Willow Beach
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 27 mi
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:07 UTC
- A night
- $26From, per site
- Sites
- 21All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Willow Beach Campground is located near the David D.Terry Lock and Dam of the Arkansas River. The wealth of recreational opportunities in the Arkansas River Valley provides visitors with endless fun for the whole family. Outdoor activities such as camping, picnicking, boating and sightseeing are favorite pastimes. Keep reading
Recreation
Willow Beach has a boat ramp and offers excellent fishing, especially in the old river cutoffs and the tail-waters of the dam and Murry Lock and Dam upstream. Anglers often catch bass, crappie and bream in the Arkansas River. Hunting is available in nearby forests, and there is duck hunting on the waterways. On shore, families enjoy picnicking and using the playground.
Facilities
Willow Beach Campground offers 21 campsites with electric and water hookups, as well as three reservable group picnic shelters for day use. Additional amenities include a dump station, hot showers, a boat ramp and playground.
Natural Features
The park is in a forested area along the riverfront, close to the rolling fields of cotton farms. It is 193 feet above sea level; winters are generally mild and summer temperatures reach the upper 90s with high humidity. Red fox are frequently seen in the park, along with deer and armadillo, and numerous species of waterfowl live in the water and along the shores.
Nearby Attractions
Little Rock, the state capital and largest city of Arkansas, is just minutes away, offering groceries, gas, restaurants and tourist attractions.
What the agency tells you
Campground host is on duty from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
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.
Park is open from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm
Everything else this campground posts · 2
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
- 21
- Hookups
- 21 electric, 21 water
- Longest rig
- 84 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 21
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Additional amenities include a dump station, hot showers, a boat ramp and playground.”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Night sky · 157th darkest of 158 in AR
- Bortle 5
5 of 46 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:07 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $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 16:07 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
24 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 24 mapped sitesAll 24 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. 21 of the 24 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| WBEA | F-01 | standard electric | 80 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 93 ft | 276 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-02 | standard electric | 65 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 107 ft | 333 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-03 | standard electric | 63 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 93 ft | 200 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-04 | standard electric | 62 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 118 ft | 128 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-05 | standard electric | 62 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 74 ft | 253 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-06 | standard electric | 66 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 105 ft | 116 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-07 | standard electric | 66 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 74 ft | 226 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-08 | standard electric | 58 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 105 ft | 126 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-09 | standard electric | 62 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 111 ft | 139 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-10 | standard electric | 65 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 104 ft | 182 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-11 | standard electric | 57 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 84 ft | 149 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-12 | standard electric | 57 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 104 ft | 124 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-13 | standard electric | 55 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 84 ft | 158 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-14 | standard electric | 63 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 77 ft | 60 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-15 | standard electric | 62 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 88 ft | 137 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-16 | standard electric | 58 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 58 ft | 73 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-17 | standard electric | 60 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 43 ft | 114 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-18 | standard electric | 60 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 58 ft | 77 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-19 | standard electric | 84 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 43 ft | 123 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-20 | standard electric | 75 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 120 ft | 110 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | F-21 | standard electric | 84 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 179 ft | 65 ft | $26 |
| WBEA | S1 | day use | 20 amp | yes | 534 ft | 321 ft | $75 | |
| WBEA | S2 | day use | 20 amp | yes | 546 ft | 107 ft | $75 | |
| WBEA | S3 | day use | 20 amp | yes | 2685 ft | 136 ft | $75 |
The agency files 3 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is 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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Tar Camp17 mi
Maumelle19 miSte Marie Park32 mi
Toad Suck35 miLake Sylvia Recreation AreaOuachita National Forest · 41 mi
Rising Star43 miFrom Little Rock, Arkansas, take U.S. Highway 165 east for 2.5 miles. Turn right on Colonel Manard Road and continue for three miles. Turn right again onto Blue Heron Parkway and follow signs to Willow Beach Park.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for North Little Rock, AR
Typical weather
Typical October night 51°F, day 74°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.
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
Willow Beach 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 →