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4.0
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Bull Shoals-White River State Park Campground

153 Dam Overlook Ln, Bull Shoals, Arkansas 72619-2845 USA

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Fri 8a-5p
  • Independent
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    Accepted
  • Pet Friendly
  • Not Wheelchair
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  • Public
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“enjoy the ozark beauty!”

In north central Arkansas amidst the natural beauty of the Ozark Mountains, Bull Shoals-White River State Park stretches along the riverside and lakeshore where the White River and Bull Shoals Lake join at the Bull Shoals dam. Together these waters form one of the nation’s finest fishing and boating combinations. The White River is renowned as mid-America’s premier trout stream, famous for its record rainbow and brown trout. Bull Shoals Dam forms Bull Shoals Lake, Arkansas’s largest lake with 45,440 acres of waters stretching along Arkansas's northern border and into southern Missouri. Anglers are drawn to the lake's catches of lunker bass, catfish, crappie, and bream. Water sports enthusiasts can enjoy boating and swimming in these clear open waters. The park is a popular camping destination that features 102 campsites along or near the river (34 Class AAA, four Class A, 44 Class B, 20 Tent Sites with no hookups), one Rent-A-Camp, and three Rent-An-RV). Interpretive programs, workshops, and nature camps are offered in the park throughout the year. Park facilities include picnic areas, standard pavilions, playgrounds, hiking trails, and a multi-use trail. The park's marina/store offers boat, motor, kayak and canoe rentals; and, in addition, supplies, equipment, and gifts for sale.The park visitor center is situated on a high point across the dam from the rest of the park's facilities. The center affords a sweeping view of the White River, Bull Shoals Dam, and Bull Shoals Lake. This 15,744-square-foot visitor/education center is named in honor of Jim Gaston of Lakeview, owner of Arkansas’s renowned Gaston’s White River Resort. The James A. Gaston Visitor Center serves as the primary visitor contact point at Bull Shoals-White River State Park, and is the focal point for the interpretation of the White River, Bull Shoals Dam, Bull Shoals Lake. Interpretive exhibits are featured throughout the lobby, gift shop, Johnboat Theater, and 1,720-square-foot Exhibit Hall filled with images of the river, lake and dam. These state-of-the art exhibits, and the video presentation in the Johnboat Theater, share the history and tell of the fish these waters hold. The center also includes an observation tower, gift shop, two classrooms, and the park staff's offices.

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Reviews of Bull Shoals-White River State Park Campground

24 people have reviewed this location

Ratings Summary

4.5 Access
4.7 Location
4.7 Cleanliness
4.6 Site Quality
4.5 Noise

Cell Coverage

Verizon 4G/5G

Confirmed by 10 users | Last reported on April 02, 2024

AT&T 4G/5G

Confirmed by 2 users | Last reported on September 23, 2022

T-Mobile 4G/5G

Confirmed by 7 users | Last reported on October 27, 2023
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Reviewed by
Campendium

June 01, 2020
Rated

This is a beautifully placed campground along the White River. The sites are large, paved and most offer shade. We stayed at a site that backed up along the river with water & electric hook up (full hook ups are also available) This campground also has great hiking trails with amazing views of the dam and river. This would definitely be a place we'd return to.

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This reviewer would stay here again

Nightly Rate: $36.00

Days Stayed: 2

Site Number: -

5 Access
5 Location
5 Cleanliness
5 Site Quality
5 Noise
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Reviewed by
Campendium

June 03, 2020
Rated

We've stayed here 4 or 5 times a year at different seasons, it's always a great place to stay and the staff is awesome at helping you with anything you may need. Their's just about anything you want to do here and in the area, I would recommend call first, some of the site's book up fast.

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This reviewer would stay here again

Nightly Rate: $36.00

Days Stayed: 4

Site Number: #11 #74 #10 #49 #87

5 Access
5 Location
5 Cleanliness
5 Site Quality
5 Noise

Cell Coverage Rating

T-Mobile 4G

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Reviewed by
Campendium

June 03, 2020
Rated

This is one of the nicest state park campgrounds we have stayed in. Our site was right on the river full hookup. Splurge and hire a guide to trout fish on the river. You won’t be disappointed

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This reviewer would stay here again

Nightly Rate: $36.00

Days Stayed: 4

Site Number: 74

5 Access
5 Location
5 Cleanliness
5 Site Quality
5 Noise
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Reviewed by
Campendium

June 22, 2020
Rated

Not a very friendly place, they made us move 3 times after we lost our cat, even though we asked for a spot we could pay for daily for a week. The spots they moved us from didn't have anyone occupying them after we moved. Decent views and water access, but will look elsewhere on the river in the future.

