Lake Fort Smith State Park Campground

We had an electrical problem with the power pedestal, their maintenance/repair crew came right away, diagnosed and replaced a faulty 50amp plug. Even though ALL of the park facilities are very new & up-to-date, it’s still possible to encounter faulty components . . . the maintenance crew’s quick response resolved the issue at our site.
Well done !

Without question, the beauty of LFS is unmatched. Trails and other desirable amenities make this a wonderful location for your family. Living only a few miles from LFS, we have camped here numerous times. Unfortunately, with the exception of one or two occasions, we have had issues, major issues with water and electricity. I will highlight the two most egregious. In 2021, we had a four day weekend trip scheduled and, upon our arrival and check-in, we’re told that they had a water main break. No access to water whatsoever so no way to fill our fresh water tank for hygiene. Even though we shared no blame, LFS did not refund us the full amount of our stay. Left a very bad taste in our mouth but things happen so we blew it off and my wife and I agreed to give LFS another try. Fast forward to March 2023. Once again we schedule a four day stay, centered around my birthday, for a getaway. Just me my wife and our one year old puppy. Upon arrival on Wednesday afternoon everything seemed to be in order. I filled our fresh water tank FIRST THING in case of another water issue. If you are not doing so, I highly recommend this practice. Who would have thought it could happen again but a few hours into our stay, no water. A call to the welcome center confirmed, you guessed it, a water main break! Water was out for several hours but had little effect on us as we had a full fresh water tank. Fast forward to 9 pm Friday and we noticed our electricity was surging. Not nearly enough power to run the microwave or even a small electric fan! I checked the breakers and all was fine. I used my 50 to 30 amp adapter with the same results. Finally I cranked up the generator and everything worked perfectly. This is far too many issues for a modern State Park that is only 15 years old. I have no complaints with the staff, rangers and other personnel but will not patronize this park again, at least until confirmation that the infrastructure issues have been resolved. We left a day early as cold weather was predicted for the next night and we didn’t want to be reliant on the generator. I will be requesting a t-shirt from LFS that states, “This was my LAST camping trip to Lake Fort Smith”.

Perfect campsite layout with FHU. All sites well spaced away from each other and quite private.
Better views of the lake would enhance the experience!
Only downside is the lack of any Verizon cell service.

Our only regret was that we didn't stay longer. Since we were on our way back to the Carolinas after purchasing our Airstream, we were only there for a night. Great sites, well maintained, very nice facilities. We stayed at sites with water and electric hookups and access to a dumping station but they also had sites with full hookups. They have a nice pool, awesome visitor center, hiking trails, and a lake which we will go back explore when we have more time.

I almost forgot, when we arrived after hours they did forget to put our name on the door that we had a reservation. Thankfully, we decided to take a look at the spots ourselves and discovered they mark each with either a "reserved" or "available" tag with your name on it if you had reserved it. So we found our spot and settled in fro the night!

Arrived June 20 and stayed one night. Would have loved to stay longer. Very quiet and spacious. Deer came close at night. FHU with 50a great. No problems for big rigs.

Check in was very easy, but I had a reservation which is probably the only way to get a site most of the time. Level site and most are very large. Full hook ups but some with just E/W. Includes heavy metal table on concrete, fire pit, and pad for tent. Quiet hours after 10:00. Ranger patrols. Beautiful area although you can’t see the lake from any site, at least none that I saw.

Great camping peaceful quite very very clean and well taken care of. The ranger patrol regularly and check in on things. They have full hook up sites and water and electric only sites they have 2 bath houses all sites are concret parking the full hook up sites are all well leveled the others are hit and miss. Great hiking and water if u like kayaking and fishing.

We could not have chosen a better place to spend some quiet time after a hectic Christmas. The campground was beautifully kept, well patrolled and had a gorgeous view of the lake. We spent our days on the very accessible hiking trails that were close to our campsite. There was a nearby bath house that is heated and immaculately kept with showers and potty’s. We will definitely return, and I look forward to relaxing as my boyfriend conquers the 100’s of miles of hiking trails. I will remain close to the camper with my mountain bike and less lengthy treks.

Stopped for a night on our cross country travels off the 40. Easy to get to( use the northern most access from 49) and very well maintained, super peaceful locations that are well spaced.

We have stayed here a few times, most recently in 7/2020 in sute 12. When we arrived at 5:10, the park office was closed but there was a note on the door of the visitor center instructing us to proceed to our campsite. All of the sites seemed to be level, and most had some, but not full, shade. In the winter you can get a little lake view from the sites, but there is not much of a view in the summer due to leaves.
There was a lot of trash on our site, but that was easy enough to clean.
Hiking was nice and the lake is nice for kayaking, but if you don't have an actual boat trailer you aren't allowed to park your vehicle anywhere the boat ramp where we launched, so we had to unload the kayaks, leave them there, drive down the road to park, and then walk back down the road to get back to the kayaks.
We do love the park and will be back.