Outlet Area
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:59 UTC
- A night
- $24–$52Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 38All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Please note that the sites have been renumbered on the pavement and have now been updated in the system. Outlet Area Park is located on the beautiful Blue Mountain Lake near Waveland, Arkansas. Visitors are greeted with shaded campsites, spectacular scenery and many outdoor recreation opportunities. Blue Mountain Lake provides the ideal spot to get away from it all, relax and enjoy fishing, boating, hunting, hiking and more. Keep reading
Recreation
Families, anglers, boaters, hikers, water skiers and hunters are drawn to the lake for its recreational activities. Forests around the lake are also open to hunting. The river channel through Outlet Area Park provides prime bank fishing opportunities for crappie, largemouth and white bass, bream and catfish. Families can make use of Outlet Area's playground, and the shady, cypress tree-lined swimming area in nearby Waveland Park. The J. Perry Mikels Blue Mountain Special Use Area on the west end of the lake has a world-class bird dog field trial area that attracts visitors from throughout the United States and several other countries. Anyone may use the facilities to train dogs.
Facilities
Visitors can choose from 26 reservable and 12 non-reservable campsites, with electricity and water hookups, including three multi-family sites. Most sites are waterfront; a few are just a short walk away from the water. Anglers have the convenience of a fish cleaning station.
Natural Features
Blue Mountain Lake is situated in the shadow of Mt. Magazine, the highest mountain in Arkansas and the tallest between the Rockies and Alleghenies. Farmland, rolling green mountains and two national forests surround the lake, adding to the natural beauty of the area. The lake shore consists of mixed pine and hardwood forests, wetlands and grasslands, which provide habitat for many native wildlife species. Outlet Area Park is located just downstream of Blue Mountain Dam. Water flow from the dam travels down the river channel through the park as it heads further down in the Petit Jean River Valley.
Nearby Attractions
The lake is situated between the Ozark and Ouachita National Forest, and Mt. Magazine State Park is within a 30-minute drive. Additional information for local attractions is available at chambers of commerce in nearby towns.
What the agency tells you
We have combined the Waveland and Outlet gatehouses to more efficiently serve you. We are using the Outlet area gatehouse only. It is located at the top of the hill directly in front of the project office.
Please note that the sites have been renumbered on the pavement and have now been updated in this program.
Park attendants are on duty from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. & 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
First come, first served sites may be available outside the reservation season
Certain areas of the lake and parks may close due to high lake levels or storm damage
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 38
- Hookups
- 38 electric, 38 water
- Longest rig
- 72 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 42 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Night sky · 47th darkest of 158 in AR
- Bortle 4
52 of 76 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:59 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, $24–$52 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 15:59 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
38 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 38 mapped sites2 sites share one published coordinate and are left out of the rankings.
All 38 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. 38 of the 38 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.
| LBAN | 01 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 63 ft | 272 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| LBAN | 02 | standard electric | 38 ft | 30 amp | 63 ft | 210 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| LBAN | 03 | standard electric | 38 ft | 30 amp | 64 ft | 200 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| LBAN | 04 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 117 ft | 230 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| LBAN | 05 | standard electric | 32 ft | 30 amp | 131 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 | |
| LBAN | 06 | standard electric | 46 ft | 30 amp | 131 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 | |
| LBAN | 07 | standard electric | 42 ft | 30 amp | 92 ft | 74 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| LBAN | 08 | standard electric | 42 ft | 30 amp | 45 ft | 112 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| LBAN | 09 | standard electric | 42 ft | 30 amp | 45 ft | 122 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| LBAN | 10 | standard electric | 48 ft | 30 amp | 43 ft | 158 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| LBAN | 11 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 43 ft | 159 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| LBAN | 12 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 180 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 13 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 111 ft | 280 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 14 | standard electric | 31 ft | 30 amp | 101 ft | 311 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 15 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 101 ft | 282 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 16 | standard electric | 32 ft | 30 amp | 59 ft | 185 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 17 | standard electric | 32 ft | 30 amp | 113 ft | 178 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 18 | standard electric | 33 ft | 30 amp | 59 ft | 130 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 19 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 65 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 20 | standard electric | 57 ft | 30 amp | 66 ft | 54 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 21 | standard electric | 54 ft | 30 amp | 66 ft | 58 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 22 | standard electric | 34 ft | 30 amp | 70 ft | 57 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 23 | standard electric | 26 ft | 30 amp | 53 ft | 77 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 24 | standard electric | 51 ft | 30 amp | 53 ft | 99 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 25 | standard electric | 51 ft | 30 amp | 70 ft | 113 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 26 | standard electric | 72 ft | 30 amp | 50 ft | 116 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 27 | standard electric | 72 ft | 30 amp | 50 ft | 128 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 28 | standard electric | 57 ft | 30 amp | 61 ft | 155 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 29 | standard electric | 57 ft | 50 amp | 61 ft | 166 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 30 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 38 ft | 170 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 31 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 38 ft | 165 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 32 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 135 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 33 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 51 ft | 131 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 34 | standard electric | 68 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 85 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 35 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 83 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 36 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 88 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 37 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 70 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
| RBAN | 38 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 66 ftPetit Jean River | $24–$52 |
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 38 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Waveland Park0.6 mi
Cove Lake Recreation AreaOzark National Forest · 8.7 miJack Creek Recreation AreaOuachita National Forest · 12 mi
Spring Lake Recreation AreaOzark National Forest · 13 mi
Sorghum HollowOzark National Forest · 15 mi
Shoal Bay19 miFrom Booneville, Arkansas, follow State Highway 10 east for 17 miles to Waveland. Turn right on State Highway 309 and drive for one mile. Turn right again onto Waveland Park Road and continue another mile. Turn left on Outlet Park Road near the Blue Mountain Lake Field Office. The park is located south of Blue Mountain Dam.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Blue Mountain, AR
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°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 Julys are colder than the July 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
Outlet Area 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 →