U.S. Forest Service · Ozark National Forest · AR

Shores Lake Recreation Area

ReservableBooking 6 months out; today unlocks April 16. Season not published.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
Sites
2725 on recreation.gov
650 ftElevation
634 ftWater · Hurricane Creek
9 miNE of Mulberry, AR
84%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 75th darkest of 158 in AR

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

This location is available on a first-come, first-served basis only. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the campground to purchase and claim a site. Once on-site, you may be able to pay for your campsite(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app, and the Scan and Pay feature. If this option is available, you will need to first download the free Recreation.gov mobile app https://www.recreation.gov/mobile-app prior to your arrival as some remote areas have limited or no cellular service.

Tents and rigs

Sites
27
Hookups
7 electric
Accessible sites
None listed
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

No reading yet, book on recreation.gov

recreation.gov lists 25 of the 27 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.

No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.

Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 9

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s nothing to add the $8 booking fee to. We won’t total a receipt with a number missing from it.
If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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 · 4

rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

28 records

All 28 records

Shores Lake Campground02standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground03standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground04standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground05standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground06standard electric
Shores Lake Campground07standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground08standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground09standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground10standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground11standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground12standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground13standard electric
Shores Lake Campground14standard electric
Shores Lake Campground15standard electric
Shores Lake Campground16standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground17standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground18standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground19standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground20standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground21standard nonelectric
Shores Lake Campground22standard electric
Shores Lake Campground23standard electric
Shores Lake Campground24standard electric
Shores Lake CampgroundHost Sitehost pad
Shores Lake Campground LoopCampsite 1type not stated
Shores Lake Campground LoopCampsite 2type not stated
Shores Lake Campground LoopCampsite 3type not stated
Shores Lake Campground LoopStandardstandard nonelectric

The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.

25 of 28 listed

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the phone number

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight44°Partly Cloudy
Saturday66°Sunny
Saturday Night42°Clear
Sunday67°Sunny

NWS forecast for Mulberry, AR

Typical weather

Typical October night 50°F, day 73°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.

100°32°20°

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.

Measured at: OZARK 2, AR (USC00035512), 11 miles away and 180 ft higher

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Devils Canyon1,877 acres · 5 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Bruce Westerman, official portrait

Shores Lake Recreation 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate: the number below is the only way to be sure.
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.