Cowhide Cove
1Heads up1 fire 28 mi away
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:08 UTC
- A night
- $16–$22Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 5049 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cowhide Cove Campground is located on Lake Greeson on the beautiful Little Missouri River in Pike County, Arkansas. The lake is approximately 12 miles long with 7,260 surface acres of water for water sports, picnicking and hiking along the forested lake shore. Keep reading
Recreation
Lake Greeson is recognized for its rich variety of game fish, including large mouth, stripped, spotted, small mouth and white bass, as well as flathead and channel catfish, black and white crappie, walleye and blue gill. The tail-waters of the Little Missouri River below the dam also support a healthy population of rainbow trout and small mouth bass. Boating is another popular activity. The beautiful clear waters offer an excellent opportunity for many boating activities including water skiing, tubing, cruising and fishing. Four marinas at Lake Greeson offer boaters fuel, boat rentals and picnic and fishing supplies. Lake Greeson offers 30 miles of walking, nature and cycling trails for public use. There is a short nature trail in the campground for naturalists, birders and families to enjoy. The best opportunity for hunting lies within the Lake Greeson Wildlife Management Area. Deer, quail, turkey, squirrel and rabbits are the primary game.
Facilities
Cowhide Cove Campground offers 50 campsites, including 48 sites with electric hookups and two tent-only sites without electric hookups. The campsites have picnic tables, ground grills, pedestal grills and lantern poles. Other amenities include a dump station, hot showers, a boat ramp, playground and swim beach.
Natural Features
Central Arkansas is mild and somewhat humid in spring and fall, hot and very humid in summer and variable in winter, where temperatures may range from below freezing to the 60s. Loblolly pine, shortleaf pine, sweet gum and oak are the dominant tree species on upland areas of the lake, while bottomland hardwoods are common along rivers, creeks and streams that enter the lake. The public lands around Lake Greeson provide a variety of habitats for numerous species of wildlife, including white-tailed deer, wild turkey, geese, southern bald eagles, migratory waterfowl and songbirds. Bald eagles are an attraction for visitors each winter.
Nearby Attractions
Ouachita National Forest and Hot Springs National Park are within a two-hour drive from the campground. Crater of Diamonds State Park is within 30 miles of the campground. It is the only diamond-producing site in the world open to the public.
What the agency tells you
Campers must have a reservation confirmation number before setting up on a campsite. All transactions must be made through recreation.gov or by calling 877-444-6777.
Check-Out time is 4:00 pm and Check-In time is 6:00 pm.
If arriving more than 24 hours after the start of your reservation, call (870) 285-2151 or your reservation will be cancelled and a $20 No-Show fee plus the cost of the first night’s stay will be charged.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Dumping of “Gray” Water is prohibited. Dump Station is available for proper disposal of waste liquid generated during authorized recreational activities.
Sanitation: All garbage, trash, litter should be deposited in receptacles (trash cans) for that purpose DAILY. Do not place in fire ring or in large trash bags hanging from lantern post, trees, etc. Trash is picked up daily.
All campers/day users are required to keep their site free of trash and litter during occupancy and remove all personal equipment and clean their site upon departure.
Pets must be caged, penned, or kept on a 6-foot leash. PETS MUST NOT BE LEFT UNATTENDED. All animal waste must be properly disposed of. Pets are prohibited in sanitary facilities, playgrounds, and swimming beaches.
Quite hours are between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am.
During the Peak Season (1 May to Labor Day) 14-day Maximum Length of Stay (NO EXTENSIONS WILL BE GRANTED).
Please refer to this link for a complete list of rules and regulations Rules and Regulations
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 50 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- 49 electric, 48 water, 11 sewer
- Longest rig
- 54 ft
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Other amenities include a dump station, hot showers, a boat ramp, playground and swim beach.”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Night sky · 16th darkest of 158 in AR
- Bortle 3
Something open on 30 of the next 30 bookable nightsread 15:08 UTC
recreation.gov lists 49 of the 50 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
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, $16–$22 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 15:08 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
50 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 49 mapped sitesAll 50 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. 47 of the 50 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| COWHIDE 2 | 42 | standard electric | 24 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 113 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE 2 | 43 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 96 ft | 106 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE 2 | 44 | standard electric | 26 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 106 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE 2 | 45 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 96 ft | 52 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE 2 | 46 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 103 ft | under 10 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE 2 | 47 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 96 ft | 28 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE 2 | 48 | standard electric | 33 ft | 50 amp | 108 ft | 22 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE 2 | 49 | standard electric | 33 ft | 50 amp | 120 ft | 73 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE 2 | 50 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 120 ft | 158 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 01 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 267 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 02 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 261 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 03 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 51 ft | 217 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 04 | standard electric | 44 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 240 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 05 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 275 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 06 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 294 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 07 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 56 ft | 311 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 08 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 42 ft | 314 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 09 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 42 ft | 351 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 10 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 83 ft | 137 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 11 | standard electric | 44 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 125 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 12 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 130 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 13 | standard electric | 44 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 137 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 14 | standard electric | 47 ft | 50 amp | 41 ft | 134 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 15 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 41 ft | 134 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 16 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 153 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 17 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 110 ft | 141 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 18 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 56 ft | 122 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 19 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 56 ft | 123 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 20 | standard electric | 26 ft | 50 amp | 80 ft | 90 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 21 | standard electric | 41 ft | 50 amp | 86 ft | 65 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 22 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 75 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 23 | standard electric | 37 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 73 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 24 | standard electric | 37 ft | 50 amp | 109 ft | 85 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 25 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 105 ft | 72 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 26 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 105 ft | 68 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 27 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 112 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 28 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 180 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 29 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 109 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 30 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 84 ft | 108 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 31 | standard electric | 34 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 87 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 32 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 79 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 33 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 90 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 34 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 97 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 35 | tent only electric | 30 amp | 64 ft | 52 ft | |||
| COWHIDE COVE | 36 | tent only electric | 30 amp | 64 ft | 12 ft | |||
| COWHIDE COVE | 37 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | yes | 64 ft | 142 ft | $20–$22 |
| COWHIDE COVE | 38 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 168 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 39 | type not stated | 54 ft | 50 amp | 282 ft | |||
| COWHIDE COVE | 40 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 356 ft | $20–$22 | |
| COWHIDE COVE | 41 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 62 ft | 403 ft | $20–$22 |
25 of 50 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Dam Area3.0 mi
Kirby Landing4.2 mi
Bear Creek (AR)4.3 mi
Parker Creek5.0 mi
Self Creek6.8 mi
Arrowhead Point9.2 miFrom Hot Springs, Arkansas, take Highway 70 west for 41 miles to Kirby. Continue onto Route 27 south for 5 miles to Cowhide Cove Access Road. Turn right on the access road and drive 2 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Kirby, AR
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 74°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Cowhide Cove 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 →