Lake Catherine State Park

Love this area & the surrounding hikes. Dam mountain is a beautiful hike (although sometimes closed during hunting season). Falls Branch trail leads to the most beautiful waterfall. I recommend checking this place out if you’ve got the time. There’s a single loop hike that hits all the major spots and takes about 2 hours. I think it’s 3 miles? You’ll see the waterfall, swing bridge & a few other cool spots. Easy hikes!
Trails: Dam Mountain, Falls Branch, Horseshoe Mountain (These all begin at the trailhead).

I loved this area. The park was well kept and clean. The trails were marked and easy to navagate. I did the falls branch… enjoyable walk in the woods.

Our family tent-​camped for 4 days here in June. The kids (ages 3– 13) enjoyed the nature cabin and the programs put on by the park rangers. Ex: one night was astronomy, another was dutch oven cooking, there were several local music groups. The younger kids made snakeskin bookmarks and enjoyed learning about different snakes. The bathrooms were well maintained and very clean; a huge plus. There is a nice family friendly swim area, or you can boat around and find somewhere more secluded if you want. We hiked the Falls Branch trail; beautiful scenery! I would recommend this park wholeheartedly!

Let me start of by saying that the park is nice & kept up well. Parts of it are scenic and beautiful– especially this time of year (late fall/​early winter). The showers are terrible though!!! No hot water! To get the full idea of the showering experience, imagine your significant other taking the garden hose (not to be confused with a garden tub!) and putting their thumb over it! Yeah, that’s it! Kinda like having a shower via the government when you’re suspected to have something highly contagious– now you’ve got the picture. We stayed in a tent on a rv site so that we could have a small heater in our tent. It was perfect camping weather. We chose this campground because we wanted to do some sight seeing in hot springs. Although this site has a hot springs address, it is a 30 minute drive from bathhouse row. Longer than we expected! Overall it was nice, but due to the cold showers, we won’t be back!

We did the Forest Branch trail because the Dam trail was closed and we were very happy with our trail and the great scenery.
I definitely wouldn’t label the Forest trail easy but more like moderate. We are avid hikers and it didn’t meet our definition of easy because of the slippery rocks and uphill — ness of the trail. It was excellent!
The waterfall is small so nothing to write home about but the trail is nice and peaceful. The lake is nice also.
We will definitely be back to try the other two trails.

Stayed here only for one night, wish we had stayed at this location longer, we were very close to the beach in our tent, Bathrooms we nice and clean, staff was extremely friendly, My Girlfriend and I stayed here on our trip to California, Watch the weather, it rained everyday we stayed in AR, Wish we had time to actually swim and hike heard and saw pictures and it looked lovely but we had to keep on going. Only four stars due to weather not their fault.

