Best Campgrounds near Mena, AR

Beautiful little hideaway spot, elevated with cozy tree cover, very private, haven’t seen anyone the whole 3 days!

We came to Heavener Runestone Park with three families and nine young children and had the BEST time! Totally worth the drive from Tulsa. The park is beautiful and secluded, very clean and well kept. It has some really fun little themed touches in keeping with the Viking Runestone. The history around the Runestone is so interesting, the kids loved hearing about the Vikings. The hiking was beautiful and just challenging enough to be fun while accessible for little kids. Bathrooms were clean and easily accessed from our tent sites. The views were spectacular. Out of the three cliff tent sites I would say only 1 was safe for kids, 2 and 3 were too close to the cliff (beautiful views though). The playground was really fun and right by site 1. It’s a big site so we put four tents and 15 people on that site comfortably, it also has a covered pavilion which helped us in the rain and a brief storm. The park hosts were incredibly kind and welcoming. One last note, you do need to bring your own drinking water in. We had such a great time and would totally recommend the park for adults or families. My only complaint was the persistent barking dog on the private residence by the entrance to the park, including late at night.

Great little spot to visit. Private, safe, clean.

The campground is very clean and the views are amazing.  The owners are attentive and very kind.

Quail circle is a nice spot with lots of trees and nice areas to hike and explore. The lake is beautiful. The facilities are a little dated, but generally clean. The showers have plenty of hot water. The RV spots have 30 amp hookups and water. No sewer.

After driving 4 hours to one of our favorite campsites in this area we arrived to find it closed until May 2025.  No explanation why.  We have camped here in winter several times before.  Disappointing!

Stayed here in early November the creek was dry but beautiful. We pulled of the highway and wend down deadman’s trail about halfway and pulled into a very secluded camping spot with a good amount of space with an established fire pit.

My buddy and I read the other reviews and decided to give this site a go. Someone was camping at the main site just off the park road, and honestly, I’m glad they were there, otherwise we wouldn’t have found the great alternative spot. As the gentleman in the other review said, there ARE three alternative spots back North a little ways on the park road. As you pull off the little turn off just before (or after, depending on which way your going) the bridge of the creek, you’ll find the first spot. It’s nice with an established campfire ring, etc. further down (you definitely want a higher riding vehicle, no sedans down this road) about 40 yards maybe is the second site. This is a great little site as well, again with an established fire ring. Go another 40 ish yards and there is the end of the side ‘road’/stone path and you’ll find the site we stayed at.
There is a great fire pit and a well established site. As was mentioned in the other review, there was some trash about, but we cleaned it up. If you go here, practice leave no trace. Don’t be a jerk. Even if you never meet another person who camps there, if everyone treats the site like garbage it will be no good for anyone in a short amount of time.
We noticed that there wasn’t much wildlife about and guessed it was because the creek bed was bone dry and a bunch of smoke in the are might have made them leave (there were a few wildfires in SE Oklahoma when we visited). We’ll probably find another place next time for the sake of adventure, but I could see myself coming back someday.

This site was difficult to find. It is listed on the highway with a sign but on GPS it wasn't listed. The proper address is 4101 US-70, Kirby, AR 71950.

You book through recreation.gov but it is actually listed under Self Creek campgrounds. When booking just lok for sites listed on LOOP JW.

This is a good site for tents, campervans, and smaller rvs. There are sites for larger rvs but not many. It may be difficult to find a level spot if you're in a larger vehicle. There is only one site directly on the water. The remainder are on the wooded hill but still have a beautiful view of the lake.

The bathhouse has flush toilets and showers but is very old. They maintain it well and it is cleaned regularly. The toilets are perfectly fine but the showers are just old and a bit icky. I would suggest for showers going to the Daisy State Park. They have newer and nicer showers.

The GPS coordinates are wrong for this one but I couldn't locate the correct site. Tookus down a gravel road that wasn't bad until it turned to mud.

Amazingly beautiful and cheap. Bathrooms are vault toilets. They smell bad but the room is clean.

The price here is now $10 per day but if you have America the Beautiful Pass it's half price.

