Waveland Park
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:04 UTC
- A night
- $24–$26Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 51All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Waveland Park Campground is located on the beautiful Blue Mountain Lake near Waveland, Arkansas. Visitors are greeted with shaded campsites, spectacular scenery and many outdoor recreation opportunities. Blue Mountain Lake provides the ideal spot to get away from it all, relax and enjoy fishing, boating, hunting, hiking and more. Keep reading
Recreation
Families, anglers, boaters, hikers, water skiers and hunters are drawn to the lake for its recreational activities. Forests around the lake are also open to hunting. The lakeshore around Waveland Park Campground provides prime bank fishing opportunities for crappie, largemouth and white bass, bream and catfish. Families can make use of the playground and the shady, cypress tree-lined swimming area, as well as the amphitheater, which provides educational programs. The J. Perry Mikels Blue Mountain Special Use Area on the west end of the lake has a world-class bird dog field trial area that attracts visitors from throughout the United States and several other countries. Anyone may use the facilities to train dogs.
Facilities
Visitors can select from 51 shaded campsites (all reservable) with electric and water hookups, as well as one group picnic shelter for day use that can accommodate up to 150 people. Additional amenities include hot showers and a dump station. Anglers and boaters are attracted to the boat ramp and fish cleaning station.
Natural Features
Blue Mountain Lake is situated in the shadow of Mt. Magazine, the highest mountain in Arkansas and the tallest between the Rockies and Alleghenies. Farmland, rolling green mountains and two national forests surround the lake, adding to the natural beauty of the area. The lake shore consists of mixed pine and hardwood forests, wetlands and grasslands, which provide habitat for many native wildlife species.
Nearby Attractions
The lake is situated between the Ozark and Ouachita National Forest, and Mt. Magazine State Park is within a 30-minute drive. Additional information for local attractions is available at chambers of commerce in nearby towns.
What the agency tells you
We have combined the Waveland and Outlet gatehouses to more efficiently serve you. We are using the Outlet area gatehouse only. It is located at the top of the hill directly in front of the project office.
All sites are reservable.
Park attendants are on duty from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. & 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Certain areas of the lake and parks may close due to high lake levels or storm damage
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
- 51
- Hookups
- 51 electric, 51 water
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Additional amenities include hot showers and a dump station.”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Night sky · 48th darkest of 158 in AR
- Bortle 4
62 of 104 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:04 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.
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, $24–$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 16:04 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
52 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 52 mapped sitesAll 52 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. 51 of the 52 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| WAVE | 01 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 80 ft | 289 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 02 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 246 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 03 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 220 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 04 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 101 ft | 344 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 05 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 101 ft | 278 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 06 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 163 ft | 201 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 07 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 91 ft | 505 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 08 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 132 ft | 438 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 09 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 91 ft | 568 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 10 | standard electric | 51 ft | 50 amp | 118 ft | 482 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 11 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 113 ft | 599 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 12 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 94 ft | 469 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 13 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 94 ft | 563 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 14 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 102 ft | 458 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 15 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 111 ft | 564 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 16 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 102 ft | 474 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 17 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 66 ft | 620 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 18 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 559 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 19 | standard electric | 46 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 642 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 20 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 591 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 21 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 618 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 22 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 73 ft | 625 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 23 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 59 ft | 606 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 24 | standard electric | 46 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 681 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 25 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 59 ft | 603 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 26 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 729 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 27 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 604 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 28 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 739 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 29 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 597 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 30 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 590 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 31 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 555 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 32 | standard electric | 32 ft | 30 amp | 77 ft | 385 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 33 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 94 ft | 415 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 34 | standard electric | 33 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 460 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 35 | standard electric | 34 ft | 50 amp | 88 ft | 527 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 36 | standard electric | 37 ft | 50 amp | 73 ft | 569 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 37 | standard electric | 29 ft | 30 amp | 77 ft | 313 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 38 | standard electric | 42 ft | 30 amp | 78 ft | 363 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 39 | standard electric | 39 ft | 30 amp | 57 ft | 397 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 40 | standard electric | 36 ft | 30 amp | 57 ft | 422 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 41 | standard electric | 36 ft | 30 amp | 44 ft | 449 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 42 | standard electric | 39 ft | 30 amp | 44 ft | 465 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 43 | standard electric | 42 ft | 30 amp | 73 ft | 514 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 44 | standard electric | 48 ft | 30 amp | 113 ft | 602 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 45 | standard electric | 39 ft | 30 amp | 85 ft | 529 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 46 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 85 ft | 478 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 47 | standard electric | 36 ft | 30 amp | 106 ft | 384 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 48 | standard electric | 57 ft | 30 amp | 137 ft | 320 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 49 | standard electric | 42 ft | 30 amp | 115 ft | 240 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 50 | standard electric | 48 ft | 30 amp | 115 ft | 336 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | 51 | standard electric | 18 ft | 30 amp | 132 ft | 234 ft | $24–$26 |
| WAVE | GS1 | day use | 15 amp | 158 ft | 388 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 52 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Outlet Area0.6 mi
Cove Lake Recreation AreaOzark National Forest · 8.3 miJack Creek Recreation AreaOuachita National Forest · 12 mi
Spring Lake Recreation AreaOzark National Forest · 14 mi
Sorghum HollowOzark National Forest · 15 mi
Shoal Bay19 miFrom Booneville, Arkansas, follow State Highway 10 east for 17 miles to Waveland. Turn right on State Highway 309 and drive for one mile. Turn right again onto Waveland Park Road and continue another mile to Blue Mountain Dam, then follow signs into the park.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Blue Mountain, AR
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 75°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 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
Waveland Park 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 →