Reason for Travel: Shift work + Too much mandatory overtime during the launch of a new computer system at work – loooong OVERDUE break & «Take Your Labs Hiking» Holiday!
Duration: Friday night– Sunday afternoon (mid-​March)
Review:
Booking Servies: Walk-​In *****
Guest Services: Exceptional! Friendly. American. Check-​In & check-​out was no hassle. *****
Security: Well-​lit at night. No one lingering in park after hours. No creepy people walking in the streets. (Quiet hours observed) (YES! I stay up past midnight.)
Campsite: Paved parking pad. Very easy to set up our RV on Lot 41. It was the last spot in the park, so we were obliged with a handicapped facility – right beside the bathhouse! The site itself was extra-​large with a separate spot for a tent set-​up. Extremely clean! Stand-​up grill, picnic table, hook for a lantern, and an above the ground fire pit. *****
Bathhouse: Clean, easily accessible, and very roomy. 3 necessary stalls & 2 showers. Poor water pressure, only 1 temp for showering; which was lukewarm – NOT hot! If you are expecting a nice hot shower, this is NOT the place to come! The water in the sinks was COLD. Wall dryer for drying your hands. ***
The Park: Very nice and well kept. Park rangers were lurking about all hours of the day. Children were everywhere – riding their bikes in the streets. You may want to slow it down a bit, because they think bikes are what roads are made for & will NOT move out of your way. Many people bring their pets here. They do have a pet leash policy, which is good and bad, because my chocolate lab really wanted to chase the geese :-o
They have a marina with boats to rent – canoes, kayaks, and motorboats – although, I didn’t take advantage of this service.
They also have a camp store, with overpriced camp gear, food, and items you may have left at home.
Firewood is also on site for purchase.
They have WiFi, but you have to purchase it for like $ 4.99/day *****
The Trails: I brought my 2 labs here for a weekend of hiking & that’s just what we did! They had a BLAST on the trails.
The Falls Branch trail is an easy hike. If you are starting at the trailhead, the less strenuous way is to take the right and go around. If you start crossing the swinging bridge & go to the waterfall first, there is more hills to climb. The water fall is nice – I mean, it’s not like the falls in Lake Tahoe, but pretty good for Arkansas. This is an easy trail. You only need a bottle of water – at best. *****
Dam Mountain trail is a bit rugged and very steep in some places. Do yourself a favor if you want to hike the path of least resistance – when you get to the waterfall, go to the RIGHT! If you attempt this trail going toward the left at the waterfall, you will be hiking straight uphill – with few variations of zig-​zagging! Once you get to the top, there is a fabulous view of Lake Catherine, the power plant, and a dam. In the spring, it is really cold up top because of the wind coming off of the lake. If you want to hang out on one of the benches, I’d suggest a long sleeve. I can imagine the summer months would make this hike very HOT, so definitely bring a couple of water bottles with you. I took some trail mix for quick energy for this hike. It was sufficient. If you bring your K9 up this mountain, please bring them a collapsable bowl and water. They will need it by the time they make it back to the brook for water. *****
I did not have a chance to hike the Horseshoe Mountain trail. I plan to return in a couple of weeks and hike it.
Overall, I LOVED this park! It is a very short drive from Hot Springs – which is very touristy and busy, so that if you become too bored with camping, you can go into town. It’s also a very short drive from where I live in Mississippi, making it a great location to leave the reality of working in the city for a fabulous weekend retreat!
I will definitely return to camp here :)
I only deducted a star for the lack of hot water & water pressure in the bathhouse, everything else was 5 stars!

A very pretty place and one of historical significance. The CCC’s (Civilian Conservation Corps 1930’s) performed much of the construction here. My Uncle was in the CCC and helped build walls and roads. If you consider the time in which this place was constructed, a time when the country’s future (depression, looming War) was threatened, you realize what we as Americans can do in adversity.

I love this park so much – mostly for the hiking. I’ve done all three trails and they are all stunning. The red trail — with the waterfalls — is great after recent rain. If you do it backwards, its more challenging! The Yellow trail has beautiful mountaintop views. The white trail is less uphill (except for in a few places) and more densely wooded. All three have lots of caterpillars in the spring! Dog friendly, and very shaded so it’s comfortable even in the hotter summer months.

My wife’s parents live in Diamondhead which is right next to Lake Catherine State Park. This is our «go to park» anytime we’re in town visiting them. We love the Arkansas State park, they’re some of our favorites. Lake Catherine is one of parks that is on the top of our list. It’s so convenient to the Hot Springs area and all it has to offer. We were in site #62 which was totally level side to side. We love the newly remodeled area of park that offers full hookups.
The park is absolutely beautiful and the staff is outstanding and very helpful.

Such a beautiful park! My husband and I visited for the first time last Saturday, which just happened to be an out-​of-​the-​ordinary day for January weather in Arkansas. It was 75 degrees, zero humidity, and bright blue skies! Just gorgeous.
We started by taking the 2 mile Falls Creek Trail to Falls Creek Falls waterfall. I read that this is the waterfall most often used in Arkansas brochures. It was beautiful and relaxing. The hike was a great workout, but not too strenuous. If 2 miles is too much for you, you can take the trail starting by the lake, and it’s only a little over 1 mile to the waterfall and back. If you are looking for a longer hike, other trails are available and range in length.
The Falls Creek Trail takes you along Lake Catherine, which is a nice touch. There are also plenty of campsites and picnic tables overlooking the water. Cabins and canoes are also available to rent.

Love this place! So relaxing, beautiful autumn seasonal! And Fun

My husband and I stayed hear at the park it was very beautiful. The campgrounds are well maintained and clean. They have places for you to camp by tent and/​or RV. You can also rent cabins if you choose. We choose to camp in a tent. The site has RV hook ups and water supply at each site. There is also a firepit for campfires with a grill over it to cook. Also each site has a picnic table and stand up BBQ grill. The park has several bathrooms that are heated and include a shower. The bathrooms were the cleanest I have ever seen. There are also three different hiking trails you can take around the park. You can also rent a boat to go on to the lake. The only down side is there is a plant/​mill across the lake which you will see, but it’s not loud so you can still enjoy the peace and quite.