CAMPGROUND REVIEW- Craighead Forest, Jonesboro, Arkansas

Since we are relaxing at this campground, I have a little time on my hands to do a proper campground review!

We found this place due to a series of great reviews on the Campendium App. It's one of multiple apps that we used to find camping spots. We also look on the USDA Forest Service app, Recreation.gov app, and the Dyrt. I also have a lot of campgrounds downloaded with POI, (points of interest), on my Streets and Trips program on the laptop.

This city park is located just on the southern edge of Jonesboro, Arkansas. 

This is from their website:

https://www.jonesboro.org/199/Camping

Craighead Forest Park opened when the Young Men's Civic Club began work on the lake in 1937. It is now a city owned park that is situated in the scenic beauty of Crowley's Ridge. This 692 acre park offers many recreational opportunities for the public to enjoy.

Craighead Forest Park is located at 4910 South Culberhouse Road in Jonesboro Arkansas. The park offers a variety of outdoor activities including:

• Basketball
• Bike/running trails
• Bird watching
• Camping
• Disc golf
• Fishing
• Horseshoes
• Playgrounds
• Softball
• Volleyball

RV Camp Grounds

The RV camp grounds at Craighead Forest Park boast 41 sites, all with water and electrical hook-ups (50 amps). All sites have access to a personal table, patio, fire ring, and grill. We do offer handicap access. The Campground also boosts a modern bathhouse with toilets and showers, as well as pay laundry machines. There is a dump station for all guest and we offer non-guest paid dumping.

We also offer tent sites and a primitive tent area. Pets are welcome at the park and are free to take advantage of the many trails (if properly leashed) or even take a jump and a swim at our dog jumping pier. 

Camping at Craighead Forest Park is now available all 365 days every year. Our Campground is currently set up as first come first serve. We do not offer reservations at this time.  

If you would like more information about camping at Craighead Forest Park you can call us at 870-933-4604 .

This is me now:

The rate per night is $25 which includes 50/30/20 amp electric and water at your site. They also offer a senior rate of only $15 a night. If you choose to stay an entire week, then it is reduced down to $90. That comes out to $12.85 a night!

Cell phone signal is pretty good, and about 30 or so broadcast TV stations on the antenna. We do see other people with portable satellite units set out in open spots to reach the sky. 

The 41 campsites are all spaced along a single lane with a turnaround loop at the end by the water. The only people that really drive down here on this road are the people actually camping here, or the park staff. It's very quiet. You can see the distance between each of the paved sites in the photo below. If you are going to leave your site for the day, the host will put out a red cone to make sure nobody else comes to take your site. As you can see the one in the foreground of the camping van next to us. They just got back from a grocery store run. 

Up near the top of the lane, the campsites are spaced a little closer together. The people there seem very social and came out to greet us as we walked by with the dogs.

And FREE firewood!!! 

--Take what you need, use what you take--

The restroom / shower / laundry building is fairly new and extremely clean and nice. There's additional parking in front of the building if you want to drive there. The building is conveniently located in the center of the camping sites rather than up at one end or down at the other.

This is the women's side, with nice hot showers, and plenty of room in the stalls with changing benches, and hand dryers and outlets on the wall for hair styling appliances. 

The restroom side also has a nice bench to keep your things up off the floor. I noticed the floor is beautiful terrazzo type flooring, which is clean and well kept.

In the front of the building is a small laundry area. Two washers, and two dryers. Someone also left a full bottle of laundry soap in case you forgot your own. How nice is that? So $1.50 to wash and $1 to dry. Our load was finished with only one round of quarters so we did not need to use multiple coins to finish up our laundry.

This is the space between us and the site next to us. We are very appreciative of the green grass this time of year. The dogs moreso than us, appreciate having a place to go. Of course, we pick up after every episode. Each campsite also has a large city plastic refuse bin. Really makes it easy to dispose of your waste and we have noticed there's not any litter around anywhere within the campground. 

The camping loop is on somewhat of a little peninsula with a bay shape overlooking to another pavilion area. This is the view out our front windshield because there's nobody directly across from us. Even though we are not on a waterfront site, we have gorgeous views out the side in the front of our rig.

At the end of the campground loop, there is this beautiful little dock with two benches on to sit and enjoy the waterfront.

We were serenaded by some elegant Canadian geese, and there are some mallard ducks as well as a few domestic ducks that have found their way into the park! 

I brought down some leftover popcorn from our movie night. I'm not sure if I was supposed to feed them or not, but they seem to enjoy the little bit of a treat. 

Here's the map from their website of the park and all of the facilities that it offers. 

There are myriads of trails all around through this entire 600 plus acre park. They are rated by difficulty. Most are paved, some are gravel for mountain biking and one specific section is for ATVs.  We have not gotten out our E-bikes yet to go for a ride, maybe later this week when things warm up in the sun comes back out. 

We did walk on some of the trails with the dogs. This was quite interesting sight back in the woods near the campground. We found this very interesting burl on a tree. 

I believe there may have been some nature directed courses being held here because there was some very interesting log benches erected nearby.

This is one of the many trails that loop around through the park. They are nice wide clean asphalt lanes, with markers to clearly identify the crossroads so there aren't any mishaps.

The sky cleared up the other day and we were able to get out and take a walk around some of the park. We met a few people here and there, but it is not crowded at all. Considering this warm weather we are having for February, even the local newscasters say this is unusually warm to have 60 plus degree days.

I really enjoyed the natural setting and that the park is not overly manicured or completely recreationalized. The reservoir of water which makes up Craighead Lake, ebbs and flows around throughout these little bays. 

There is a walking trail completely around the park that is about 2 mi right next to the shore. Steve walked at the entire way around including across the levy, or dam, which creates the lake.

As far as the other things that most RVers would want to know, within five or six miles are all the major shopping stores, restaurants, chain stores as well as some interesting local shops. We did do a run this morning to a local RV dealer for a replacement screen door latch, stopped at Home Depot for a couple little doodads, and hit up the Walmart to stock up on some of our grocery needs. The Walmart Murphy oil fuel station had diesel for $3.59 a gallon. We topped off the tank so when we do leave here later this week, we are ready to roll. 

All in all, I would recommend this park for a great overnight stop that's only a few miles off the interstate. It's also nice to stay for a week or so and explore the area like we are doing. There are a couple large 40 ft motorhomes here as well as a few small tab trailers and even two or three sites with tents. They are enjoying the use of an electric post with a heater inside of their tent I am sure. Someone actually did an overnight of "car camping"  in the tenting area of five rustic sites. We spoke to her and she was also appreciating the nice hot showers and laundry facilities that went along with her camp fee. 

We would come back here again, for sure if we were in the area!