Walnut Creek
1Heads up1 fire 12 mi away
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 16 of the next 16 nights read 15:35 UTC
- A night
- $15–$25Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 5248 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
Nestled along the north shore of Keystone Lake, Walnut Creek Recreation Area is surrounded by sandy beaches, high bluffs, native grasses, rock outcrops and rolling hills, making it the ideal retreat for fun and quiet relaxation. Along with camping, boating, and day use opportunities, the park also includes 17 miles of trail for hiking and equestrian access. Keep reading
Recreation
The park has camping, swimming, boat ramp, and 17 miles of hiking/equestrian trails.
Facilities
The park features 2 dump stations, 30 and 50 amp electrical service at campsites and water hookups. The campground has restroom/shower facility, backstop, and boat ramp. Walnut Creek's Sand Plum Trail is approximately 17 miles in length, crossing flat to rolling terrain, and affords many vistas of Keystone Lake. The trail is available to hikers, equestrians, and mountain bike enthusiasts. Trail users are advised to stay on designated trails; quicksand may occur along lakeshore.
Natural Features
Walnut Creek has numerous sandy beaches, rolling hills, native tall grasses, and pine forest.
Nearby Attractions
Keystone Ancient Forest Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve
What the agency tells you
BEGINNING APRIL 1, 2026: Check out time 1:00 PM, Check in time 3:00 PM Prior to April 1, 2026: Check out time is 4:00 PM, Check in time is 6:00 PM Quiet Hours: 10PM to 6AM Entrance gate is locked from 10PM to 6AM. Camping is permitted in designated campsites only. Each campsite is limited to 1 wheeled camping unit and 2 tents, or 3 tents. Camping is limited to 14 days within any 30 day period. Campers must occupy the campsite at least once during each 24 hour period. Campers shall keep their sites free of trash and litter during the period of occupancy and shall remove all personal equipment and clean their sites upon departure. Ground fires are restricted to metal fire rings. These are NOT trash receptacles, please leave them free of food and litter upon departure. All vehicles should have two wheels on pavement at all times; boat trailers are permitted on the grass. Please park extra vehicles in parking lots, not on empty camping pads.
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
- 52 · 1 tent-only
- Hookups
- 46 electric, 49 water, 4 sewer
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- 49 of 52 sites
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “The campground has restroom/shower facility, backstop, and boat ramp.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER (SEASONAL) on 9 of 53 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Jet Skiing
- Kayaking
- Motor Boat
- Mountain biking
- Picnicking
- Sailing
- Scenic drives
- Stargazing
- Night sky · 93rd darkest of 106 in OK
- Bortle 4
42 of 96 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:35 UTC
recreation.gov lists 48 of the 52 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $15–$25 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 15:35 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
53 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 37 mapped sitesAll 53 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. 47 of the 53 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Hitching Post | 10 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 63 ft | 1,099 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 11 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30/50 amp | 29 ft | 1,085 ftKeystone Lake | $25 |
| Hitching Post | 12 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 29 ft | 1,114 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 13 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 34 ft | 1,093 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 14 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 34 ft | 1,060 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 15 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 52 ft | 1,056 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 16 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 52 ft | 1,009 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 17 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 62 ft | 949 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 18 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 96 ft | 952 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 19 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 96 ft | 932 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 20 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 37 ft | 859 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 21 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 37 ft | 886 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 22 | type not stated | 30/50 amp | 996 ftKeystone Lake | |||
| Hitching Post | 23 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 46 ft | 937 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 24 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 46 ft | 897 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 25 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 47 ft | 860 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 26 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 49 ft | 792 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 27 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 41 ft | 779 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 28 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 44 ft | 757 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 29 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 39 ft | 748 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 30 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 39 ft | 709 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 31 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 48 ft | 673 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 32 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 62 ft | 660 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 33 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 72 ft | 667 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 34 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 111 ft | 660 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 35 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 38 ft | 766 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 36 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 38 ft | 786 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 37 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 64 ft | 819 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 38 | type not stated | 30/50 amp | 866 ftKeystone Lake | |||
| Hitching Post | 39 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 86 ft | 880 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 40 | type not stated | 30/50 amp | 923 ftKeystone Lake | |||
| Hitching Post | 8 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 52 ft | 1,036 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Hitching Post | 9 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 52 ft | 1,063 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| New Frontier | 43 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | $25 | |||
| New Frontier | 44 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | $25 | |||
| New Frontier | 45 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | $25 | |||
| New Frontier | 46 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | $25 | |||
| New Frontier | 47 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | $25 | |||
| New Frontier | 48 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | $25 | |||
| New Frontier | 49 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | $25 | |||
| New Frontier | 50 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | $25 | |||
| New Frontier | 51 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | $25 | |||
| Sailboat | 87 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 34 ft | 530 ft | $25 | |
| Sailboat | 88 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 34 ft | 557 ft | $25 | |
| Sailboat | 89 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 43 ft | 599 ft | $25 | |
| Sailboat | 90 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 60 ft | 658 ft | $25 | |
| Sailboat | 91 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 57 ft | 652 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Sailboat | 92 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 48 ft | 616 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Sailboat | 93 | standard electric | 30/50 amp | 48 ft | 610 ftKeystone Lake | $25 | |
| Sailboat | 94 | tent only nonelectric | $15 | ||||
| Sailboat | 95 | type not stated | 30/50 amp | ||||
| Sailboat | 96 | type not stated | 30/50 amp | ||||
| Sailboat | GS1 | day use | 30 amp | $30 |
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 53 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Washington Irving South3.9 mi
Appalachia Bay Recreation Area4.5 mi
Brush Creek Public Use Area7.3 mi
Twin Points9.7 mi
Tall Chief Cove10 mi
Sheppard Point21 miFrom 412 take the 209th Street Exit West of Sand Springs, Drive about 8 mile and turn South on to County Road 1521 just past Prue, OK. Drive about 2 miles to the park entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Prue, OK
Typical weather
Typical October night 50°F, day 74°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
Walnut Creek is in Oklahoma’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Frank Lucas (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →