Agency-listedUSFS · dispersedFree
John Archer Trail Shelter
Hike-in · U.S. Forest Service · AR · 34.75330, -93.48936
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →U.S. Forest Service lists this site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — John Archer Trail Shelter · U.S. Forest Service · AR
No MVUM road within a quarter mile of the pin; the nearest mapped segment is FR 148 (Crystal), 0.3 mi away. Access may be a county road or unmapped.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at John Archer Trail Shelter
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,292 ft.
Fire & smoke — around John Archer Trail ShelterNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from John Archer Trail Shelter · U.S. Forest Service · AR
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail4 mi
- FFuel14 mi
- GGrocery15 mi
- HHardware16 mi
- RxPharmacy16 mi
- MMechanic22 mi
- +Urgent care24 mi
- EVEV fast charger29 mi
- WWater30 mi
- LLaundry36 mi
- DDump39 mi
- ShShower39 mi
- OOutfitter40 mi
- PPropane47 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 30-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 14 mi out.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — John Archer Trail Shelter
Access
Hike-in
Land
U.S. Forest Service · dispersed
Elevation
1,292 ft
Ground slope
28% · steep
State
AR
Coordinates
34.75330, -93.48936
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around John Archer Trail Shelter · U.S. Forest Service · AR (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureIrons Fork · ~0.5 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Also mapped (OSM)Smith Creek (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townAly · ~2.6 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelExxon · ~14.4 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesJoplin Store · ~14.7 mi
- PharmacyMount Ida Pharmacy · ~16.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicChambers Memorial Hospital · ~21.6 mi
- HardwareTrue Value · ~15.8 mi
EV charging — from John Archer Trail Shelter · U.S. Forest Service · AR — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger29.4 mi straight-line SE — FRANKLINS 3-4 FRANKLIN HS1, Hot Springs, AR · ChargePoint Network · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 8 within 50 · 47 within 100 · 96 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO29.4 mi — FRANKLINS 3-4 FRANKLIN HS2, Hot Springs
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)12.7 mi — Mountain Harbor Resort -Habor North C21, Mt. Ida, AR · Blink Network · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 253318 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around John Archer Trail Shelter · U.S. Forest Service · AR — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletFourche Mountain · ~11.2 mi NE · USFS
- RestroomComfort Station, Building 78 · ~13.1 mi E · NPS
- Vault / pit toiletHickory Nut Mountain · ~13.7 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletRocky Shoals · ~15.3 mi SW · USFS
Coming out here — John Archer Trail Shelter · U.S. Forest Service · AR
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Irons Fork as a perennial stream, ~0.5 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 28% — steep. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open John Archer Trail Shelter elsewhere
Other camps near John Archer Trail Shelter
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Bill Potter Trail Shelter~3.6 mi
- Big Branch Trail Shelter~7.7 mi
- Fourche Mountain Recreation Area (Ouachita National Forest)~11.2 mi
- Blue Mountain Trail Shelter~12.2 mi
Who holds the land at John Archer Trail Shelter
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Ouachita National Forest, manager on record: Forest Service (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — John Archer Trail Shelter
Stay limit
30 nights (camp in a dispersed area for up to 30 days)
Source
public land records
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
OUACHITA NATIONAL RECREATION TRAIL SHELTER, on Ouachita National Forest land. The Forest Service states that the 71 miles of the Ouachita Trail crossing the Jessieville-Winona-Fourche Ranger District have nine trail shelters along their length for hiker use (fs.usda.gov/r08/ouachita, read 2026-08-16). This is a HIKE-IN backcountry shelter, not a drive-up campsite -- do not publish it as one without checking the walking distance. No fee is charged for it and it is not on the forest's day-use no-camping order. U.S. Forest Service dispersed-camping rules for this forest (fs.usda.gov, read 2026-08-16): "Dispersed camping is the term used for camping anywhere in the National Forest OUTSIDE of a designated campground." "You may camp in a dispersed area for up to 30 days. After 30 days, you must move at least 5 road miles for camping in another dispersed area." "Dispersed camping is NOT allowed in the vicinity of developed recreation areas such as campgrounds, picnic areas, or trailheads." "Please place your campsite at least 100 feet from any stream or other water source." Groups over 75 need a special-use permit. No fee. AGFC records NO 'last_verified_date' for this point -- age unknown. COORDINATE PROVENANCE: the latitude and longitude on this row are AGFC's own, taken from the public ArcGIS service https://gisec2.agfc.com/arcgis/rest/services/GIS/AGFC_DATA/MapServer layer 1 ('Public Use Facilities'), queried 2026-08-16 for ftype IN ('RVs Allowed - No Hookups','Tents Only','RVs Allowed - Hookups','RVs Allowed - Hookups and Dump'). This is the agency's mapped facility point, NOT a field visit and NOT a geocode. The fee flag on this row is AGFC's own 'fdescrip' column reading 'No Fee Site'. AGFC does not publish per-site facility detail, so the presence of a table, fire ring, toilet or trash service is UNKNOWN and is not claimed here. NO WATER SOURCE IS CLAIMED -- treat any lake, river or bayou nearby as NON-POTABLE. AGFC's facility type for this point is 'Tents Only'. Nearest town: Mount Ida ~15.8 mi. 'Nearest town' is STRAIGHT-LINE distance to the nearest OpenStreetMap place=city/town/village and is NOT a driving distance; in the Delta bottoms and the Ouachitas the road in can be far longer. Ingest 2026-08-16. STATUS=pending: this is a lead for review, not published. | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about John Archer Trail Shelter
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — John Archer Trail Shelter
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Reading the aerial →All field notes →