Best Cabin Camping near Tishomingo, MS

Located in Northwest Alabama, not far from the Sipsey Wilderness, Dismals Canyon offers an unparalleled camping experience that stands out in the state. While it may lean toward the higher end in terms of cost, the memories you create during a special weekend getaway here are absolutely worth it. During our most recent visit, we chose to stay in one of the cozy cabins, but the campgrounds also present an excellent lodging option. These cabins feature a generously sized kitchen, a warm and inviting living room complete with a fireplace, and two comfortable bedrooms. Outside, there are ample spaces perfect for relaxation and al fresco dining. The campgrounds are situated just across the street from the rest of the park and require a short stroll to reach. They offer a variety of camping choices, each with its unique appeal. For more detailed information about these options, you can refer to their website. A standout experience during our stay was embarking on the night hike the first evening we arrived. This adventure allowed us to explore the canyon in the darkness before immersing ourselves in its beauty during daylight hours. We were fortunate enough to enjoy a private tour on a Friday night and were treated to a mesmerizing display of glow worms, which call this canyon home. While the trails within Dismals Canyon may not be particularly lengthy, you'll find yourself utterly captivated by the allure of the surroundings. Be sure to allocate a full day to fully explore and lose yourself in the canyon's enchantment. In summary, Dismals Canyon delivers a camping experience like no other in Northwest Alabama, close to the Sipsey Wilderness. Whether you opt for the cozy cabins or the campgrounds, you'll be treated to a remarkable getaway. Don't pass up the opportunity to embark on a night hike to witness the canyon's beauty illuminated by the glow worms. With its captivating charm, Dismals Canyon guarantees cherished memories.

We stayed at two cabins at Elliot Branch in August with some friends.  It is a short drive to Bear Creek if you want to kayak or canoe, but the cabins are on lakefront property and you can just jump in!  

The cabins are clean and quiet.  They have a full kitchen, bathroom, and ours slept two in a double bed, but there is room in the living area for cots or sleeping on the couch if you wanted.  The couches are huge, and the cabins have cable.  WiFi is also available, though it is slow.

The campsites are also nice.  We drove through the area, scouting out where we want to tent camp in the future.

great campsite. wonderful place to kayak. clean bath house and cabins available. poor cell phone service and slow WiFi

Pickwick Landing offers boating, fishing, hiking, golf course. Cabins, campsites and Inn w restaurant. Activities offered all year round. We love this park.

Another Mississippi State Park that has so much potential, but has been neglected. The bath house is nice, but most of the sites are extremely close together. Laundry facility’s and vending machines can be found in the bathroom.

The cove with sites 10-24 seem to be the better spots in my personal opinion. The sites on the water are nice (43,45,47).

They do have cabins for rent along with a lodge and a Marina on site. Most people that camp here are coming for the lake. This is a popular place during the summer.

We took a drive through to scope out at a potential stay over as we progress thru MS. Park looked lovely and peaceful, but the sites on the loop seemed to afford no privacy. On way in we drove past some cabins and a few RV sites that looked more secluded. Appeared to be great play ground for young ones, and the water looked great for kayaking/ fishing.

Road in was quite winding and narrow, so we will not be adding to our list of potential parks

We like the rustic campground here! Nice new bathhouse and playground area. They sell firewood! I do wish the campground was on the river or had water views, but it’s close by, so that’s okay.

There is a nice lodge with restaurant. The cabins here are extremely nice! They have views of the Tennessee River. Be sure to check out the wildlife rehab near the front office.

There are a few stores and restaurants close by in case you want to go out to eat if need to make a trip to the store.

We love Tennessee State Parks!

This park is smack in the middle of Memphis, Huntsville, and Nashville so it can get pretty crowded. It is very large though, with a full golf course, hotels, cabins, RV/tent camping, sports, kids programs, swimming, fishing, boating, etc. We went here for a family reunion, which was a great venue for that. There is good birding but the trails are very short, so if you are looking for hiking this is not the best place to go, though it is very pretty.

Yay: Campground is wooded and shady, clean but bustling.

Nay: There’s a conference center, so if there’s an event going on then, it will be extremely busy.

Surprise: There are a lot of roads in the park that would be great for biking.

