East Texas-Arkansas Camping?

Hey guys, bought a truck in Austin, TX I will be driving back to Tennessee this weekend. Looking to do a simple night of tent camping on the way back. Anybody have a (preferably) scenic campsite they would recommend located off of I-40?

Any suggestions welcome

 

a little ways out of the way but the Cossatot River State park is an awesome place

 

Ended up camping at Hot Springs National Park. Awesome little city !

 

If you wouldn't mind could you tell me about your stay there? Looking to visit that area soon!

 

Sure so Hot Springs is primarily comprised of the National Park. The National Park Campground was very cramped, heavily RV-based, and expensive ($30/night regardless of tent or RV). But the pro is the fact this campground is no more than three miles from downtown Hot Springs.

Downtown Hot Springs is a very lively little area in a beautiful gorge. The bathhouses have some amazing history and the food is plentiful. I would recommend the craft brewery in one of the old bathhouse (Forget the name). For the morning I had amazing pancakes/coffee at a small diner in front of the biggest hotel.

Unfortunately the area wasn't quite as rural as I would like and no availability of fire roads or off pavement opportunities. If you want raw off-road Hot Springs OHV park is $30/person/day and offers plentiful offroading. I think I may just be spoiled to live in the Smoky Mountains with a wide array of desolate wilderness and exploring opportunites, unlike Hot Springs. But I will say I believe hiking looked solid in that region.

Certainly a family-friendly and entertaining tourist town, I would go back with friends (and not camp). Reminded me a lot of Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN if you have ever been there. Personally I was looking for a true escape and getting lost on some back mountain roads and was unable to really find any during my brief visit to Hot Springs. I would imagine if you had a few days and talked to some locals you could find some options

 

Man, cramped campgrounds are not what I was hoping for! Glad to hear to food/beer and hiking looked good. Hiking/camping is what I am mainly after.

Disappointing about the lack of off-road opportunities... I just bought my truck a month ago and its seen nothing but pavement! Definitely nothing in my area.

Thanks for the write up!

 

You and I are looking for the same thing. Unfortunately the campsite is not really remote by any means and in a valley therefore not necessarily scenic. but it gets the job done to be so close to downtown