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Nightly Rate: $25.00

Days Stayed: 5

Site Number: -

2 Access
3 Location
2 Cleanliness
3 Site Quality
3 Noise

Cell Coverage Rating

T-Mobile 4G

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Reviewed by
Campendium

July 21, 2020
Rated

If you love fishing, this is the park for you. The park was clean and the sites were far enough apart. We loved going down to the docks and sitting on the swings by the river. Arkansas does a great job maintaining their state parks.

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This reviewer would stay here again

Nightly Rate: $35.00

Days Stayed: 2

Site Number: -

5 Access
5 Location
5 Cleanliness
5 Site Quality
5 Noise

Cell Coverage Rating

Verizon 4G

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Reviewed by
Campendium

September 05, 2020
Rated

We have a 15 foot travel trailer with fairly small holding tanks, so restrooms in the park are important to me- and I will start my review off by saying that I was very impressed by the bathrooms. Apparently, they are updating all of the restrooms in the park and I did not see the other ones, but the bathrooms that were closest to us were brand new. The building had 4, and each one was a large room, with a shower, toilet and sink, and were very clean and bright. Love the privacy!

The park was clean, well maintained, and everyone was very friendly.

I had full reception- we have sprint, which just merged with T-Mobile. The weird thing is that my husband has an iPhone on the same network but had less of a signal than my samsung phone.

The trout dock is a great little shop where you can buy ice, firewood, souvenirs, snacks, fishing essentials, and other necessities. They were also very friendly in the store. We purchased our fishing licenses online, but I think you can get them at the trout dock. The trout dock also has the WiFi- and we were too far from it to pick it up. Not a huge deal. We only rely on WiFi if the weather is bad, plus, we have good old fashioned books to read if that were the case.

Our site was spot number 80. We chose that one because it was at the end, which is where we like to be. We have 2 dogs, and worry that they will annoy other people, so we try our best to stay at the end of most parks. One thing that was strange about this site is that the pad with the picnic table was on the opposite side of our camper- which was awkward, but not impossible. There was also no sewer hookup, but that doesn’t bother us at all. Especially since the restrooms were so nice.

Unfortunately, the loop for the cars was right by us, and our boy dog HATES white vehicles (because of the US Mail vehicles also being white) which I find a little hilarious, As luck would have it, there were a lot of white cars driving around, lol. So, he barked every time he saw one, which is more our issue than anyone else- it was just a funny anecdote I wanted to share.

We were there Tuesday through Friday before Labor Day, and found out that a large number of the park visitors have been coming for years- some for 15 or 20 years. That says something to me about this park. If it was terrible, you wouldn’t come back!

The wildlife was fun, saw some vultures that freaked the dogs out, lol. Saw an armadillo, a ground hog, and lots of deer. Thank goodness there were no bunnies, because I have a beagle and she would have found a way to escape just so she could hunt.

Only negative I have to report is that there were no on-site laundry facilities, which is not a huge deal at all. I usually like to do the laundry before we take off so everything is clean for our next RV adventure. There were locations near us where you could do laundry.

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This reviewer would stay here again

Nightly Rate: $25.00

Days Stayed: 4

Site Number: 80

3 Access
5 Location
5 Cleanliness
5 Site Quality
5 Noise

Cell Coverage Rating

T-Mobile 4G

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Reviewed by
Campendium

April 07, 2021
Rated

This campground was a stop through for us as we headed north to South Dakota. We did here for 7 days. The riverfront sites were pretty beautiful and nice spots, but those were electric and water only. We were unable to get a riverfront spot, but we did get a full hookup with sewer for $35 a day. The campground was fine, the bathrooms were clean. The sites were larger than some state parks but definitely not secluded. Our particular spot was right next to the bathhouse and bait shop and we had a non-stop parade of people walking through our site. That’s more of an awareness thing than a review on the campsite, but it was definitely frustrating trying to work or sleep and people stopping and having a conversation 3 feet from your rig. Also, our spot was like parking in a Walmart parking lot because the giant spot lights shining on the bathroom area never shut off. It felt like summertime in Iceland - the sun never set. It was very much big rig friendly and easy to access the state park. There’s a short hiking trail behind the campground that takes you up to a bluff that was really neat. A few Mike’s away, there was some 35,000 year old caves and a tour of the caverns. That was $19 a person and pretty interesting. We worked all week long and had zero issues with internet connectivity. We had 3-4 bars of LTE on our Verizon phones and great connectivity with our T-Mobile booster for our router. I would definitely recommend if you’re a fisher and if you can snag a riverfront spot.

