Best Tent Camping near Meridian, MS

Camping area is about five tables and grills scattered on edge of property. No real sites (no tent pads, no fire rings). Surprisingly little regulation: fires allowed anywhere, swimming “not recommended.” The friendly camp hosts actually encouraged me to camp in the day use/picnic area, since it is closer to the flush restrooms. Water spigots scattered around but most don’t work. Gate to park locks at 5pm (key provided at check in) which is nice for security. Clean area. Close to a highway but few cars traveling at night. I was the only person camping on a weekday.

$15/night. Not bad considering the locking gate and restrooms with water. The historical structures are neat, as is the waterfall. The whole park can be explored in less than an hour, so I can’t imagine staying multiple nights.

For the price(free) it's not too bad. The primitive toilet definitely doesn't feel like home and it seems the litter bugs abound but it's super quiet and peaceful. Campsites right on the rivers bluff. Laying in my hammock I can look out over the water while listening to the sounds of nature. Small boat launch seems pretty active. The trash bins are full and would benefit from being emptied more often. About half a dozen usable primitive sights that seem to be free and first come first served. No employees, attendants, or camp host have been discovered. There seem to be several campsites that are missing amenities. The usable sites have a parking space, gravel tent pad, picnic table, fire ring and lantern hook. None of the water fountains appear functional so there does not seem to be any running water. There is a nice hammock station installed by Troop 44 which is quite nice. Can't wait to see the sunrise over the Tom Bigbee river in the morning.

RV campgrounds on Lake Okatibbee in Lauderdale County, MS. The pads are asphalt and have electric, water, and sewer connections. They also have picnic table in good shape and a steel picnic grill. This is not a fancy park, but it is decent. It has a bath house- restroom and showers. It also has washer and dryers. The bath house is in pretty good shape- they keep it fairly clean. The staff is very nice. Most of the pads are in the woods with a few pads overlooking the water- none are on the water. We tent camp, but there are no primitive sites here. There are a few cabins that are closer to the water. This is a place we will come back and stay.

PROS 

Immaculate grounds throughout the campground. Always saw someone working at it. 

Site 49 level concrete pad surrounded by pea gravel, with moveable aluminum table, pedestal BBQ grill, metal fire ring and wooden fish cleaning table. 

Bathhouse very clean and in good working condition with soap and TP 

Quiet except for occasional train whistle 

Sue at gate check in very nice and helpful and then Bill escorted us to our site. What great customer service! 

Security gates closed at 10p; open at 6a. No overnight entry. 

America the Beautiful Pass discounted the site to$15/night...WHAT A STEAL! 

No reservation transaction fee incurred 

T-MOBILE 2 bars 

CONS 

Site numbers painted on asphalt and on electrical box 

Roads are narrow in some areas 

No park WIFI 

Don’t Miss 

Barges on the waterway 

Smokin’ Jack BBQ in Demopolis 

Lower Pool park with the damn and the last lock heading south

We had sites 3,4 and 5. We were assigned site 3. A nice shaded site with full hookups. The first night our breaker kept tripping. We called and a member of the staff fixed it right of way. All good right? No. When we arrived no one told us of the possibility of two sewage hookups and which one should be used. We automatically hooked up to the one on the side by the water and electric. After 3 days there I noticed water puddling. Once again I called the front, nice young man came out. Called his boss and found out we should have hooked up to the one in the center of the pad underneath our travel trailer. So had a hose full of water that we had to unhook and crawl under our trailer to hookup. The day we were to leave while washing dishes we lost water pressure. Called the front again, apparently something went wrong because we saw them hauling pipes to repair it. Needless to say I had to hurry and drain my black and Grey tanks before I had no water. I gave them 3 stars for the attentiveness of their staff. Great time with friends and nice shaded pads. So if you get to your spot and there are 2 sewage use the one in the center of the pad.

This is one of those awesome Corps of Engineer Parks that are scattered across the country. We settled in here for a couple of nights and really wished we had more time. Our site was a nice back-in with a great water view. Since we were there in the fall, the park was not even a quarter full so it was very quiet and peaceful. We were going to stay in the nearby town of Meridian but when we found this park is was a no-brainer. It was only three miles off HWY 19 but provided such an awesome place to camp. Campsites have crushed gravel pads and patios (some of which are double in size) and most have a nice amount of shade from the trees. Our site was very large with plenty of room. There are a few pull-thrus but they have a really weird curvature and trees that would make it hard for some large RVs to navigate. The roads in the campground are narrow but most are one-way so that doesn’t really matter and easy enough for us to navigable with our 45’ RV and tow car. All sites are level and have 20/30/50 amp electric that worked well and have a fire pit with bbq grate, separate bbq, lantern crook, and picnic table. Within the campground are pit toilets but about a half mile away at the entrance are showers and a laundry facility. At the end of each campsite are garbage cans so you don’t have to go far to dump your trash. Most all sites have great water views and access in case you want to launch a kayak or canoe.  We decided to pull forward into our site so the view of the lake was directly out our front windshield.  It was perfect!  Our Verizon wifi worked well and got a dozen over the air television channels. There are a couple of small covered picnic shelters with large grills, fire pits, and picnic tables if you want to have a gathering. 

A short drive away is Collinsville Park with has a boat launch providing access to Okatibbee Lake. Many people in the campground would launch their boats there and then tie them up on the bank of the campground. There is a small fishing dock in the campground and plenty of bank fishing. The closest town is Collinsville where there is a grocery and some restaurants and you are 25-30 minutes from the larger town of Meridian.