Pendleton Bend
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 35 mi
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:10 UTC
- A night
- $22–$26Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 31All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Pendleton Bend Campground and Day Use Park is located on the bank of the Arkansas River. The campground offers 31 campsites, a two lane boatramp, a comfort station with hot showers and restrooms, playground, picnic sites, and a group shelter that can accomodate 75 users. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, fishing, boating, birding, and hunting are all popular activities for visitors. World-class bass and crappie fishing is found in Pool 2, and the tailwaters of the dam provide excellent opportunities to catch a variety of gamefish, especially catfish. A boat ramp is available for access to the Arkansas River. Hiking and birding is available in the nearby Trusten Holder Wildlife Management Area. Many species of waterfowl frequent the lower Arkansas River and its adjacent wetlands making this area a destination for waterfowl hunters.
Facilities
Pendleton Bend offers 31 campsites with electric and water hookups, 25 of which may be reserved. Additional amenities include a boat ramp, comfort station with hot showers and flush toilets, group picnic shelter, and a playground with picnic sites.
Natural Features
Pendleton Bend Campground and Park is located in the lush Eastern Arkansas alluvial bottomland forest in Desha County. Pendleton Bend Campground and Park is approximately 3.5 miles upstream of the Wilbur D. Mills Dam and Arkansas Electric Coop Hydropower Dam. The Campground and Park sits along the track for migratory birds as they come and go from the Gulf of Mexico, making it a destination for birders. Many species of waterfowl frequent the Arkansas River and adjacent wetlands making it a destination for waterfowl hunters.
Nearby Attractions
Nearby, visitors can visit the Arkansas Post National Memorial. Here, Henri de Tonti established the first European village west of the Mississippi River in 1686. In 1819, Arkansas Post became the capital of the Arkansas Territory and remained so until the Civil War. The Dale Bumpers White River Refuge is nearby that offers 160,000 acres of excellent hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing opportunities as well.
What the agency tells you
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.
Only wood and paper products may be placed in the fire rings. All trash must be placed in dumpsters and trash cans.
Limited cellular phone service in the Campground and Park areas.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
No more than 2 tents per campsite, or 1 camper and 1 tent.
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.
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
- 31
- Hookups
- 31 electric, 31 water
- Longest rig
- 115 ft
- Paved pads
- 13 of 31
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 29 of 31 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…comfort station with hot showers and flush toilets, group picnic shelter, and a playground with picnic…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “The campground offers 31 campsites, a two lane boatramp, a comfort station with hot showers and restrooms, playground, picnic sites, and a group shelter that can accomodate 75 users.”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Birding
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Night sky · 55th darkest of 158 in AR
- Bortle 4
48 of 64 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:10 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $22–$26 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 16:10 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
32 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 31 mapped sitesAll 32 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 31 of the 32 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | A-01 | standard electric | 43 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 617 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-02 | standard electric | 103 ft | 50 amp | 93 ft | 683 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-03 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 646 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-04 | standard electric | 115 ft | 50 amp | 123 ft | 778 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-05 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 89 ft | 707 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-06 | standard electric | 76 ft | 50 amp | 108 ft | 789 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-07 | standard electric | 73 ft | 50 amp | 118 ft | 891 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-08 | standard electric | 82 ft | 50 amp | 117 ft | 1,001 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-09 | standard electric | 78 ft | 50 amp | 104 ft | 934 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-10 | standard electric | 85 ft | 50 amp | 104 ft | 1,036 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-11 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 112 ft | 1,031 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-12 | standard electric | 106 ft | 50 amp | 112 ft | 920 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-13 | standard electric | 102 ft | 50 amp | 120 ft | 1,016 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-14 | standard electric | 87 ft | 50 amp | 93 ft | 866 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-15 | standard electric | 87 ft | 50 amp | 118 ft | 948 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-16 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 104 ft | 868 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-17 | standard electric | 93 ft | 50 amp | 93 ft | 833 ft | $22–$26 |
| A | A-18 | standard electric | 97 ft | 50 amp | 98 ft | 783 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | B-01 | standard electric | 52 ft | 30 amp | 145 ft | 294 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | B-02 | standard electric | 56 ft | 30 amp | 145 ft | 414 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | B-03 | standard electric | 102 ft | 30 amp | 149 ft | 471 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | B-04 | standard electric | 82 ft | 30 amp | 104 ft | 522 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | B-05 | standard electric | 88 ft | 30 amp | 104 ft | 498 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | B-06 | standard electric | 78 ft | 30 amp | 97 ft | 527 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | B-07 | standard electric | 86 ft | 30 amp | 97 ft | 517 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | B-08 | standard electric | 52 ft | 30 amp | 130 ft | 478 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | B-09 | standard electric | 93 ft | 30 amp | 135 ft | 632 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | B-10 | standard electric | 77 ft | 30 amp | 135 ft | 714 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | C-01 | standard electric | 80 ft | 30 amp | 184 ft | 146 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | C-02 | standard electric | 83 ft | 30 amp | 185 ft | 160 ft | $22–$26 |
| B | C-03 | standard electric | 78 ft | 30 amp | 219 ft | 177 ft | $22–$26 |
| PBEN | GL1 | day use | 15 amp | 363 ft | $75 |
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.
25 of 32 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Notrebes Bend Park3.0 mi
Wilbur D. Mills3.0 mi
Merrisach Lake6.2 mi
Rising Star25 miSte Marie Park38 mi
Tar Camp54 miFrom Dumas, Arkansas, take US-165 north for 9 miles to State Route 212. Head east for 2 miles and follow signs to the park.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Watson, AR
Typical weather
Typical October night 55°F, day 75°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 35°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
Pendleton Bend 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 →