Roosevelt State Park

Making our way down to New Orleans via the Natchez Trace and this seemed like a good place for a stop over. I wish I had know how terrible the back roads were into this park. I would have spent another 45 minutes and went around to HWY 20. That's how bad MS 483 is. Usually I enjoy the county highways. Less traffic, less stress. Not the case here. Save yourself the trouble and only use the main roads.

With that behind me, the park itself was only about 10% full on the weekdays (early Nov). On the weekend it filled up to maybe 30% but certainly not crowded.

There's nothing to do around here as far as shopping and dining activities so we pretty much hung out at the park for a few days. I have read other reviews mentioning trash at the sites. The policy here is that you put your trash bag out and they do a few drives throughs every day and pick it up. This seems great until someone leaves it out overnight and the critters spread it around. And then no one apparently cleans it up....ever. So I did see some trash and it was a bummer but it wasn't as bad as some of the reviews make it.

Overall, a decent stop over with a good price. I wouldn't stay here again but I didn't hate it.

Site accessibility (easy to back in, plenty of room, but the roads in the park are crap and it's a 2 mile drive down those crappy roads to the campground) - 2
Campground location (Near the Bienville National Forest and Jackson) - 3
Nearby amenities (Walmart 20 minutes away but nothing else really) - 2
Site Privacy (Spacious sites but not much privacy) - 3
Campground amenities (Bathrooms/showers decently clean. 1 clean washer and dryer at the bath house) - 3
Dog friendly (Excellent walking loops, hiking and plenty of space) - 5
Activities (Disc Golf, hiking, tennis, swimming beach, water slide) - 3
Cost ($24/night for 50 amp full hookup premium water site) - 5
Staff friendliness (Check in lady was friendly. Didn't meet any other staff) - 3
Connectivity (Decent signal w/out a booster for both ATT and Verizon with good download speeds. Excellent OTA. All major channels) - 5
Total rating = 3.4

We were on our way to another location and got a call that they were closed due to downed trees on power lines. What a lucky break to find this park. Situated on the edge on the Bienville National Forest. Lovely lake views. Roads were nice and wide, sites level and wide with full hook ups. About 4 1/2 miles of hiking trails that were well marked and crossed each other. Nice roads for biking. Facilities were fine with washer and dryer. Also there is a game room, disc golf and water park in the summer.

With mature trees and a picturesque lake, it has the potential to be a great park. However, this is a prime example of poor management. The bathhouses were not just dirty--FILTHY. No cleaning of floors, sinks, toilets, excrement on the wall and floors. To the point of unhealthy. One bathhouse had a stopped up drain with a rusty pool of water and floating toilet paper. When mentioned to a park maintenance person, he said he would look into it, then quickly drove away without stopping--obviously and known problem without concerns. Park rangers were only seen picking up trash bags and once, helping the campsite across the road getting enough power for their karaoke machine (really). Campsite had litter and butts scattered about and our fire ring was missing. We had a pile of ashes in the grill and where the ring USED to be.... but no.

We arrived after 6 PM, after dark and after the park rangers had left for the night. There wasn't any directions on what to do for arriving after hours. The park was very empty though, so we found a spot and woke early to pay the next morning when they opened, which wasn't a problem.

Our site was close the lake and was very level, super easy to get into with our 32 foot travel trailer. It was close to bathrooms, which were very clean. We didn't use the showers. Full hookups at the site, which was surprising considering how cheap the price was. The site was very nice and spacious.

My husband took his kayak out on the lake the next morning. It was very peaceful and was quite a beautiful park.

My only complaint was that it was very confusing on what to do if arriving after hours. We hadn't planned on stopping here, so I'm not sure how much there is to see in the area. But it was great for a 1 night stay.

Also, this is a dry county. One of the park rules is absolutely no drinking alcoholic beverages.

We came here because we are driving the southern half of the Natchez Trace and wanted to visit Jackson and Vicksburg. It ended up being the perfect spot for both as well as a wonderful campground. It was early March so the park is not really busy and all the amenities they have available were not yet open but the park is MASSIVE with campgrounds on both sides of the lake, tennis, a pool with a ginormous waterslide, hiking trails, disc golf, fishing and kayaking. There are several picnic areas and a tent campground as well.
It's about 30 minutes into downtown Jackson where there is history, art, supermarkets and fun stuff and a straight 1 hour drive to Vicksburg on I-20. (visit both the National Site as well as downtown Vicksburg. Don't miss the Riverfront murals)
Our site was a bit short for our 33 rig to be level but it, and our toad fit with just a little leveling. We saw lots of other sites though that were much longer. Our site was great because we had a lot of space on the "porch" side and it went right don to the lakeside.
We always have our cell booster on but we had plenty of internet. Don't know about TV but plenty of people had their satellite bubbles out.
The only thing to note is that off season if you don't have reservations you have to drive to the registration office which is several miles from the "New Camp" and then to your site.

What a beautiful park. Nice lake. Sites are spacious and not a parking lot. This is how rv parks should be built. Lots of trees and peace. Come here to unwind and get back to center.

Shady, level sites. New campground (although not really new) is a two mile drive around the lake but worth the effort. Some sites have docks. Except for the very old bathrooms it’s a great park. Also, sandy swimming beach in the lake.

This website make it impossible to show the rates as it allows only number. There is a senior rate for off water sites of $17 but the premium on water sites have no discount are $29.

We ended up selecting a wonderfully shaded site right on Shadow Lake which afforded us fabulous views, no matter which direction you looked. The only down side would be the scourging heat wave of mid ninties and high humidity forced indoor activities in the afternoon. The loops emptied out by Monday so we pretty much had the park to ourselves.
PROs:
* Mature tall pines afforded shadee 95% of the day;
* Full hookups and somewhat level site. The site did have over a foot drop off to get to the picnic table and chairs by the lake;
* Sites are spaced apart from each other for the most part, definitely a plus;
* With all the infrastructure and loops, there was plenty of biking we did on the park roads and beautiful riding with all the pines;
* There are at least 3 different hiking trails here in the park;
* Beach area for swimming was nice and sandy;
* The showers were older and showed their age but clean and hot water;
* Connectivity was good, we did get 4 over the air channels that afforded us nightly news and access to YouTube.

CONs:
* ANTS, I wish the check in person would have warned us so that we could have taken preventative action before the invasion. Once we took measures, then all was well;
* The roads within the SP are somewhat rough and in need of repair and significant drop offs where the sand has washed away from the asphault over the years;
* Not all sites are level.
*

While I am not sure I would consider this a destination park since there is very little to do in the area, if you are passing through and looking for a quiet, scenic camping spot for a few days of relaxation, this is the place! We loved our site which had a view of the lake, wooden deck, and fishing dock. The campground was mostly empty during our stay, but even on Friday night when a half dozen other campers showed up, it did not feel crowded because the sites are nicely spaced. The only negative is the constant rumble of traffic noise from I-20.

This was our second visit to the park. It is very close to the interstate making it a great stoping point between Texas and Georgia. It is an older park but well maintained. We will make it our go to park when Traveling to Georgia.