Bidwell Point Park
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 14 of the next 15 nights read 16:03 UTC
- A night
- $24–$26Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 48All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Bidwell Point is tucked below towering oak and pines on the shores of Norfork Lake. Lay on the beach or take the boat out for water skiing on the easily accessible waters of Norfork Lake. Keep reading
Recreation
Lake Norfork is home to one of the best striped bass fisheries in Arkansas. Black bass fishing is at its best from September through May, and an increasingly popular sport is night fishing with lights for crappie and White bass.
Facilities
Campers can reserve one of the waterfront sites for continuous, clear views of the lake. The family-friendly campground maintains a large swim beach and a playground. The sites have electric hookups, as does the group shelter. The group picnic shelter can fit up to 200 guests for any large occasion.
Natural Features
The forest-topped Ozarks are actually a heavily eroded plateau, shaped and carved by hundreds of streams over several thousand years. Norfork Lake is sourced by the North Fork River in northern Arkansas, which winds through the rugged Ozarks before filling up 22,000 acres of Norfork Lake.
Nearby Attractions
Hike the Robinson Point National Recreation Trail for wonderful views of the Ozarks. Just south of the lake, The Ozark National Forest spans 1.2 million acres.
Charges & Cancellations
Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee.
What the agency tells you
Off-road vehicles are not permitted
No livestock at this facility
No firearms allowed
Everything else this campground posts · 2
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.
STOP THE SPREAD OF INVASIVE SPECIES. Remove plants, seeds, animals, and mud from boots, gear, pets, and vehicles. Clean your gear before entering and leaving the recreation site. Stay on designated roads and trails, and follow local guidelines for firewood. CLEAN, DRAIN, DRY boats and any other recreational equipment that contacts water. Dispose of unwanted bait, worms, fish parts, or other organisms into the trash and not into the environment. For more information visit https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/rec.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 48
- Hookups
- 48 electric, 48 water
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Paved pads
- 46 of 48
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 102nd darkest of 158 in AR
- Bortle 4
26 of 98 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:03 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBookedClosed
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $24–$26 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:03 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
49 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 49 mapped sitesAll 49 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 48 of the 49 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 01 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 73 ft | 204 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 02 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 73 ft | 195 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 03 | standard electric | 39 ft | 50 amp | 73 ft | 196 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 04 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 73 ft | 180 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 05 | standard electric | 39 ft | 50 amp | 76 ft | 183 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 06 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 111 ft | 136 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 07 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | 107 ft | 135 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 08 | standard electric | 70 ft | 30 amp | 107 ft | 170 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 09 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 135 ft | 177 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 10 | standard electric | 65 ft | 30 amp | 102 ft | 162 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 11 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 118 ft | 281 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 12 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 65 ft | 141 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 13 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 65 ft | 133 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 14 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 236 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 15 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 245 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 16 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 96 ft | 337 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 17 | standard electric | 27 ft | 50 amp | 158 ft | 467 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 18 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 153 ft | 361 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 19 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 128 ft | 450 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 20 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 146 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 21 | standard electric | 39 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 188 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 22 | standard electric | 39 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 239 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 23 | standard electric | 39 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 287 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 24 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 347 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 25 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 66 ft | 411 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 26 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 109 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 27 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 38 ft | 161 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 28 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 38 ft | 193 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 29 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 267 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 30 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 69 ft | 341 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 31 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 69 ft | 404 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 32 | standard electric | 27 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 331 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 33 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 393 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 34 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 103 ft | 367 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 35 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 261 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 36 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 238 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 37 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 85 ft | 164 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 38 | standard electric | 39 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 106 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 39 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 116 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 40 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 189 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 41 | standard electric | 25 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 121 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 42 | standard electric | 27 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 131 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 43 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 194 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 44 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | 69 ft | 358 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 45 | standard electric | 36 ft | 30 amp | 66 ft | 388 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 46 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 50 ft | 371 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 47 | standard electric | 39 ft | 30 amp | 50 ft | 330 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | 48 | standard electric | 33 ft | 30 amp | 57 ft | 286 ft | $24–$26 |
| BIDWELL POINT PARK | BPS | day use | 30 amp | 2071 ft | 359 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.
25 of 49 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Henderson Park0.7 mi
Panther Bay Park1.3 mi
Robinson Point2.3 mi
Gamaliel2.6 mi
Cranfield Park4.8 mi
Dam - Quarry8.8 miFrom Mountain Home, AR, travel 9 miles east on US 412/62, then 2 miles north on SR 101. Cross the lake on 101 bridge and take the 1st access road to the right. Follow signs into campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Henderson, AR
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 26°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 Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Bidwell Point Park is in Arkansas’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Rick Crawford (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →