a concrete pad with tons of space around the camper. Many RV sites overlook Lake Ouachita, though ours didn’t.

If you are there over a weekend, I highly recommend taking the sunset tour by the park service at the marina. It is two hours, $10 per adult and stunning. With the recent heat wave it was also much cooler then the afternoon cruises.