Shoal Bay
October 2026
About
Overview
Download a Shoal Bay park map HERE
This shady campground sits on the scenic Shoal Bay arm of Lake Dardanelle, offering an excellent setting for boating, swimming and wildlife viewing.
Recreation
The lake, a popular spot for anglers, is brimming with white bass, largemouth bass, bream, crappie and large catfish.
The Bridge Rock Trail winds along a rugged slope overlooking the narrows of Shoal Creek, offering excellent hiking opportunities.
Dardanelle's Visitor Center is noteworthy for its "Renaissance of a River" theme. Interpretive exhibits express the progression of river valley from the time of early Native Americans to its present day.
Facilities
Shoal Bay offers 45 reservable campsites, most of which have electric hookups. Two large picnic shelters are also available. Amenities include a boat ramp, playground and hot showers.
Natural Features
Dardanelle Lake, sourced by the Arkansas River, spans 40,000 acres and boasts 315 miles of shoreline. The lake sits in the river valley between the Ozark and Ouachita National Forests.
Nearby Attractions
Bona Dea Trails and Sanctuary, with nearly 86 acres of wetlands and low woods, provide an ideal habitat for native wildlife. Visitors can explore the area on the 6 mile trail system.
Amenities
Phone: 479-938-7335
Is SHOAL BAY fully booked?
A campground showing no availability is almost never full for good. People cancel — plans change, weather turns, someone books three weekends and keeps one — and the site goes straight back into the booking system, usually without warning and often at odd hours. The reason sold-out campgrounds feel impossible is not that sites never free up; it is that nobody is watching at the moment they do.
CampHawk watches SHOAL BAY in New Blaine, AR for you. We recheck it every 15 seconds, around the clock, and the moment a site opens we send a text, an email and a push notification — and on Recreation.gov we can put the site straight into your cart, so it is held while you get to your phone.
Searching is free and needs no account — the calendar above is live right now. Watching SHOAL BAY for cancellations is the paid part.