Best Tent Camping near Oakland, MS

We tent camped for the weekend at George Payne Cossar State Park in March.  It was still a bit cold and the pollen had come out - looked like snow falling in my headlamp.  There is a playground for kids and dogs are allowed at the campgrounds.  We had a nice fire, roasted marshmallows, and wanted to play disc golf but the lake was too high and covered some of them!

My girlfriend and I tent camped here for one night. The campground is large and well-kept, with over 100 sites, and the sites are very spacious. Each has a table, water and electric hookups, a hook, and a tent pad. From what I saw, we were the only tent campers in the campground. We camped in site 64, which is near the lake and the bathrooms. The tent pad was covered in pine needles, making it nice and soft. The only complaint I have is that there is a very bright street light that stays on all night near the boat ramp, but I would highly recommend this campground. Enid Lake and its facilities appear to be top-notch.

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!

It’s really hard for me to give 1 star for anything, but this place is a dump. This is the 3rd MS State Park (North MS) we have been to and it is clear that MS does not take care of its state parks. Only half of the park is open, the grass was overgrown, trash/garbage is littered every where (especially near the open dumpsters that are randomly placed throughout camp), the ranger only came around to collect fees and then disappeared. The bathroom does not have AC or a fan, so it was a total sweat box. The toilet paper was not replenished, there is no hand soap, there was broken glass on the ground in one of the stalls. The shower portion wasn’t that bad, but again, no AC. The water hook ups are at least 100 foot away from most camp sites, so bring lots of extra hose if you do end up staying here. The site #’s are not clearly marked and they do not post if a site is reserved. No designated fire pits, so people have been just burning where ever they want. The fee is $22 a night, but they will charge you another $16 if you put up a tent. Overall, I paid $39 to stay in the worst campground we have ever gone to. Get it together Mississippi!

Most of the campers you see here are RVs. We camped in tent, wish they had tent pads. Good view of the lake, nice clean bathroom. Spacious depending on which site you choose. We reached there in the night, the camp numbers were hard to read as they were painted on the floor. If you fish they have fish cleaning station in the campsite entrance.

This is a pretty basic campsite, but I enjoyed it.

• I'm a tent camper and had to move sites since the one I originally picked didn't have an area for my tent. Make sure you get there by 3ish to check that your site can accommodate a tent and stakes
• Site had a grill, table and firepit
• Sites were very close together
• They were out of firewood to purchase, but you are allowed to bring your own
• There were a lot of Ole Miss students at the park playing disc golf
• Bathrooms are pretty old
• I could hear highway traffic at night, but it wasn't too distracting
• I would camp here again

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.

Teckville was a good place to stay. And it could still be. Nice Boat ramps Bathroom. But a person can not get no one to answer the phones in Mississippi

Mississippi needs to put some funding behind the park, could be a real gem. Overall we had a great stay and I would recommend the campground.

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.

No hookups. Nothing. But, it is a free campground so what can you say. It’s rather nice there. This is a very small campground with about 5 spots. Large rigs are a no go I would think, as access can be tight. If you’re in a small to medium travel trailer or a tent, this could work out.

Bathrooms are there but bring your own paper.

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.

Mississippi does a great job of maintaining their COE campgrounds. Nice, spacious spots underneath large Pine trees. Water views and access to the Lower Lake. There is a popular swim beach, boat launch and boat dock. The spillway is also close by for fishing. Do not get this park confused with the John Kyle State Park Campground that is directly next to this one. This park is much nicer!

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.