Avery
1Heads up1 fire 50 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 28 of the next 30 nights read 15:23 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
Avery Recreation Area sits just below Blakely Mountain Dam and along the western shore of the Ouachita River/ Lake Hamilton. This day-use area offers great shoreline fishing access, an ADA fishing pier, boat ramp, reservable pavilion, restroom, and hiking trails. There is a small paved ADA trail with scenic benches. The Wood Duck Slough Trail has great wildlife viewing opportunities. Avery is also home to one of the main trailheads of the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail (LOViT) a 40 mile long trail system that meanders along the southern shore of Lake Ouachita. Click here for the Lake Ouachita Virtual Tour. Keep reading
Recreation
Water skiers, jet skiers and anglers can all enjoy the crystal clear waters of the lake, while hikers enjoy the location on the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail (LOViT), which meanders across the south end of the lake.
Natural Features
Lake Ouachita is nestled in the Ouachita Mountains just 10 miles west of Hot Springs National Park. The pool is fed by the cool waters of the Ouachita River and extends about 30 miles over 40,000 surface acres. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (501) 767-2101.
Nearby Attractions
Head to Hot Springs National Park and discover how it earned the nickname, "The American Spa." Or take a scenic drive through the 1.8 million-acres of Ouachita National Forest.
What the agency tells you
No off-road vehicles allowed in park
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Lake, River, Beach
- Biking
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Mountain biking
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 15:23 UTC
The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in. How full the weekend is nationally.
9 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:20 UTC. See them
OpenBookedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:23 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 9
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first; the nearest 5 of 9. read 16:20 UTC
- Charlton Recreation AreaOuachita National Forest · 11 mi · 46 of 94 site-nights open
- Arlie MooreDegray Lake · 20 mi · 14 of 92 site-nights open
- Point CedarDegray Lake · 21 mi · 26 of 82 site-nights open
- Alpine RidgeDegray Lake · 21 mi · 4 of 58 site-nights open
- Iron MountainDegray Lake · 24 mi · 6 of 60 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:23 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
| A | PAV 1 | day use | 20 amp | 117 ft | $50 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Stephens Park0.2 mi
Spillway (Lake Ouachita)1.3 mi
Brady Mountain4.2 mi
Crystal Springs (AR)9.4 mi
Gulpha Gorge CampgroundHot Springs National Park · 9.4 mi
Charlton Recreation AreaOuachita National Forest · 11 miFrom Hot Springs, AR: Take US 270 west to AR-227 N/Mountain Pine Rd for 6 miles. Continue straight on Blakely Dam road through Mountain Pine and past Mountain Pine school. Drive across the base of Blakely Mountain Dam and Avery Recreation Area will be on your left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mountain Pine, AR
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 73°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Avery is in Arkansas’s 4th congressional district. Its representative, Bruce Westerman (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyBruce WestermanU.S. Representative · Arkansas’s 4th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn BoozmanU.S. Senator · Arkansas
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTom CottonU.S. Senator · Arkansas
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Avery, Arkansas
Dear Bruce Westerman, I’m a constituent in Arkansas’s 4th district. I tried to camp at Avery, Arkansas, and couldn’t. Every site at Avery is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Avery keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Avery. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Avery (Arkansas) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Avery, Arkansas
Dear John Boozman, I’m a constituent in Arkansas. I tried to camp at Avery, Arkansas, and couldn’t. Every site at Avery is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Avery keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Avery. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Avery (Arkansas) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Avery, Arkansas
Dear Tom Cotton, I’m a constituent in Arkansas. I tried to camp at Avery, Arkansas, and couldn’t. Every site at Avery is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Avery keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Avery. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Avery (Arkansas) via campanac.com