Beautiful park. Nice & clean with recent updates to the bath house. The park is nice & quiet if you’re looking for some relaxation. If you like to fish then you’ll love Pickwick. The fishing is great! They have boat rentals but it’s too expensive in my opinion. The lodge has a delicious buffet if you get there while it’s fresh. The biggest negative is the sites are not level. Some are pretty bad. But they are spacious and are almost all shade.

The road leading to the park could be improved a bit but it wasn't too bad. The park was nice and clean and the loop we stayed on was kept up pretty well. Sites were nice and level and it's hard to beat full hookups for the price!

The bathrooms were obviously older but still kept clean.

The lake had been drained at some point for repairs and it's still very low. There's not a whole lot to do in the park unless you bring horses or an ATV. Great place for a nice quiet getaway.

The neat thing is there's actually a special camping loop just for those that do have horses and ATVs, and it keeps the noise away from everyone else.

There's not a ton to do in nearby Tupelo but we did have a nice dinner at Harvey's, The zoo seemed rather expensive for its size.

We camped here for a weekend. There are actually 2 different campgrounds. We stayed at the one with with electric hook ups. The campsite also had a fire pit, lantern pole, and picnic bench. The sites are spacious and not too close together. The bathhouse was very clean. The showers are separate but in the same building. They are a little outdated but had a good water pressure. There is also a little check in booth where you can purchase firewood, ice, and other little things. From the campground you can start hike a 2.8 mile loop on the water. We also stopped at the lodge for dinner one night. It was very nice and the food was good. If you wanna do anything in the water, we saw a sign for a kayak and boat rental. If you bring your own, the park has a nice marina. If you don't feel like cooking, there are nice places around to check out. The dam is very impressive and we saw a lot of people fishing. The park has something for everybody to do and we enjoyed out weekend here.

We have camped at several MS state parks near Memphis (Tishomingo, Wall Doxey) and have left feeling like MS didn’t have a lot to offer, but Tombigbee State Park is great. There is a video included in the post which includes the entire campground area. I hope you find it helpful. Additionally, here is a basic overview of pros and cons:

Pros:

1. All sites close to the bathhouse
2. Most sites with full hook up including sewer and 30/50 amp plugs. (see pics)
3. Multiple updated playgrounds
4. Very affordable. $24 a night for a full hook up site.
5. Very walkable. Small campground with access to amenities by foot.
6. Disc golf course is very fun. It is has an interesting layout in the woods so it is much like a hike.
7. The park is near Tupelo, MS and there is a Dollar General right at the entrance to the park.
8. If you are primitive camping, the tent camping area is outstanding. (see pic) There are picnic tables, elevated tent platforms, places for hammocks, a porch swing and bench around a raised fire pit. If you are primitive camping, it is a great place.
9. There are several docks for fishing and there were signs for the option of boating with a trolling motor, but no one was boating while we were there.
10. The park office was not open while we were here, but it did look updated
11. Great for young kids because the campground is small with a flat loop that is easy for bike riding, skating, or scooters. It is easy to see the kids from your campsite and not worry about them getting lost
12. frequent monitoring by the park rangers. Appears that this park is very well taken care of.

Cons:

1. Absolutely no shade on the playground.
2. Inside loop spots are mostly close together. very little privacy.
3. We were not able to view the inside of the bathhouse.
4. only 20 sites and only 4 tent camping areas and were without water or electric.
5. No SP swag so no stickers, patches, shirts, etc.

This is an A+ for the price, amenities and location to our home base of Memphis. We will definitely be back.

Ended up at this location after a crappy night in Alabama. It was very clean nice location. Very nice Mississippi State Park Campground. All the staff were very friendly and Gary was a great guy that we chatted with for a bit after checking in. Restrooms were clean and air conditioned. Family type campgrounds with friendly happy campers. We will be back a lot more in the future.

Camped for two weeks in mid fall, October 2020. Full hookups, clean bath house. Family friendly. It is dated though. Play area available, small and quant. Roads are drivable of course but need to be funded, come on Mississippi and step up.. 15-20 minutes from a supercenter on West Main Street in Tupelo. Tupelo is lovely and where we actually live. This is the nearest campground my children 13, 10, and 4 stay at. The 4yo loves is, hiking and bike riding is what the older kids do. Nice lake for fishing, no swimming or wake.

