Hello, I am the director at Lincoln Lake. We at the city of Lincoln do regret that we had to eliminate camping in the park. The reason is that we had to haul out several bags of beer cans, bottles, food containers, and yes human waste, every weekend. We put up warning signs to let folks know that if the littering did not stop that we would have to stop the camping. The signs were torn down and the abuse continued. The city did adopt a NO CAMPING ordinance at the park two years ago due to this problem. We have placed signs throughout the park to warn folks not to camp. Someone built a huge fire ring under one of these signs and camped beneath it. Our city officials decided it was time to kick up the campaign to enforce the park rules. Last weekend a couple was caught by our police officers and fined. The park is patrolled by a number of people including myself, our police department, and aldermen from our city counsel. If someone is caught camping they will have to deal with our police department and all that goes with that. And they will be caught.
Now with that being said we at the city have a great respect for our rock climbers in that most of them are very respectful of the environment and leave no trace other then a little chalk dust on the rock. We have a working relationship with the climber’s collision and invite anyone to come out and climb in this great park. We do not believe the trashed out camping sites are a work of climbers but of careless individuals who don’t care about how their actions will affect others. This site says that camping here is OK. I wanted to let you know it is not allowed and to try to keep folks out of trouble. We want your visit to our park to be enjoyable and not a time of having to deal with law enforcement. Please go to lincolnarkansas.com and click on Lincoln Lake for the park rules and updates.