Best Tent Camping near McCool, MS

What a gorgeous farm, and what a marvelous experience! When we first arrived, we thought we would have to hike down to camp. Nope! Brian met us at the gate, and led us down a perfectly manicured field so that we could park right next to our tent spot! 

He showered us with provisions grown on his farm, including oodles of chanterelles and a couple bulbs of Creole Ajo Rojo from his passion project. We enjoyed a couple hours kayaking on the big pond/little lake with some ducks. We ended up getting caught in a surprise rain storm while floating, but no worries! We were able to make it back and throw up a tarp in no time. There are lots of primo spots to set up your tent, but ours fit perfectly between the two trees our tarp was strung between. 

Brian really thought of everything when it comes to this camp! He provided us with covered firewood- including heat pine, which burned like a match and made building a fire after the rainstorm a breeze. We loved having enough chairs to set up both in front of the water and in front of the fire, so we didn't have to drag them back and forth. 

Oh, what luxury it is to have a running toilet and a hot shower while camping! Both structures are incredibly solid and private, and made us feel human again after a couple weeks camping primitively. 

As for phone service, mine was in and out. This is rural Mississippi, after all. But when I did have service, Brian was incredibly attentive when I needed to reach him!

I had a horrible experience at this campsite. Rolled up to find one (miserable) couple there. They were blasting music out of their car which is whatever and I waved hello and they just stared. Multiple cars came thru the campsite at night, shining their headlights every which way. Even though it says don’t enter past a certain point unless you are camping, this is clearly a spot for locals to do what they cannot do at home. At 2am I hear barking and one of my dogs busts through my tent. I go out there and there is a pack of wild dogs scouring the campsite. They weren’t terrifying or coming at us, but it was still scary. No more than 10 mins later two cars surround my tent with headlights, which is really scary for anyone, but I am a young woman traveling alone. Apparently the couple called the cops saying my dogs had been barking all night. There was brief barking and it was the wild dogs who were actually eating the trash the evil couple left out. Even if my dogs were barking, why is surrounding my tent with only headlights at 2am appropriate? I couldn’t see anything. Never saw a ranger, immediately left in the morning. Sorry for the essay, just hope to spare someone a similar experience. It is beautiful tho.

This is as simple and as it gets, but it does have restrooms. This is primitive camping so there are no hookups and nothing extras, just a nice place to pitch a tent or park. You can not reserve this site but it’s free. There are a few other similar primitive campsites in the park nearby. Nice and wooded.

Yay: simple camping! Very pretty wooded area. Lots of hiking trails nearby.

Nay: no map or info of any sort once you’re there.

Surprise: exceptional in fall!

The NPS should absolutely charge a fee for the level amenities. This campground is optimized for RVs. There are pull thru spurs with multiple campsites sites but the tables have been moved and monopolized by RVers…including ones with tent pads. Generators running at 3:00 am. On the plus side, heated bathrooms were absolutely clean. Water fountains are distributed through the campground but one spigot to fill a jug. Good access to Little Mountain Trail. There were six empty sites made unusable by RVs parking in between them. Maybe when a camp host is onsite they will clean this up.

This campground was just ok in my opinion. I went through it while traveling the Natchez Trace. It is one of only three campgrounds that can be found on the Trace. I did not end up staying here, but wanted to check it out to see if it was worth staying in the future. The bathrooms were very old and could have used an upgrade. There is a very nice nature trail here for walking and it is the highest point in Mississippi with wonderful views!

This campground does not appear to be maintained. Many sites are in an area that is subject to flooding. There are a handful of sites along the spillway channel that are decent, but I wouldn’t stay here unless I was able to get one of those sites. Unfortunately, this is another disappointing Mississippi State Park.

This place was absolutely gorgeous. I was alone in the campground both nights i was there with a couple of people coming in during the day to have lunch at one of the picnic tables.

I might have worked on my tanlines 🤫

I fit pretty good in my 24' motorhome but woupd be leery of something too much bigger. 

Do not try to come at night. It is pitch black and steep drop offs. 

Really nice set up for tents if thwt is your thing.

The campground is located in a beautiful spot on a peninsula with great views of Grenada lake at both sunrise and sunset. The tent pads are nice and each camp has a grill and a nice marble picnic table. Several camps have fire pits, trash cans, and water faucets. There is a nice public restroom just a short walk from any camp. The sounds of the water crashing on the shores around you and the birds singing at sunrise are utterly calming. The only problem is the occasional truck that passes through to sit listening to music or use the campground road as a turn around. This could be fixed if the gate at the entrance were kept closed and only opened for actual campers.

Part of the day use area has been converted into a campground in 2018. There are eight campsites, each with a level gravel pad tent area, picnic table and grill. There is group fire pit area, with a picnic table. Unfortunately, the only place to have a fire at your campsite is in the grill. None of the sites have electricity. There is a central water spigot. The restroom has flush toilets, but no showers. You can go to one of the other many Corps of Engineers campgrounds nearby to shower. Both times we have stayed here, we were the only ones there. It's so new, almost no one knows of its existence. To either side of it, there is a swimming area in the day use area and at the boat launch / swimming beach. All sites have a water view.

Well maintained campground. The lake was very pretty and had a wonderful trail around it.

Nice cozy campground on the lake. The campsites are almost all right next to the water, but there isn’t too much tree cover despite very large campsites. This may help a little with increasing breeze since we didn’t have as many bugs as we expected. Yay: Nice little beach for swimming, boating and fishing. All quite clean, water and power at each campsite, great showers. Simple but all you could want.

**Nay: Nice hiking trails around the lake, and other great trails nearby.  **

Surprise:  Saw eagles and some cute little red birds we couldn’t identify :) There is a disc golf course nearby (but we don’t play).

Paved pull through sites are first come first serve. They seem to over lap and lots of folk share the sites. So you may need to back up to get out, even if it is pull through.
Flush toilets. Picnic area. Nice nature walk to a view, 1 mile each way.

Clean, we were here Thanksgiving weekend. Loved every minute. Flushing toilets. Free water. NO DUMP SITE.

There tons of hiking, drinking water, bathrooms, and you can stay here 14 days. what more can you ask for. Literally tons and tons and tons of hiking. Honestly we've been super lucky and have not seen man campers lately!

Beautiful and quiet

Easy trails thru pretty words passing a natural spring. Nice picnic pavilion on top of trail. RV parking allowed but no hookups.

Following Google Maps to this location will take you to a dead end on private property with little room to turn around.

This was a great spot to stop and relax we stayed 3 nights and was very peaceful. The bath house was close because of covid but the rest was good would definetely come back and recommend if traveling the Natchez Trace parkway. We were in a 41’ motorhome and had plenty of room.