Panther Bay Park
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $22–$24Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 15All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Panther Bay is conveniently located between the Highway 62 and 101 bridges allowing quick and easy access to several hiking trails, marinas, and boat ramps. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking trails in the area lead nature observers and photographers to picturesque overlooks of the Ozarks. A wide array of fresh water game fish are found in the lake, which is fed by the North Fork River and its tributaries. Bass, walleye, crappie, bream and catfish all make their home here.
Facilities
The campground offers 15 campsites, all with electric hookups and water available for filling holding tanks. Panther Bay Marina and several boat ramps are located nearby to provide easy access to the recreational activities that Norfork Lake has to offer.
Natural Features
Norfork Lake covers 22,000 acres with 550 miles of shoreline. Densely wooded hills and hollows surround the lake in the Ozark Mountains. The North Fork River feeds into the lake, and beyond the dam, extends on to connect with the White River.
Nearby Attractions
Hike the Robinson Point National Recreation Trail for wonderful views of the Ozarks. Just south of the lake, The Ozark National Forest spans 1.2 million acres. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (870) 425-2700.
Charges & Cancellations
Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee.
What the agency tells you
Off-road vehicles are not permitted
No livestock at this facility
No firearms allowed
Everything else this campground posts · 2
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.
STOP THE SPREAD OF INVASIVE SPECIES. Remove plants, seeds, animals, and mud from boots, gear, pets, and vehicles. Clean your gear before entering and leaving the recreation site. Stay on designated roads and trails, and follow local guidelines for firewood. CLEAN, DRAIN, DRY boats and any other recreational equipment that contacts water. Dispose of unwanted bait, worms, fish parts, or other organisms into the trash and not into the environment. For more information visit https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/rec.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 15
- Hookups
- 14 electric, 13 water
- Longest rig
- 68 ft
- Accessible sites
- 15
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 1 of 16 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach, Coast
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 110th darkest of 158 in AR
- Bortle 4
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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, $22–$24 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.
“Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
16 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 16 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 16 of the 16 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 14 of the 16 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.
| Panther Bay Park | 10 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 35 ft | 606 ft | 2,585 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | 11 | standard electric | 64 ft | 30 amp | yes | 65 ft | 643 ft | 2,648 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | 12 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | yes | 40 ft | 685 ft | 2,719 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | 13 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | yes | 61 ft | 689 ft | 2,803 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | 14 | standard electric | 48 ft | 30 amp | yes | 45 ft | 680 ft | 2,836 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | 15 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | yes | 38 ft | 680 ft | 2,877 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | 16 | standard electric | 30 amp | yes | 107 ft | 609 ft | 2,977 ft | $22–$24 | |
| Panther Bay Park | 17 | standard electric | 48 ft | 30 amp | yes | 38 ft | 644 ft | 2,907 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | 18 | standard electric | 58 ft | 30 amp | yes | 45 ft | 655 ft | 2,880 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | 19 | type not stated | 68 ft | 30 amp | yes | 665 ft | 2,855 ft | ||
| Panther Bay Park | 20 | standard electric | 36 ft | 30 amp | yes | 40 ft | 648 ft | 2,727 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | 21 | standard electric | 36 ft | 30 amp | yes | 74 ft | 592 ft | 2,652 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | 22 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | yes | 60 ft | 589 ft | 2,577 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | 8 | standard electric | 28 ft | 30 amp | yes | 73 ft | 573 ft | 2,488 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | 9 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | yes | 35 ft | 590 ft | 2,552 ft | $22–$24 |
| Panther Bay Park | GS1 | day use | yes | 2214 ft | 326 ft | 274 ft | $50 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Henderson Park1.1 mi
Bidwell Point Park1.3 mi
Robinson Point1.4 mi
Gamaliel3.8 mi
Cranfield Park4.6 mi
Dam - Quarry7.8 miFrom Mountain Home, AR, travel approximately 10 miles east on US 412/62. The entrance to the campground will be on the left just before you cross the 62 bridge. Follow signs into campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Henderson, AR
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 26°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
Panther Bay Park 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 →