With kids! 
When you search Becoming rentABLE for mobility accessible short-term rentals in Arkansas, you’ll find over 50 accessible lodging units, cabins and yurts in the parks throughout the state.
Arkansas State Parks are making outdoor summers (or any time of year) accessible to all abilities. While accessibility has become a priority at Arkansas’ state parks, we only had time to explore two of their parks. Here’s what we discovered!
DeGray Lake Resort State Park
DeGray Lake was our home base for our stay, and beyond being a perfect launch pad it could have been our entire vacation.
Rooms
DeGray Lake Resort State Park has a variety of accessible room options, including an accessible YURT. Our room had a 36” door, roll-in shower, a roll-under bathroom sink, wide pathways, low switches and controls, and low bed height. Start with the filters that meet your needs on Becoming rentABLE and you’re likely to find exactly what you need.
Activities
DeGray Lake isn’t just an accessible room: it’s an outdoor experience. You can view their accessibility guide here.
We enjoyed our wheelchair accessible pontoon ride, but there are a variety of accessible boat tour options. You can also rent a boat to take out on your own.
There are wheelchair accessible docks, picnic areas, and tennis courts, with accessible restrooms conveniently located throughout the park. While most trails are inaccessible, we enjoyed the paved path by the lake from the resort. There’s a wheelchair lift in the hall beyond the lobby that takes you directly to the trail. Head to the right and you can enjoy up-close waterfront views.
The beach area has a sidewalk leading down to about 15 feet from the water. They’re also in the process of grading an area to install a Mobi Mat.
The pool is easy to get to, has a chair lift, and sits with a nice view of the lake.
The playgrounds are both easy to get to, but there is no roll-on playground equipment.
Meals
DeGray Lake Resort is a short drive from a variety of small town restaurants and some of your favorite basic chains, but we couldn’t get over the convenience, accessibility, beauty, and value of eating in. The Shoreline restaurant is located in the main lodge with a fantastic view of the lake. Kids meals started at just $4, service was quick and friendly, and the food was diverse and delicious. We ended up eating here four times.
The only dining option I’ll highlight that was really worth the drive was Java Primo in Arkadelphia. Their coffee and meals are next-level delicious and even a simple breakfast sandwich is big enough to share. My “side” of fruit was a small platter of freshly sliced pineapple, melon, berries, and bananas.
Crater of Diamonds State Park
Did you know you could dig for diamonds in Arkansas?
Crater of Diamonds State Park is one of the only places in the world where the public can search for real diamonds in their original volcanic source. It’s definitely a bucket list worthy destination.
All buildings and facilities are fully wheelchair accessible. There’s a ramp leading to the field and the packed dirt paths through the field are wide and mostly smooth. The path to the left, where the water runs off from the cleaning station had a deep rut that we couldn’t pass, but the rest of the paths were easy to traverse.
The field itself is made of deep ruts. A wheelchair can’t leave the paths. We parked on the trail to dig on the edge for a bit.
The wet sifting station ended up being a much better fit for a wheelchair. We brought our bucket of dirt (this works best with a companion) to the covered wet sifting tables and rolled right under the tables to spend the morning sifting through dirt. The tables, filled with water, are messy but easily accessible. I suggest covering your chair if it’s a power chair with parts that are easily damaged.
Don’t worry about packing equipment. You can rent everything you need.
We enjoyed cooling off at the on-site water park after the hot day. The pool is zero entry. There are no chair lifts or water chairs. We just popped the cushion off of our manual chair and rolled right in, but this isn’t an option for all wheelchair users.
Get Outside
These parks were a great way for our family to get outside and enjoy the outdoors. Looking at all that Arkansas State Parks are doing to improve accessibility and inclusion, it’s a place I’m excited to be able to explore more!
