Best Tent Camping near Bossier City, LA

Camped at site #63 in the Mill Pond Camping Area - tent area. This site backed up onto Saw Mill Pond - beautiful cypress swamp. Bugs were not too bad. Gravel drive on site. Level tent pad. Water only; no electric. Clean fire ring. Lantern post. Large site, good separation from other sites. Campground is heavily wooded, lots of shade. Campground is clean & nicely maintained. One restroom is at the entrance to the Mill Pond camping area, just off of a day use parking lot. No shower in this restroom. A newer, nicer restroom/shower house is located in the Woodpecker camping area. Quiet campground; no issues. Good AT&T service. Despite saying it's allowed in the campground features list, alcohol is prohibited. Excellent T-Mobile 5G service.

PROS 

Saved $42 With TX STATE PARK PASS 

No fee to reserve online. 

No sales tax. U

pon arriving at Site 23, we had no power at the pedestal. Called Park Headquarters and 2 park personnel were at our site in 10 minutes and resolved problem 

Site 23 level asphalt 

Site 23 partial shade 

Aluminum picnic table, 2 hook lantern pole and metal fire pit with cooking grate 

Donation firewood available 

Soap and hand dryer in toilet/shower facility 

3 bars TMOBILE when not storming 

CONS 

No overnight security gate closure 

Site 23 was 1/3 covered with poison oak and remaining living area covered with tall weeds. 

Some highway noises. 

Two PARK HOSTS occupy sites in Woodpecker Hollow. That reduces full hook up sites to 6. One of those sites were used as a temporary dump station due to out-of-service park dump station 

Woodpecker Hollow toilet/shower facility needs some deep cleaning 

11 windows in Woodpecker Hollow women’s toilet/shower and only 4 were open. Camp host said rest of windows were painted shut.  Floors were continuously wet and slippery. What a mess! This place needs a fan or two.

Most pets we saw were NOT on leash 

No privacy from surrounding campsites 

No ranger drive thru Woodpecker Hollow 

No park WIFI

Lake Bistineau is a great state park park near Shreveport, LA. We stayed 2 nights. The sites are very shady. The park streets and sites are asphalt. Some roads need repaving. The park was clean and quiet, and the staff was friendly. Unfortunately, the lake was drawn down to eradicate an invasive water plant. But, this presented a unique opportunity. We could walk on the dry lake bottom and see the parts of cypress trees that are normally under water. 

Stayed in back-in campsite#14 which was level side to side, but the front was higher. The site has a nice view of the lake and a large wooden deck. There was just enough parking for my 34 ft TT and truck. Neighbors are nearby, but not too close. The site included: picnic table on concrete, BBQ pit, trash pole, and fire ring. Utilities: 20/30/50A electric in back. Water in back, good pressure. No sewer, but a dump station is available. 

AT&T had 2 bars of LTE and Verizon 2 bars of LTE service. AT&T Speedtest: 5.1 Mbps down, 0.7 Mbps up. Verizon Speedtest: 7.4 Mbps down, 0.1 Mbps up. No WiFi. 

Would stay here again. We camped at Lake Bistineau State Park in a Travel Trailer.

Another great Texas State Park. I didn't see as much security as I usually do but the whole area is clean and well kept.

The bathrooms are amazing with fully enclosed toilet/shower/changing station for family bathrooms. As someone traveling with a toddler it is a HUGE relief to lock him inside while I shower.

We tent camp and while our site was perfect (#32) others were awful. It's very common for tent pads to be placed far away from the electrical box, so that's not a big deal... but after a rain storm it was apparent that a lot of tent pads need attention. The pads are dirt and many were uneven enough that 50% were well under water. Our pad was right next to the electrical box and someone had evened it out so while it rained and rained, we were good. So if you are tent camping pay close attention to the location and evenness of your tent pad. No amount of tarps would have saved some of these sites!

The trails are good and it's a very unique location. Reminds me of South Florida!

Lastly, the Armadillo circle is right next to the road. Okay maybe not right next to but you will hear traffic all night.

Great for $15/night!

Overnight stay at this park on our way home from Galveston. $12 for full hookups. $6 for primitive. We paid for full hookups since the primitive area was overgrown and VERY primitive. We were able to just pull in and find a lovely, level, shady spot. We had electricity and a covered pavilion, but no water spigot at our site. Other sites had water but some were set up for RV connections not for filling up jugs. We simply used a spigot that happened to be at an empty site nearby. The camp host chatted up my husband while he was getting water and didn’t seem to mind. This park has a day use area that includes playgrounds, disc golf, fishing piers, and a swim beach (that we made good use of). We were disappointed because the shower in the bathhouse didn’t seem to work. It wasn’t until the next morning that another camper clued us in about the “private” shower for campers (get the code from the host). That made a world of difference! We found the park to be quiet (mostly retirees there), clean, and quaint. The local sheriff’s office sits at the entrance so we felt very safe there too. Also don’t miss the little Mexican restaurant down the road!

I tent camped here in April 2023. The staff was friendly and the office was still open at 6pm, when I arrived on a Saturday. I don’t know their normal hours. The weather was nice but it had just rained so my campsite was wet with a little mud. Plus it was a little uneven without much clear space for a tent but my tent fit because it is a 2-person tent. Other sites had wooden platforms but mine didn’t. I took an evening walk on the Discovery Trail and saw two deer. There are several other, longer trails. I didn’t explore the lake. The bathroom/shower house was clean. It was a little ways from I-20 but overall decent park.