Woolum Dispersed Camping On The Buffalo National River In Arkansas

The Woolum dispersed camping area can be found right on the banks of the Buffalo National River near St. Joe, Arkansas.

This free camping area is run by the National Park Service and has a 14 day stay limit. Campsites are on a first come, first served basis and it is open year round.

The camping area is a large, open field with trees between it and the river. There are no designated sites, so find a spot you like and set-up camp. Any size rig will fit here and there’s room for a ton of rigs.

Note that there is no camping permitted in the hay fields along the left side of the road.

From St. Joe, Arkansas take County Road 374 west 7 miles to the Woolum river access. The road in does have a little stretch that’s a bit bumpy, but for the most part is in good shape (or at least it was during our visit).

This place also serves as overflow camping when Tyler Bend campground is full.

This is boondocking so no water or hook-ups can be found here. There are no trashcans so whatever you pack in make sure you pack out. One set of vault toilets can be found at the far end of camp.

Pets are allowed, but please be sure to pick up after them.

There were a few homemade fire rings in the area for campfires. Always make sure every spark is out before going to bed or leaving camp.

Trees along the edge of the property can provide some shade for those looking to escape the heat of the day. If you are running solar though you’ll have no issues topping off your batteries here either.

This spot does serve as a horse camp as well. Horse riders were there every day and on the weekend a lot more horse riders showed up. The awesome spot we had was right on the river and the horses crossed there every day.

Horses mean piles of poo so be careful where you step.

Now, let’s talk cell service for a moment.

Truthfully, it’s been over a year since we camped here last and I don’t remember what service we had. I know we had to have something, because I posted pics on Facebook and Instagram. I’m going to assume what we had wasn’t fast enough for any real work though, because we only stayed four nights.

If the service was good enough for us to work here we would of stayed the whole two weeks, because this place was great.

I’m going to make some notes on our particular camping spot, because in my opinion it was the absolute best spot in the entire place. If you drive all the way down the road, then pass the toilets the road dips down to the river. There’s a spot there on a little hill right beside the river.

You literally have a thirty second walk down the bank before you’re dipping your toes in the water. I literally don’t know how we were lucky enough to snag this spot, but I’m so glad we did. I’m horrible at guessing sizes, but I believe if you’re over thirty feet (trailer) you couldn’t get in here.

There are a couple other spots on the bank here, but they are suited for tent and car camping. If you do come to this camping area park your vehicle at the toilets (there’s a roundabout there) and maybe scout out the river spots first to see if anything is available.

No matter where you set-up your rig at here though in about a minutes walk you’ll be at the river.

This entire area is gorgeous.

We had so much fun here hanging out by the river and even went fishing, but didn’t catch anything. Even though the water was a bit chilly this time of year I still jumped in the water for a swim. It’s something I just have to do every time we camp near water.

I maybe lasted ten minutes before bailing though, lol.

I really wish our cell phone service was better here so we could of stayed longer. Even though we travel full-time we still gotta work to put all that gas in the truck.

This is definitely a spot we would stay at again though. Three or four days is the max I can get the hubby away from work, but this camping area is worth it. Next time we’ll try to go when it’s a bit warmer though so I can get a lot more swimming in.