The float that anchors an Arkansas van trip is the upper Buffalo National River, Steel Creek down to Kyles Landing, about eight miles under the streaked sandstone of Roark Bluff. The van sleeps at Buffalo Point, the only campground on the river with water and electric, or at Tyler Bend off US-65 if you're coming from the south. It won't sleep at the put-in or the take-out. Steel Creek and Kyles Landing are tent-only, and camper vans aren't permitted at either.
Which stretch you get comes down to water. Floatable water starts high on the river and works downstream as levels drop through summer, so a July trip usually means the middle or lower district rather than Ponca.
After heavy rain, the side trip off the upper float is Hemmed-In Hollow. The falls drop nearly 210 feet off the bluff rim, the tallest between the Rockies and the Appalachians, and they only run when the creek's been fed. It's about a five-mile round trip from the Compton trailhead, with a long climb back out.
Fall and winter shift the draw to the Boxley Valley elk. About a hundred Rocky Mountain elk work the fields along AR-43 and AR-21 between Ponca and Boxley at dawn and dusk.
Eureka Springs sits on the Ozark side, a Victorian resort town and an easy stop on the drive in. Plan it as a day and keep the night on the river.
Buffalo Point has 80-some drive-in sites with 30/50-amp hookups and a dump about a mile and a half from the campground, and the electric loops take reservations three days to six months out. Tyler Bend has no hookups, but its drive-in loop keeps water, showers, and flush toilets year round, with a dump station out at the US-65 entrance. From about mid-November to mid-March the river campgrounds go primitive and free while the water is shut off. Buffalo Point's Loop B and Tyler Bend's drive-in loop stay open through it.
Pick the region first, book the night there, then book the van around those dates. The campground is the part that runs out.
Hot Springs and Bathhouse Row
South in Hot Springs, the trip is a thermal soak and a walk, both inside the national park. Bathhouse Row runs eight early-1900s bathhouses down Central Avenue. There's no outdoor soaking in the park, so the soak itself happens indoors at Buckstaff or Quapaw, where the thermal water is piped in. Trails climb Hot Springs Mountain straight off the row, so you can walk a soak off without moving the van.
Gulpha Gorge is the night here, and it books well ahead. Lock it in when you set the dates.
The Ouachita lakes, west on US-270
West of Hot Springs on US-270, the Ouachita lakes trade the soak schedule for parked water. You set the van up in the trees and boat out to the islands. Lake Ouachita is the state's largest, and its state park has 93 sites, 58 of them Class AAA with water, 50-amp, and sewer. Some sit right on the shoreline. The park is open all year and reserved through reserve.arkansasstateparks.com.
For a cheaper night, the Corps of Engineers runs lakeside campgrounds out here too. Brady Mountain is about 10 miles west of the park, and its sites are all electric, though you fill your water tank at the dump rather than at the site.
Coming in from Little Rock, Petit Jean is worth the detour. It was the state's first state park, and Cedar Falls drops off the palisades into a box canyon. The campground sits up on the mountain.