Buckhorn Pavilion
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 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:21 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Buckhorn Pavilion provides a scenic opportunity to rent a day-use space for your next outdoor event or celebration. Located at the end of Buckhorn Road, it is approximately 10 minutes from the town of Sulphur and is an ideal spot for hosting birthday parties and other gatherings with friends and family. Ample parking and a spacious lakeside view make this pavilion ideal for larger groups. Note: Buckhorn Pavilion is not a campsite. Overnight stays are not permitted. Keep reading
Recreation
Bring a swimsuit for quality swimming. The grass-covered grounds near the pavilion are spacious and ideal for games like frisbee and cornhole.
Facilities
The pavilion is available year-round, with generally mild winters. Picnic tables and charcoal grills are available for use, so don't forget to pack the hot dogs or steaks. No electricity is provided at this location, but a boat launch is easily accessible.
Natural Features
Lake of the Arbuckles is a popular fishing and recreational destination in southeastern Oklahoma. The lake is part of the Chickasaw National Recreation Area and offers 36 miles of shoreline and 2,300 acres of open water. It's known for clear water and is a good spot for trolling and fishing, with species like catfish, crappie, bass, and perch commonly caught. The lake also provides year-round fishing opportunities.
Nearby Attractions
The Platt Historic District, approximately 10 minutes away, offers a variety of scenic hiking trails. Stop by the Travertine Nature Center for Junior Ranger books, National Park passport stamps, and to see native wildlife on display.
What the agency tells you
Buckhorn Pavilion has limited cell service and no electric hookups. Potable water is available. Please plan accordingly.
Wildlife may be nearby. All food must be kept in approved containers and disposed of in nearby dumpsters.
Recreational and medical marijuana are not permitted in Chickasaw National Recreation Area at any time.
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Accessible Swimming
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Ranger Station
- Swimming
- Water access
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 68th darkest of 106 in OK
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:21 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.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:40 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:21 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 · 15
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 · 2
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:40 UTC
- Buckhorn Campground (Chickasaw)Chickasaw National Recreation Area · 1.3 mi · 6 of 82 site-nights open
- Cold Springs Campground (Chickasaw)Chickasaw National Recreation Area · 5.2 mi · 78 of 128 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:21 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
| BUCKHORN PAVILION | 001 | day use | 16 ft | yes | 124 ft | $30 |
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
Buckhorn Campground (Chickasaw)Chickasaw National Recreation Area · 1.3 miBuckhorn Campground Loop AChickasaw National Recreation Area · 1.3 mi
The Point Campground (Chickasaw)Chickasaw National Recreation Area · 1.7 miFrom I-35, take Exit 55 or 51 and drive towards the city of Davis, OK. Once in Davis, go east on Highway 7 and watch for Chickasaw National Recreation Area signs to direct you to your selected area. For the Buckhorn campgrounds, boat ramp, pavilion, and picnic areas, drive approximately 9 miles east on Highway 7 in Davis to the only 4 way stop (Jct Hwy 7 and Hwy 177) in the city of Sulphur. Turn right and drive approximately 5 miles on Hwy 177. Turn right at Buckhorn Road and watch for signs to direct you to the correct area. Follow the directional signs. The pavilion is located at the end of Buckhorn Road near the boat ramp parking area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sulphur, OK
Typical weather
Typical October night 50°F, day 75°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 28°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 · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Buckhorn Pavilion is in Oklahoma’s 4th congressional district. Its representative, Tom Cole (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 moneyTom ColeU.S. Representative · Oklahoma’s 4th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAlan ArmstrongU.S. Senator · Oklahoma
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJames LankfordU.S. Senator · Oklahoma
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 Buckhorn Pavilion, Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Oklahoma
Dear Tom Cole, I’m a constituent in Oklahoma’s 4th district. I tried to camp at Buckhorn Pavilion, Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Oklahoma, and couldn’t. Every site at Buckhorn Pavilion 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. Buckhorn Pavilion keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Buckhorn Pavilion. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service 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 Buckhorn Pavilion (Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Oklahoma) 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 Buckhorn Pavilion, Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Oklahoma
Dear Alan Armstrong, I’m a constituent in Oklahoma. I tried to camp at Buckhorn Pavilion, Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Oklahoma, and couldn’t. Every site at Buckhorn Pavilion 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. Buckhorn Pavilion keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Buckhorn Pavilion. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service 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 Buckhorn Pavilion (Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Oklahoma) 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 Buckhorn Pavilion, Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Oklahoma
Dear James Lankford, I’m a constituent in Oklahoma. I tried to camp at Buckhorn Pavilion, Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Oklahoma, and couldn’t. Every site at Buckhorn Pavilion 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. Buckhorn Pavilion keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Buckhorn Pavilion. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service 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 Buckhorn Pavilion (Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Oklahoma) via campanac.com