Winding Stair Campground (OK)
1Heads up1 fire 46 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $3–$14Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2524 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
Winding Stair Campground sits along the Talimena Scenic Byway. The mountain-top campground offers scenic views from Emerald Vista located adjacent to the campground. During the Spring and Fall seasons, cool mountain temperatures enhance the camping experience. The campground is open year-round and serves as a trailhead for the Ouachita National Recreation Trail. All RV/Tent campsites in the campground have paved surfaces and gravel tent pads for setting tents up at the site. The Backpackers Camp, located adjacent to the campground offer designated tent pads for tent placement. Keep reading
This location is available on a first-come, first served basis only. Visitors are required to physiclaly arrive at the campground to purchase and claim a site. Once on-site, you can pay for your campsite(s) with cash, check, money order, or by scanning a QR code using the Recreaion.gov mobile app. Please download the Recreation.gov app prior to arrival as some remote areas have limited or no cell service.
Recreation
The Winding Stair Campground is the only campground in Oklahoma along with Talimena Scenic Byway that provides developed campsites. Located along the Ouachita National Recreation Trail (OT), the campground serves as a trailhead for the OT.
Facilities
Developed RV/Tent campsites, paved roadway and campsites, vault toilets. Currently there is not water available at the campground. No electricity available at campground.
Natural Features
Mountain top and valley views can be seen from Emerald Vista located adjacent to the campground. All campsites in the campground are well shaded. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (918) 653-2991.
Nearby Attractions
Ouachita National Recreation Trail: https://friendsoftheouachita.org/wp/ Cedar Lake Recreation Area, Campground and Equestrian Camp Talimena Scenic Byway Charges & Cancellations Once payment is made on-site, we do not offer refunds or modifications.
What the agency tells you
Currently, no water is available at the campground.
We offer first-come, first-served campsites. You will need to pay after arriving on site either at the kiosk with cash/check/money order or by scanning our facility QR code using the Recretion.gov mobile app. Please download the Recreation.gov app prior to arrival as some remote areas have limited or no cell service.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 25
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…campsites, paved roadway and campsites, vault toilets. Currently there is not water available at the…”
- Cell signal
- Little or none
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Auto Touring
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Observation Site
- Picnicking
- Scenic drives
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:42 UTC
recreation.gov lists 24 of the 25 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 16
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $3–$14 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.
“Once payment is made on-site, we do not offer refunds or modifications.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:42 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
25 sites
All 25 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 25 of the 25 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Scan & Pay | Backpackers Camp -Tent Only | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Scan & Pay | Scan and Pay Double | type not stated | $14 |
| Winding Stair | 01 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 02 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 03 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 04 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 05 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 06 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 07 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 08 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 09 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 10 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 11 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 12 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 13 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 14 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 15 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 16 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 17 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 18 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 19 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 20 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 21 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 22 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
| Winding Stair | 23 | standard nonelectric | $8–$14 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Cedar Lake (Oklahoma)Indian Nations National Scenic And Wildlife Area · 3.2 miBilly Creek Recreation AreaOuachita National Forest · 3.6 miCedar Lake Recreation AreaWinding Stair Mountain National Recreation Area · 4.5 miLittle Pines Recreation AreaOuachita National Forest · 26 mi
Little Pines CampgroundOuachita National Forest · 26 mi
Shady Lake Campground28 miThe campground is located on the Talimena Scenic Drive (Oklahoma State Highway 1), two miles west of US Highway 259 junction.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Hodgen, OK
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°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.
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
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Winding Stair Campground (OK) is in Oklahoma’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Josh Brecheen (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →