Gunner Pool Recreation Area
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
4/7/25: Sites 20-24 closed until further notice due to flooding. The Gunner Pool Recreation Area offers a campground stretching along the scenic North Sylamore Creek. Campsites are shady and private, but have no electrical or water hook-ups. This recreation area is located within the Sylamore Wildlife Management Area. Hunting is permitted anywhere except within developed recreation areas or where otherwise posted. This management area provides hunting for whitetail deer, wild turkey, black bear, squirrel and other game in season. Keep reading
Visitors can access the Sylamore Hiking Trail via a trailhead located within the Gunner Pool campground. Blanchard Springs Caverns is located just minutes away from this recreation area. The White and Buffalo Rivers border the east and west sides of the district, where visitors can enjoy float fishing and canoeing. Camping- 27 campsites with grills, tables, lantern poles and tent pads. Access is by a steep, winding, dirt road, not recommended for large recreation vehicles. Water available seasonally from April to November Gunner Pool Recreation Area Guide Campground and Day-Use Area Rules
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…for large recreation vehicles. Water available seasonally from April to November Gunner Pool…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 5
What you actually pay
How we know this receipt · 4
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Gunner Pool CampgroundOzark National Forest · 0.0 mi
Blanchard Springs Recreation AreaOzark National Forest · 2.4 miBlanchard Springs CampgroundsOzark National Forest · 2.4 miBarkshed Recreation AreaOzark National Forest · 2.7 mi
Barkshed CampgroundOzark National Forest · 2.7 mi
Dam - Quarry18 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Fifty-Six, AR
Typical weather
Typical October night 45°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 25°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
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Gunner Pool Recreation Area 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 →