Campground Review: Carver Campground - On the Buffalo River, AR

 The gentle sandbar of the Carver Campground was a welcome site after an 11 mile canoe trip down the Buffalo River in Arkansas.

Campground Review:

Recently spent several days paddling the waters of the Buffalo River in Arkansas. This was the last day of our trip and proved to be the most gentle leg of the river. We put in at Pruitt Landing and headed out on the 7 hour trip to Carver.

We had been on the river several days prior to this leg and the water had been running fairly fast and murky. However, after a couple of miles into this trip, the river widened out and it turned into a calm float down the scenic river. Lots of beautiful cliffs, caves and foliage.

We hit the pull out point of our trip at the base of Carver Campground. The area was out of the way of fast moving water so it was easy to guide our canoes in. The sandbar was small river rock and provided a very clean and easy way to end the water portion of the trip.

While the put in/pull out portion of the camp was open and convenient, it is at the base of a fairly steep hill. Add to that that the road leading down to the waters edge from the campground was a dirt path that was wet and slick, it did make getting our crafts up a little rough. Several trucks were trying to backdown the road to put in and gave up when they realized they may get down but wouldn’t get back up.

The campground itself is a small 8-10 site camp. This is a basic “river float” campground and really didn’t offer anything other than a place to camp. No trails or activities that we could find but we weren’t looking for or needing that.

Each site had ample room but not much privacy. Kind of an open area with some shade trees so you could see and hear all of the other campers in the area. Again, not bad for what we needed it for but if you are looking for a secluded, activity rich campground, Carver probably isn’t for you.

Each site had a fire pit and picnic tables. There was a common use water faucet that made refilling water containers and clean up easy. This is a tent camping site so did not see electricity or dump stations should you have an RV. Very well maintained vault restrooms for such a small campground. There was way more parking available than what was needed for such a small campground so it was obvious that it is used as a parking/pick-up area for many more visitors than just those that spend the night.

Overall, the campground served its purpose well. A place to clean up, use the restroom and lay your head down for the night. Great stop for float trips!