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This reviewer would stay here again

Nightly Rate: $35.00

Days Stayed: 7

Site Number: 61

5 Access
4 Location
5 Cleanliness
3 Site Quality
3 Noise

Cell Coverage Rating

Verizon 4G

T-Mobile 4G

Reviewed by
dpcruse

  • 20 Reviews
  • 0 Helpful
November 19, 2021
Rated

We were last at Bull Shoals 18 years ago. We liked it a lot then, but it is even better now! So many sites on the river, the bathrooms were the cleanest I have seen in a very long time, they had added many “porch” swings along the river to sit and enjoy the beauty, and the new Visitor’s center is better than many National park centers. We plan not to wait 18 years this time to come back! The fall leaves were amazing.

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dpcruse would stay here again

Nightly Rate: $35.00

Days Stayed: 2

Site Number: 14

5 Access
5 Location
5 Cleanliness
5 Site Quality
5 Noise

Cell Coverage Rating

Verizon 4G

  • 3 Reviews
  • 0 Helpful
May 16, 2022
Rated

Very nice property. There is a place to put in and fish or rent boats. We had a guide for one day and it was great. We would recommend highly to anyone.

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roadtripper1429810 would stay here again

Nightly Rate: $40.00

Days Stayed: 3

Site Number: 82

5 Access
5 Location
5 Cleanliness
5 Site Quality
5 Noise

Cell Coverage Rating

Verizon 4G

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Reviewed by
Campendium

May 24, 2022
Rated

We stayed here this past May, 2022 for three nights. I will say that it is a very, very clean campground and well kept. One issue we did have and I wished they told us, was when we went to turn on our water spigot, water was blowing all over the place when we turned it on. We couldn't use the water faucet the first night. I had to fill my water jugs to empty into the camper. The next morning I called the office. The lady said that you MUST turn the water on very fast, or it will do that. In other words, close the faucet and turn it on as fast as you can. Presto, it worked. She said they get a lot of complaints about that. Not sure why they don't tell you that when you check in? We bought 3 day out of state fishing licenses, but didn't even get a bite. Disappointed about that. We used live bait and lures. From what I gathered, people occasionally catch fish from the bank, but not often. If you want to catch some trout, either bring a boat or go on one of those guided fishing trips. All in all, I'd stay again but wouldn't go out of my way to stay there.

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This reviewer would stay here again

Nightly Rate: -

Days Stayed: 3

Site Number: 33

5 Access
5 Location
5 Cleanliness
5 Site Quality
5 Noise

Cell Coverage Rating

Verizon 5G

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Bull Shoals-White River State Park Campground

153 Dam Overlook Ln
Bull Shoals, Arkansas
72619-2845 USA
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Hours

Open now until 5:00 pm
  • Sun - Sat: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

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Good for fishing.

  • Check
    Parking
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    Pets Allowed
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    Restrooms
  • Unknown
    Wifi
  • Unavailable
    Wheelchair Accessible
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    Credit Cards Accepted
Affiliation
State park or forest
Last Nightly Rate
28.0
Longest Vehicle Length Reported
44.0
Lowest Nightly Rate
11.0
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    Fifty Amp
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    Full Hookup
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    Rec Facilities
  • Unavailable
    Pull Through
  • Check
    Tent Sites
  • Check
    Dump Station
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    Big Rigs
  • Unavailable
    Open Seasonally
  • Unavailable
    Age Restricted
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    Boondock
  • Unavailable
    Cabin Sites
  • Unavailable
    Dispersed Sites
  • Unavailable
    Firewood
  • Unavailable
    Fulltime Residents
  • Unavailable
    Group Tent Sites
  • Unavailable
    Laundry
  • Unavailable
    Mobile Homes
  • Unavailable
    Permit Required
  • Check
    Potable Water
  • Unavailable
    Propane
  • Check
    Public Water
  • Unavailable
    Pull Through RV Sites
  • Check
    Reservations
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    Sewer Hookup
  • Check
    Showers
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    Standard Tent Sites
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    Water Hookup
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