Couple downsides are that the bathrooms are pit style bathrooms and kind of nasty and unless you snag one of the sites far back in the woods you are pretty close to the highway so some noise.

It is my understanding that they are scheduled to update the bathrooms in the next year or two but until then I'd definitely suggest going to Arrowhead Point. It's right down the road, same price, quieter, and nicer bathrooms.

My first impressions of this site were terrible. The Bathrooms are extremely old and honestly seem like they're rotting down. The playground area is small but jot terrible. The area for rvs is pretty cramped with no privacy. Luckily while talking to some folks there they directed us on down the road. There are two more sections specifically for primitive camping that are really nice. There are a couple picnic tables and fire rings. There is also a nice pond. The cell signal isn't terrible but it's a bit hit and miss for internet.

Overall, I would suggest it but don't expect to use their showers or bathroom. Go a couple minutes down the road and use the state parks showerhouse. It's really nice.

Really enjoyed the Acorn campground - south end of park. There are many to choose from in this large state park, but I would return here. Site was level with the usual amenities all in working order and not too close to neighbors. The river ran directly behind the site and I was entertained by an otter family and ducks daily. There is a water release siren that sounds occasionally and it is loud, but it doesn't happen frequently, or at night, at least not during my stay. 

Enjoyed the hiking in this park. Lots of great cleared trails. Often times I was the only hiker. A real gem is the COE access road that runs along the river past the spillway. If you walk far enough down you can view the real "wild" river with the islands of cypress trees and boulders creating eddies and the relaxing sounds of the river spilling over and around. 10 out of 10 stars

No Verizon service except at the nature center (definitely worth a visit especially if you have kiddos, and the ranger here is fantastic!!). You can jump on their wifi, or if I walked to the pavilion behind the store I could get one bar on my phone. Note off season store hours in photo. Not much in the store. The BBQ at the Lookout restaurant is the draw.

This spot I found already had a man built fire ring made from rocks. Small peaceful pond and is right off the Deadman South Trail.

We stayed at AD10. It was a back in spot with an extremely high break over angle. The spot itself was fairly level but getting in and out is a pain. I recommend AD12 which is almost a direct back in from the road. The campground itself is very nice, but it is very winding with all the trees and spots slotted together. If you get a spot in the front near the road, there is a lot of through traffic for people going to or leaving the lakeside. The back of the campground was much quieter near the pull through sites. The dump site was directly across the street from the campground but you have to go down the road and either make a tight left turn or go further down and turn around. Bathrooms were not too far away, they were private, clean and AC. Not a lot of street lights throughout the campground made things nice and quiet at night. The site had okay Verizon cell service, around 10-20 mbps. The T-mobile service was much better around 50-60 mbps. Lots of activities to do around the park, there is the lake, plenty of hiking trails. The parking pass situation can get a little confusing at other areas of the park, but basically if you register your vehicle plate when you make the reservation, you are all set for your stay. It's a quick drive to Hochatown where there are things to do but depending on when you go it can be extremely busy. Broken Bow itself was about a 30 minute drive depending on traffic and there were more things to do, eat, and see. The traffic going back and forth between Hochatown and Broken Bow is quite busy and almost makes you not want to go anywhere. It causes a pain point when trying to get from the Stephens Gap area of the park to the main area of Beavers Bend, where you have to leave, hit 3 lights, wait 30 minutes, just to go 5 miles.Overall it’s a good campground but I might recommend staying at the other area of the park just for convenience sake, getting in and getting out.

I keep coming back here to dig for diamonds. There are cheaper campgrounds in the area, but the State Park grounds are top notch. Very level camper pads, stable power and water and everything is well maintained. There are multiple bath “houses” — single shower room style privacy, not a large room with curtains. A playground in the sites for kids to play on also.

The only downsides that come to mind are the iffy WiFi (the reservation system is pretty accurate on which sites have “good” WiFi and which do not) that is decent for casual web browsing but not likely to be streaming possible. And then a mixed pro/com is that satellite connections (direct or Starlink) is going to be rough due to the wooded aspect of the sites — although the trees do help keep the camper cooler. 🤷🏻‍♂️