Lake Ouachita State Park

October 31, 2021

For our annual fall leaf tour and camping trip we decided to head south to Lake Ouachita State Park. This would be our first time camping at Lake Ouachita State Park and we decided to pull the trailer the most direct route via highway 7 from Russellville to save about 30 minutes drive time. In the past we have avoided highway 7 due to the steep and winding nature of the highway through the Ouachita National Forest. We made the trip with no problems except for the failure of the truck's air conditioning which wasn't a big problem given the cooler temperatures. 

We camped in Area C site #56 which was in a cul-de-sac with most sites backed up to the lake. Located just east of the marina there were sail boats and house boats moored just off shore from our campsite. The view from the campsite was great, although the layout of the site was a little odd. The fire pit was at the front of the campsite where there was little room between our drive and the neighbor's drive. So the one night we did have a fire we were about ten feet from the neighbors shinny new ford pickup.

Arriving on Halloween we hung a skeleton from our awning and were prepared with candy for any trick-or-treaters. We had no Halloween visitors and were forced to eat the remaining candy ourselves.

You can see that flags around the park were being flown at half staff due to the recent death of Colin Powell. 

Back Window View from the Camper

Halloween Evening at Site #56

On Monday morning I decided to take advantage of of the mild sunny weather and hiked the Caddo Bend Trail. The Caddo Bend Trail follows the edge of the lake around the finger of land that is Lake Ouachita State Park. The trail is about 4 miles long and at the most remote point passes by point 50 a lake marker point. Below is a group of hikers from Austin Texas that where just behind me for the majority of the hike. I told the Texans that I would go ahead of them in case I had an issue on the trail. They said that if they had to step over my body they would call the ranger. I did let them catch me at the Point 50 observation deck and we took turns taking pictures.

Quartz Vein in Rock

Point 50 Observation Deck

On Wednesday I took a blustery afternoon walk to the marina. The marina was closed so the deer were free to take over. 

A little rain Wednesday night came with a cold front and fog on the lake for Thursday morning.

Thursday morning before packing up to leave I hike the Dogwood trail. and circled around through the camper cabins and houses.

Privative camper cabins (electricity with heat and air conditioning) are located adjacent to the campground area B where we were camped. 

For a little less primitive experience larger fully furnished family cabins with 3 or 4 bedrooms are just east of the camper cabins.

Lake Ouachita was down about 10 feet from its full pool level. There were exposed gravel bars around much of the lake.

For future reference the East end of the state park has little to no cell service.  WiFi was available at the Visitor Center. There was also no over-the-air television available.