Blue Ridge Park
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 22 mi
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:22 UTC
- A night
- $18From, per site
- Sites
- 2120 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Blue Ridge campground, located on the north end of Dierks Lake, offers a natural feel with incredible fishing in the flooded timberlands along the Saline River. Situated in the heart of the Howard County Wildlife Management Area this area peaks in spring and fall when fishing and hunting are at their best. Blue Ridge is a local hotspot for camping and fishing, with two boat ramps located right in the heart of crappie country. Keep reading
Recreation
Camping Day use Boating Swimming Facilities 21 Campsites (Overnight) 2 Restrooms 1 Shower Facility Natural Features The 1360-acre lake offers excellent boating, canoeing, kayaking and swimming opportunities. Dierks Lake is known for its excellent bass and crappie fishing. Hunters will find nearly 600 acres of public hunting lands in the upper reaches of the project. Game species include white-tail deer, bobwhite quail, mourning dove, grey and fox squirrel, cottontail rabbit, and a variety of waterfowl.
Nearby Attractions
A day trip to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, just 30 miles from the park, is a popular activity. The diamond mine is the only one of its kind in the country, where visitors get to keep any diamonds and semi-precious stones they unearth, regardless of value. Hot Springs National Park known for its naturally headed springs ust an hours drive away offers a multiple bathouses, resturants, and activies. Choctaw nation located just an hour away at Brokenbow offers world class gaming casino as well a variet of natural features and resturants
What the agency tells you
Dierks Lake Project Office: 870-286-2346 Arkansas Game and Fish: 501-223-6459 Howard County Sheriff’s Office: 870-845-2626 Sevier County Sheriff’s Office: 870-642-2125
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 21
- Hookups
- 20 electric, 21 water
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 20 of 21 campsite records
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- SHOWERS on 21 of 21 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 21 of 21 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Lake, River
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hunting
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Swimming
- Water access
19 of 40 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:22 UTC
recreation.gov lists 20 of the 21 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBooked
Watch for a cancellation
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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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $18 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 15:22 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
21 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 20 mapped sitesAll 21 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. 20 of the 21 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Main Loop | Site 1 | type not stated | 30 amp | 699 ft | ||
| Main Loop | Site 10 | standard electric | 30 amp | 55 ft | 396 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 11 | standard electric | 30 amp | 199 ft | 212 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 12 | standard electric | 30 amp | 94 ft | 441 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 13 | standard electric | 30 amp | 52 ft | 415 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 14 | standard electric | 30 amp | 52 ft | 412 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 15 | standard electric | 30 amp | 76 ft | 427 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 16 | standard electric | 30 amp | 53 ft | 461 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 17 | standard electric | 30 amp | 53 ft | 494 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 3 | standard electric | 30 amp | 69 ft | 604 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 4 | standard electric | 30 amp | 59 ft | 499 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 5 | standard electric | 30 amp | 67 ft | 434 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 6 | standard electric | 30 amp | 55 ft | 353 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 7 | standard electric | 30 amp | 105 ft | 259 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 8 | standard electric | 30 amp | 69 ft | 571 ft | $18 |
| Main Loop | Site 9 | standard electric | 30 amp | 59 ft | 491 ft | $18 |
| South Loop | Site 18 | standard electric | 50 amp | 27 ft | 240 ft | $18 |
| South Loop | Site 19 | standard electric | 50 amp | 27 ft | 258 ft | $18 |
| South Loop | Site 20 | standard electric | 50 amp | 42 ft | 255 ft | $18 |
| South Loop | Site 21 | standard electric | 50 amp | 42 ft | 259 ft | $18 |
| South Loop | Site 22 | standard electric | 50 amp | 67 ft | 235 ft | $18 |
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
Horseshoe Bend (Dierks Lake)3.2 mi
Jefferson Ridge3.7 mi
Cossatot Reefs8.0 mi
Big Coon Creek8.9 mi
Little Coon Creek Park9.5 mi
Shady LakeOuachita National Forest · 12 mi466 Blue Ridge Road
Dierks, AR 71833
From Dierks, AR take Highway 70 East toward Kirby and turn North on Highway 278. Travel Highway 278 approximately 6 miles. Turn west on Blue Ridge Road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Dierks, 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
Blue Ridge Park 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 →