Returning to nature in the Natural State

We learned a valuable lesson, which was to think twice before booking the last available site online, the night before the start of our booking. Luckily for us, being forced out of Serendipity Brownsville RV Park led us to a gorgeous state park in Arkansas. Village Creek State Park is Arkansas' second largest state park, and we looked forward to immersing ourselves in nature in The Natural State.

Despite the unexpectedly long drive that left us to unpack after sunset, we knew that once we settled in, we would be in for a peaceful night. Our campground loop was nearly empty and was so wonderfully quiet. In keeping with the natural feel, the loop also did not have a lot of street lighting. The darkness and quiet gave us a much needed restful night's sleep.

Village Creek State Park has multiple campground loops: A water and electric loop, a full hookup loop, and an equestrian camp loop. There are also several recently renovated cabins, which are really more like houses than the cabins we're used to seeing at campgrounds. We were in the water and electric loop, which was located closer to the visitor's center. All the other camping was up the hill, a couple of miles away. We would have preferred a full hookup site, but since we booked last-minute for a week and a half, we would have had to move partway through our stay, which wasn't worth it for us. We saved money, got to stay in one site, and actually ended up appreciating being closer to the visitor's center and amenities. Plus, the ranger put us in a beautiful wooded site with a creek running behind it, a lovely sitting area/tent pad, and a big parking area. We were content. We made plans to conserve our tank space a bit and then use the dump station on the way out, which was conveniently located at the exit of our loop.

Village Creek State Park has two lakes, Lake Dunn and Lake Austell. Its historical mark is that it contains the largest preserved section of the Trail of Tears, the route where Native Indian tribes were forced out of their homelands and into new territories designated by the government. Part of the trail, Old Military Road, is now one of the hiking trails at the park. The rangers – called interpreters at this park – lead events on weekends which include a guided hike along this trail.

We didn't have time to catch the guided hike, but we did stop into the Discovery Room at the visitor's center, which was filled with displays on the Trail of Tears, the geology of the area, and an interactive exhibit on the various plants and animals found in this region of Arkansas. The visitor's center in general was one of the best we've seen, containing a meeting room, restrooms, and even a gift shop.

We did, however, get to take a guided hike the following day, on the Big Ben Trail. It was a cool morning with temps in the 40s, and we were the only ones braving the trail that day. Our interpreter Megan was very nice, telling us stories about the geology around the park, including the features and plant life that have formed here due to unique erosion patterns along the Mississippi River. The trail itself is named after an old beech tree that used to be the crown jewel of the trail. Unfortunately, people would carve their names into the bark, and eventually it got a disease and died. The sitting area by the tree still exists, as do some of Ben's descendants, but now the area serves as a reminder to leave only footprints when you're out in nature. Still, a few other trees along the trail have initials carved into them, and already we can see where the bark has protruded from the tree trunk in reaction to the trauma.

Our favorite amenity is having hiking trails that we can access right from our campsite. It's an easy and fun way to get exercise when we take breaks during our work days. In addition to the Big Ben and Military Road Trails, the park also boasted lake trails, an arboretum trail, and a mountain bike trail. The arboretum trail had plaques that provided information on the various plants and trees along the way. It's a short out-and-back that we took the same day we went to the Discovery Room. Not much was in bloom yet on the trail, but in the other areas of the park, we saw lots of signs of spring, like redbuds, woodland phlox, and tons of butterflies and birds.

The next day, we hiked the Lake Austell trail, which was a couple of miles with some steep sections of stairs built into the hill. This was our first legitimate hike in a long time, and we were happy to return to an area of the country that had some elevation gain! On our way back from the trail, we opted to take a section of the mountain bike trail, which led us straight back to our campground loop.

Hiking and biking are great, but we were also gifted with an outdoor amenity that we sadly don't find too often at our campgrounds anymore: tennis! We love tennis and have carted our rackets and balls all over the country, but with the popularity of pickleball, many tennis courts have been converted. This court wasn't in the best shape, but we were thrilled to play a match one afternoon.

Other outdoor recreation opportunities here include boating (with rentals in the warmer months), fishing, and a golf course.

With this being our first stay at an Arkansas state park - actually, our first stay in Arkansas, period - we don't have any comparison points, but we had heard that Arkansas State Parks do it right. Based on this experience, we agree. The level of organization and thought put into the park was noticeable. The bathhouses were well maintained, and ours had individual bathrooms instead of one room with multiple stalls. We love an individual bathroom where we can use the toilet and shower in our own private space! Posted on the exterior wall of the bathhouse was an information board, containing events calendars and emergency numbers and radio stations in case of inclement weather. If there is a chance of severe weather on a particular day, the rangers will post it on the board. The bathhouses were the designated storm shelters, and a protocol was in place for tornado warnings. If a tornado was imminent, a ranger would come around with a siren and flashing lights, alerting campers to head to the bathhouses. Village Creek State Park had been hit hard by a tornado last year on March 31. This time of year especially, everyone takes the weather seriously in this part of the country. The bathhouse is also where the dumpsters are located, making them a short walk from all of the campsites and from the dump station. Well, at least this was the case in the water and electric loop. Up at the full hookup sites, there was no dumpster anywhere near the dump station. Note to all campground owners: At least put a trash bin at the dump station! Do you know what we're doing over there? Sanitization is kind of important!

When we were on our guided hike, Megan mentioned that Arkansas State Parks have funding that they allocate to a choice park each year to help with upkeep. This year, the funding is going to Village Creek. This is one of many indications that the state really cares about its recreation. We can't even begin to count how many state parks don't even have so much as a nature trail! We're already camping, so don't these places think we might want to recreate in other ways? Arkansas gets it.

We will note that we did not have any cellular connectivity at our campsite. A few times within the park, a bar of 5G would appear, but it wasn't strong enough for us to do anything with it. Before we booked our site, I checked RV Trip Wizard and all the networks were checked off as having connectivity. This was not true. Thankfully, the north-facing side of our campsite was towards the field in the middle of the loop, so our Starlink worked great. This would not have been the case if we had been across the loop.

This state park is located in the town of Wynne, but it's about a 10-15 minute drive to get to downtown. Not anything to go out of our way for, but there were plenty of shops and restaurants for us to get any provisions we needed. We also used the town laundromat, which looked to be recently taken over by new management, who brought in new machines. The best part of the park's location is that it was not far from I-40. This put us in a good position to hop back on our travel route at the end of our stay.

We said a lot of positive things about this state park, and everything we said was warranted. However, our story doesn't end here. Our stay may have started peaceful, but it ended the complete opposite. We're saving the drama for our next blog post, so tune in then! If you haven't signed up to be notified of posts, use the form below.

Campground:

Village Creek State Park, Wynne, AR
Site 3, back-in, water and 30amp electric, fire ring, picnic table, tent pad
Site is situated by a creek
Campground recommended? Yes
Site recommended? Yes