Devil’s Den State Park - 2020 Vacation Finale
We chose to stay at Devil’s Den State Park for both weekends of our 2020 vacation. The location was conveniently located about halfway to the Lake Ouachita and Hot Springs areas from our house, and was a short drive from Natural Falls State Park. We had also heard good things about this park.
Our first weekend there was September 18-20. We were in campsite #86 that weekend, which was a spacious site in the middle of the loop. This site also provided a short walk to the shower house, but we will talk about that a little more in a bit. It also appears that many of the Arkansas State Parks’ sites offer full hookups, as this one did. All we really care about is water and electric, but it would definitely be a plus if you needed full hookups.
Our plan for the first weekend there was really just to have a place to stay, and to have a relatively short drive to Natural Falls State Park on Saturday. We were looking forward to coming back the following weekend to explore the park further, as it appeared to be pretty neat. That being said, we were also glad that this stay didn’t include more time around camp, as our neighbors were not the greatest. One neighbor spent all day stoking the fire (while the smoke blew into our site). The neighbor across the way thought everyone needed to hear his music all day, and everyone’s children seemed to think that screaming was the best way to communicate that weekend.
We figured out pretty quickly that the cellular service in the park was pretty poor, and basically non-existent in the loop where we were staying. So much so, that there was even a working pay phone installed in the loop. This actually gave us the opportunity to try out our new weBoost setup. We were pleased to be able to get 3 bars of 3G service with the booster, where we had no service without it.
Another strange thing that we found at the park was the bathroom/shower house schedule due to Covid. The campground we were in was basically a figure-8, with a shower house located in the middle, and another on one end (of course, the opposite end from where we were). Their solution was to have one shower house open on even numbered days, and the other open on odd numbered days, so the closed one could be thoroughly cleaned. Each morning, they would lock up one, and open the other. Unfortunately, there was not a set time for this, and therefore, we would have to guess each morning which shower house was open. I mentioned that our site was near the bathrooms, well, that was when the middle one was open. If we had to go to the other one, it was a pretty decent walk to get to the other end. Not only was this process very inconvenient, but it also seems counterproductive from a Covid safety standpoint. Now, instead of having everyone in the campground spread out, we were all forced to use the same facility each day.
We returned to the park for the weekend of September 25-27. This time, our entire plan for the weekend was to explore the park. We were in site #83 this time, which was very close to our previous site, but was on the outside of the loop this time. This was probably one of the neatest sites that we had all year. It was set up where the camper was on one level, and the picnic area was down some stairs, on another level. There was also a stream that ran behind the site.
Either we had better neighbors this weekend, or we just didn’t notice them as much. I think it helped that we were on the outside of the loop, and when we went to the lower level of the site, it was somewhat secluded. I will say that the park was just as busy, and since we were not in the park the previous Saturday, we did not realize how busy the day use areas get.
We set out in the morning to explore the park. The first stop was the area that included a swimming pool (which was closed), as well as the pond and the spillway. It was a neat area, but as the morning progressed, the number of people kept increasing. We then drove over to the visitor center parking lot, which is also one of the parking areas for the Devil’s Den Trail, which we were about to hike. When we got there, it was busy enough that there were two people directing traffic in the parking lot.
The trail was very nice, and there were several cave-type features that many people were exploring. It was only 1.5 miles, and since Tammy chose to stay at the visitor’s center, Bagheera and I tried to complete it quickly. We were actually able to finish in about 45 minutes. As with the rest of the park, it was pretty busy, but everyone was pretty spread out throughout the trail.
I feel that I said a lot of negative things about this park, but really it is a nice park, and we did enjoy our time there. The fact that it is a neat place to visit, and that it is a short distance from Fayetteville, leads to it being very popular. If you are planning a visit to Devil’s Den State Park, and can go in the middle of the week, I would definitely recommend that. And, if you are camping there, #83 is worth checking out.