U.S. Forest Service · AR

South Fourche Recreation Area

First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.

This is how it should work.

Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
Drawn from the record · 480 ft · 75% tree cover · South Fourche LaFave River within reach · Bortle 4 sky
480 ftElevation
215 ftWater · South Fourche LaFave River
11.6 miNW of Hot Springs Village, AR
75%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 74th darkest of 158 in AR

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

Convenient roadside picnic area and campground located on Scenic Highway 7 Byway. This campground also provides floating access to the South Fourche River

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
River
Source: Stated in the agency description

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.

BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 4

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.
Day Use: Free Campground$5/night
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this

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Getting there

the map and the coordinate
Coordinate34.86968, -93.10927

Where it is

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight41°Mostly Clear
Saturday66°Sunny
Saturday Night37°Clear
Sunday72°Sunny

NWS forecast for Aplin, AR

Typical weather

Typical October night 51°F, day 76°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 31°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: NIMROD DAM, AR (USC00035200), 7 miles away and at about the same elevation

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it

Who answers for this land

J. French Hill, official portrait

South Fourche Recreation Area is in Arkansas’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, J. French Hill (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.
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.
Nearest place of any size: Aplin, AR, 9 mi SW (a census designated place). Straight line.