Bull Shoals-White River State Park

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.

There are three areas - campground A loop, main road that loops along the River and back, and tent sites near the woods. There are 3 stationary “rent an RV” with riverview decks. Linda called the day prior to check us in, verify final payment and give correct address 129 Bull Shoals Park Lakeview AR. Our site 51 had 30 amp with water, level, table and fire pit, on a small bluff, 50 yards from the river accessible by stairs, 3 sites down from boat landing store, 2 bar ATT (3 with MIMO) and long enough for 25’ and TV. Some of the sites are really short and tables on rear side. Lots of full hookup sites $38 riverside and across the road with river view. We switched to 59 full hookup backing up to tent area for extra night, level but less private.. Beware: bath house across from the store has bright night lighting. Bath houses were very clean. We hiked the 1.75 mile trail to a bluff, rented a boat (4 hrs $100) and had outstanding homemade pie from Gastons Lodge - A+. Dump station at exit. Pet friendly. The sites in area A are generous on a higher bluff, some with metal railing, lots of big rigs there. Only downsides to this lively SP are: main road has decent flow of vehicles all day; two lane winding mountain road from south. We were here for fall colors which made it near perfect. Booked 368 days ahead for next year and best sites were almost gone - grabbed 70 riverside.

This is a gem in the Ozarks. Check in was remote as they called the day before and made it easy to just go right to our site. We are a larger rig, 44 feet, and it was easy to drive on the roads getting in and parking was simple. We had a back in site on the 2nd row from the river which had full hookups! 50 amp, sewer and water. The lot was really large and included a square tent site Asphalt pad with grass and rocks surrounding it. A nice hike right off the campground and picnic tables on the river that you can use at any time. You have to have breakfast at Hank and Katies; local diner with awesome pancakes :) The bathroom and showers were clean and easily accessible. We will be back, for sure!

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.

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.