Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Homochitto National Forest

Clear Springs Recreation Area,located in the Homochitto National Forest near Roxie, Ms, is probably one of my favorite campgrounds within 3 hours from New Orleans. It's located in a beautiful section of the forest, complete with rolling hills and a lake.

The primitive tent only sites are located about half a mile up the road from the main campground, providing a substantial distance between you and the RVs. The dirt road to the tent only sites is lined with individual camp sites until you reach the back area. The back has a few small hilltops that have about 4 sites per hill. Each hill is about 50 yards from each other, again, providing needed space between you and other campers. All of the sites have fire pits with fold down cast iron grills. The ground was level enough for tents, and there's a good amount of trees for hammock camping.

The RV spots are located near the lake(pond), and have picnic tables and the fire pit. Some of the RV sites are more open air and without much privacy, yet some are nestled amongst the trees on the outer perimeter.

Adjacent to the RV sites are the restrooms, equipped with showers. On a very cold and frozen winter morning, I had decided to visit the facilities. To my great surprise, when I opened the door, I was hit with blast of warm air! So you can rest easy knowing that the restrooms are heated. There is a large pavilion that is open to air on three sides. the open sides have a railing with bench seats. There are also picnic tables located within. Most interesting was the oversized stone fireplace. It looks most welcoming, although I had no chance to use it.next to the pavilion is an open picnic area with charcoal grills and more tables. All of these picnic areas overlook the pond.

I understand that there is 17 miles of hiking trails surrounding the area. It looks like a large circuit with shorter trails interconnecting by the map.

I haven't experienced this campground outside of dead winter. I enjoyed the subfreezing temps next to a hot fire. I have been four times in the last couple of years, twice solo and twice with guests. I very much love this campground.

This is a very nice RV Park. It’s big. Almost 150 sites, with water, sewer and 30/50 amp electric. There are also a few tent sites with electricity. It’s well kept-grass is mowed, grounds and facilities are clean. There is a playground, a dog park, pool and hot tub. Showers and bathrooms are nice. Laundry room, small grocery/gift shop. And a guest lounge. There is a paved walking trail along the river. There is also a public boat ramp about 1/4 mile away for access to the Mississippi. Internet was sport. With this many Class A motorhomes and people streaming media the server can’t keep up.

Nice wide roads in the park so easy to access your site. Pool area is very nice. There are tables, chairs, rocking chairs and recliners for your use. There is a large shaded area if you don’t want to sit in the sun. The lawns throughout the park are very well maintained. Very level sites with shade. A very nice enclosed dog park along with many paths to walk your dog. Utilities all work well. Like most campgrounds, there are lots of cigarette butts on the ground and dog poop. I don’t understand why people can not pick up after themselves! WIFI is spotty along with the over air channels. There were many dead large limbs in the trees above our site. We had a bad rain storm and many fell onto our roof. Luckily, we had no damage.

This is my first stay at Paradise Ranch. I had pretty high expectations based upon their website and feedback from friends. Note: Apple Maps and RV Life GPS will route you to the old park entrance which is closed. The new entrance is about 200 yards further east along Hwy 48. The sign at the entrance is off the road and you could miss it if you dont pay attention.

Checking in, the lady gave me poor directions to my site. It was unclear where to turn after entering the gate and she routed me where Id have to back-in to my pull-through site.

A very hard rain storm came through as we were setting up. Had to go in the RV and wait out the rain. Afterwards, I noticed a number of the campsites and roads were flooded with a few inches of water. Some of my neighbors RVs were surrounded by water for a little while until it could drain away. Fortunately, my site did not flood.

The entrance road is concrete, but all of the roads within the park are gravel or dirt. Some sites have concrete pads, especially near the Lagoon. We stayed in pull-through campsite #P85 which was not shady and not very level. It was a gravel site with grass on either side. There was enough parking for my 34 ft TT and truck. Neighbors are close. The site included: picnic table on grass and fire bowl. Utilities: 20/30/50A electric in the middle. Water in the middle, good pressure. Sewer towards the front with 4 screw-on fitting. I know they area I camped in is newly expanded and only opened up a few months ago. Im sure it will improve over time.

Bass Lake (onsite) is beautiful. The BL campsites are shady. I would probably stay along the lake if I came here again. There is an area near the lake where you can see (and pet) the red stag deer. There are also some hogs wandering around the lake that you can pet.

The Lagoon area has a lot of shade, except for the pool, of course. The pool is large and also incudes a kiddy pool. We were disappointed to find the zip line that is mentioned on their website was not there. There was a good live band on the stage Saturday night. They also had a number of activities for the kids throughout the day. We enjoyed the water gun wars. Some of the camp staff also participate. If you stay in a Lagoon campsite, Id recommend one on the west side as they are a few feet higher in elevation than those on the east side. There was standing water around the sites on the east side after the heavy rain.

AT&T had 4 bars of LTE and Verizon 1 bar of LTE service. AT&T Speedtest: 298 Mbps down, 28 Mbps up. No WiFi.

Stayed 3 nights in July. Would probably stay here again, especially if a group of friends wanted to go. But, there are nicer RV parks closer to my home. (Paradise Ranch is about 107 miles from home.)