End of March Camping

[High5Alive]

We live around Chicago and would like to go south during the last week of march.  Any suggestions on where to go?  Is it too cold to camp in the smokey mountains?  What about northern arkansas?  We are a family of 5, youngest 3 oldest 8.  We like to creek hop and explore short "exciting" trails.  Any suggestions would be helpful.

[brainpause]

Little River Village: http://www.littlerivervillage.com/

Without a doubt, our favorite cg, and you have access to all the stuff in the Smokies. However, if you are driving that far, don't go to this cg unless you have a river site.

Otherwise, we liked http://www.claboughcampground.com/rates.html
It is much more in the middle of all the shopping, etc., and you can still easily get to the Smokies. If you like more of a woodsy cg, this might not be the one. I typically like the woodsy cg's, but this one suited me fine because we could eat, nap, shop, nap, eat, nap, without long drives.

Larry

[east lake hunter]

The weather is usually pretty good the latter part of March in Central Arkansas.   You might want to consider something around Lake Greers Ferry or Lake Ouachita.   You check both these lakes out at recreation.gov.   However, some of our campgrounds don't reopen until April 1.    The Buffalo National River is a great place as well.  However, that time of March, you might get a nasty cold snap in that part of the state.

[High5Alive]

We live around Chicago and would like to go south during the last week of march.  Any suggestions on where to go?  Is it too cold to camp in the smokey mountains?  What about northern arkansas?  We are a family of 5, youngest 3 oldest 8.  We like to creek hop and explore short "exciting" trails.  Any suggestions would be helpful.

We ended up at Devil's Den State Park in NW AK for the last week of March.  We lucked out and the weather was wonderful and the campground was great.  They had great hiking trails and the sites were laid out nicely.  I would highly recommend this campground.  If you go on the Devil's Den trail make sure you bring really good flashlights for the cave and shoes that you don't mind getting muddy.  It seemed like a popular place so I would try and make reservations early.

[LACamper]

I really liked Petit Jean near Morrilton, AR (about 45 min NW of Little Rock). Beautiful waterfalls, lots of trails, and decent fishing.