Site we stayed at was level, and fully shaded.

Tombigbee SP

Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi and Tombigbee SP is a good spot to base your exploration out of.

I overnighted here enroute to Alabama. It wasn’t the best maintained or newest park , however it was small and quiet. Something that had me confused my first time around the loop was the orange cones blocking the sites. Then I guessed that meant the site was reserved. The shower house had washers and dryers in the middle area. The building was clean and maintained. It was centrally located. Across the street was a nice big field, playground and baseball diamond. The trails and disc golf was in the same area. There’s also a small lake with a dock. Otherwise Tombigbee SP really wasn’t that memorable.

Great place on the lake. Campground is fairly hilly and our spot was far from level. It was the last spot available and I understand why! Lots to do on the lake and close to Muscle Shoals.

PROS 

We were able to reserve 368 days prior to arrival 

Very friendly and helpful check-in clerk 

Fantastic view of the lake from site 45 

Mostly quiet except for campground party animals until 3am! 

Concrete parking pad 

BBQ grill 

Fire ring constructed of concrete pavers 

Coin-operated washers/dryers in shower/toilet facility 

Small playground, pool and mini-golf course 

Good jumping off point for Shiloh Battlefield 

CONS 

Campsite 45 was full of litter…cigarettes butts, bones, bottle caps, pieces of chalk, straws, melted soda bottles…just nasty 

Fire ring made of concrete pavers full of ash and trash upon arrival…again nasty Pedestal BBQ grill full of trash and ash upon arrival…more nastiness 

Campers ignored basic rules/courtesy/respect such as keeping dogs on leash and walking through occupied campsites at anytime. One camper walking through our site complained to us our chairs on our site were in THEIR way. 

No senior discount 

Narrow site 

Site 45 not level 

Site 45 mostly fun sun 

Basically we didn't experience any of the campground rules being enforced so obviously there is no management oversight at this State Park 

Never saw a park ranger drive through the campground (Saturday-Monday) 

Never saw a camp host or a campsite for a camp host

Campground quiet hours not enforced 

Posted "No Swimming” from campsites along lake, but that didn’t stop a sole and no one enforced it 

Concrete picnic table at end of parking pad, so at the bumper of the camper 

Sites very close to each other with no vegetation between sites, so no privacy what so ever 

Street lights throughout campground, so not dark sky friendly 

Small playground, pool and mini-golf course not walkable from campground 

Trash dumpsters outside of campground…not walkable 

Twisty, steep and narrow roadway into campsite...not for novice rig drivers

Due to short campsites, tow vehicles had to be creative with parking, sometimes blocking most of the campground road, again no enforcement efforts

No WiFi 

1 bar Verizon

Love love this campground!! We stayed right on the water, the spots are big and spacious. Fire pits provided, very clean with great walking trails, dog friendly. Easy access!!

The sites are rather narrow with varying sizes and locations for outdoor living space. Pay close attention to the states website regarding vehicle size maximums. As I walk through the park, it appears that all spots are full hookup and paved. We are on site 43 and anything longer than 30 ft will be pushing it. As it is, our 25ft trailer fits nicely, but the truck is parallel parked across the end of my site in order to be off the road. The picnic table is behind the camper instead of on camp side, which isn’t my favorite setup but we are making due. Some sites have metal fire rings, while others (like ours) have rock circle pits. Some campsites on the hill side have no picnic table OR fire pits. They also have almost no room to walk around the RV without tumbling down the hill. Sites 62 and 64 aren’t terrible, but everything else from 59 and up is pretty bad. 25-34 and 51-54 are short and back up to a a hill. Would be great for Class B or smaller travel trailers. Sites 10-24 are in a separate area from the rest. 35-50 are down on a low flat area near the water and are the best if you like a view of the lake.

Bath house in our loop is clean, not completely out of date, and heated for cold weather camping. There is a small area with 2 set of pay washers/dryers and a few vending machines.

All in all, well worth the State’s $32/night charge.

Clean campground, bathrooms were clean with plenty of warm water. They have vending machine, washer/dryer on site. They also have small playground at entrance and small area of mini golf.

We will be back in the fall for an extended weekend trip. Staff was super friendly and helpful helping us find ice cream during a storm rolling thru. The site we had was up hill facing the lake which worked out with a small trailer.