‘Fantastic turnout’: Lake Ouachita State Park hosts crowds for historic solar eclipse
“The top of Blakely Mountain Dam and Twin Creeks Day Use Area contained the most users. Twin Creeks had around 200-250 people from 21 different states.”
— Christi Kilroy, Vicksburg District public relations department chief
Lake Ouachita State Park was filled with campers and other visitors to see Monday’s total solar eclipse, but while Lake Ouachita was full of people looking skyward, not all of the lakes managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were as well populated.
The state’s largest lake and the surrounding areas were quite busy, but DeGray Lake and Lake Greeson were not as busy, according to the Vicksburg District’s public relations department.
“Campgrounds were full in the morning,” Christi Kilroy, the department chief, said via email about Lake Greeson. “Limited day use crowds due to clouds. Most visitors headed North for longer eclipse time and better weather.”
DeGray Lake, which straddles the boundary of Clark and Hot Spring counties, saw lower-than-average crowds for the eclipse. Kilroy said the campground was at 75% and “Day use crowds were low (well below a typical weekend day.)”
Lake Ouachita’s “campgrounds were full with very active day use areas,” Kilroy noted. “The top of Blakely Mountain Dam and Twin Creeks Day Use Area contained the most users. Twin Creeks had around 200-250 people from 21 different states.
“Boat traffic was lower than expected. It was noted by Ranger staff that 34 different states were represented, via license plate.”
On Friday and Saturday, the state park held two stargazing events with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth to Sky, Hot Springs National Park and the Hot Springs Village Stargazers Club, originally limited to 125 participants.
“That was a fantastic turnout,” Emily Stubblefield, an interpreter at the park, said. “We even opened up the second night to over 160 people. It was great. We were really pleased on how it went. … We were super appreciative of the turnout and all the folks that were involved to make that a huge success.”
Stubblefield said visitors who came to the park the day of the eclipse starting arriving around 10 a.m.
“With the weather being up in the air until about 24 hours out, we weren’t really sure on what to expect for Monday’s viewing, but we started getting folks coming in between 10 and 11 (a.m.),” she said.
“That’s when our traffic started picking up, and we were ready. We had gone over our park plan how to deal with a large number of folks, and we had probably the most vehicles in the park that we had ever had before. But due to the overflow parking we had planned for and good opportunities to view and the weather being conducive, it all worked out very, very well.”
While the state park did not have any additional staff working during the eclipse, a team from AmeriCorps that has been working on the Caddo Bend Trail at the park was able to help.
“We were very fortunate,” Stubblefield said. “This winter, we were granted an AmeriCorps team of 10 folks, and how the scheduling worked out, we were able to keep them through the eclipse. They’ll actually be leaving this week, and so
that gave us 10 extra people to help us work traffic. They were a blessing to have. Just having that extra staff to help us spread a little bit thinner but still have staffing in really key places made a huge difference.”
The Corps said no issues were reported at any of its sites Monday.
“There were absolutely no issues during the entire event,” Kilroy said. “The visitors were interested in the eclipse and a family atmosphere was created and maintained at all the watching areas.”
Stubblefield said at least half of the states in the country were represented at the park Monday.
“We don’t always know until they check in, and they didn’t necessarily check in to camp,” she said. “So we didn’t really know (how many people were from out of state), but just kind of driving around looking at license plates, we had at least 25 different states in the park Monday. And looking at other state parks, that was a very similar trend. Many of them in totality got even more than 25 different states.”
While the park did have plenty of places ideal for viewing the eclipse, including areas around the Caddo Bend Trail and Three Sisters Beach, some people had to relocate after staking out their spot, Stubblefield said.
“We kind of evolved our parking plan to accommodate for those spots,” she said. “We don’t normally let the public park along the service road or have access beyond the gate (near the trail), but we had staffing up there to allow them to park closer to the field and the pull-off. That way, folks could be closer to their viewing location.
“One thing we noticed was people, I don’t know, maybe 12:30 (p.m.) were moving around (from) where they thought they had wanted to be to view and then they would do last-minute move around to another location,” she said.
Kilroy said the planning for the event helped make it a successful event.
“USACE staff attended planning meetings with Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and Arkansas Department of Transportation,” she said. “These meetings started approximately two years ago with a meeting every month for the last four months. … Everyone involved with the planning and execution of the event said it was well worth it after observing totality (of the) eclipse.”