Big Coon Creek
1Heads up1 fire 29 mi away
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 14:47 UTC
- A night
- $23–$32Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 32All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Big Coon Creek Campground sits along the lush banks of Gillham Lake in southwest Arkansas. Nicknamed the "Bright Spot on the Cossatot," Gillham Lake is a recreational oasis for outdoor enthusiasts. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors enjoy the lake for its vast boating opportunities, and a boat ramp is provided for easy water access. The river can be canoed from a point below the dam to U.S. Highway 71 South, a distance of about 16 miles. For shorter canoe trips, there are access roads to the river at Mize Crossing and Ladd Bridge. Anglers will find smallmouth, largemouth, and spotted bass, saugeye, crappie, channel and flathead catfish and various species of sunfish in the river. Hunting is allowed north of Little Coon Creek Park and on the eastern shore of the lake. Check with the Arkansas Game and Fish for Season Dates, Maps, and Regulations.
Facilities
Coon Creek provides 32 sites, each with water and 50-amp electric hookups. Additional amenities include hot showers, a boat ramp, swimming beach, dump station and a playground.
Natural Features
Gillham Lake spans 1,370 surface acres and boasts 36 miles of shoreline. The lake stems from the Cossatot River, designated as a National Wild and Scenic River.
What the agency tells you
Check in with Gate House upon arrival and before you set up on site.
A maximum of 2 Tents and 8 Occupants per site.
Quiet hours are from 10 p.m. thru 6 a.m.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Check out time is by 5 p.m.
No ATV/UTV's Allowed
This Area has the possiblity of flooding throughout the year. You may want to check lake levels before traveling.
Beware of sudden changes in water level below dam; if warning horn sounds twice, water will rise, if it sounds once, water will lower.
Please wear a life jacket when participating in water recreation.
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.
Bring extra water hose and electric cords to allow for longer distances from campsite.
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
- 32
- Hookups
- 32 electric, 32 water, 2 sewer
- Longest rig
- 77 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Additional amenities include hot showers, a boat ramp, swimming beach, dump station and a playground.”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Kayaking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 9th darkest of 158 in AR
- Bortle 3
3 of 23 sites open on Sat, Oct 17read 14:47 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
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, $23–$32 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.
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
recreation.gov availability, read 14:47 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
32 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 32 mapped sitesAll 32 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 32 of the 32 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BIG COON CREEK | 01 | standard electric | 77 ft | 50 amp | 269 ft | 685 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 02 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 346 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 03 | standard electric | 49 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 283 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 04 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 93 ft | 192 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 05 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 233 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 06 | standard electric | 49 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 248 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 07 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 85 ft | 115 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 08 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 117 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 09 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 147 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 10 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 76 ft | 227 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 11 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 76 ft | 254 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 12 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 59 ft | 149 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 13 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 59 ft | 166 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 14 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 283 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 15 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 335 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 16 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 88 ft | 400 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 17 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 314 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 18 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 372 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 19 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 413 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 20 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 448 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 21 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 95 ft | 464 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 22 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 95 ft | 549 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 23 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 99 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 24 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 53 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 25 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 79 ft | 48 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 26 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 90 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 27 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 131 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 28 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 177 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 29 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 234 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 30 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 310 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 31 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 100 ft | 332 ft | $23–$32 |
| BIG COON CREEK | 32 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 236 ft | $23–$32 |
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.
25 of 32 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Little Coon Creek Park0.7 mi
Cossatot Reefs1.3 mi
Jefferson Ridge8.4 mi
Blue Ridge Park8.9 mi
Horseshoe Bend (Dierks Lake)10 mi
Bellah Mine11 miFrom Gillham on Hwy 71, go east on Tower Rd. for 1.3 miles; Turn left onto Gillham Lake Rd. for 4.3 miles; Turn left onto Polk Road 474 for 1.7 miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Grannis, AR
Typical weather
Typical October night 50°F, day 76°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 30°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Big Coon Creek 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 →