Roadside camping, maybe
I tried camping here, but I think they had already shut down for the season. The bathhouse was locked, the grass hadn’t been mowed, and there was a bit of trash blowing about. Thankfully this is just down the road from Cherokee State Park, which was still open. I walked around the campground and noticed there were about 18 or so sites, with some back in the trees a bit, away from the road. Most sites had obvious campfire rings, some had additional campfire rings not put in by the park, some had grills, but not all, and a few had a picnic table. All in all, it almost seemed like this campground had been abandoned. When I stopped in at the state information center in Siloam Springs the attendant (Betty Ross, no less!), she said that a lot of the smaller campgrounds along the big lakes are like that out of season. Anyway, across the street from Disney is Grand Lake, with a decent boat ramp that was in use even in late October. The parking lot is small, but you can just drive over the grass to your campsite. The big draw here besides the lake is the creek bed that the spillway feeds. This is apparently a hot spot for ATV/ORV driving. There were two groups of ATV/ORV’s hanging out in the ravine: one looked like a tour, and the other looked like a group of like minded friends out for a fun day.