We've never been to Chickasaw National Recreation Area so I tried to reserve a site online but they were ALL booked (Memorial Day Weekend). We drove down Thursday night to try to snag a FCFS site. We drove first to Buckhorn but almost every site was full. This seems like the popular grounds for campers with kids. A bit active for our taste so we made the 30 minute drive over to The Point expecting the same. We found all of the tent sites at The Point were empty. I don't know why, the energy was much calmer and quieter. We walked around to found the best site for us. By Friday night the RV sites were all full but there were only a few other tent campers. On the topic of RV’s… The generator hours are 7AM-9AM, 7PM-9PM. We didn’t hear a single generator over our 4 days there.
The tent sites are walk-in, not too far from the parking spots. Each are pretty secluded and quiet until Saturday when one of the tent sites decided to play their music loud enough for half of the grounds to hear all day long. There is NO cell or internet signal other than one sweet spot by the bathrooms, so you may get a surge of texts and missed call notifications while you're doing your business.
The grounds are very well kept, bathrooms clean, roads clear, and minimal trash at the sites. The timed showers are solar heated and the water temp was pleasant.
When the sun starts setting the wildlife start to appear. 3 deer passed right by our campsite with no fear. And I watched a family of squirrels having a good day in a tree we had our tarp tied to. We’ll be going back to experience all of the touristy stuff that we missed due to last minute planning.