Montgomery Bell State Park TN (Part 2 of Natchez Trace Parkway Series)

To start our trek down the Natchez Trace Parkway, we first traveled up to Dickson, TN to camp overnight at Montgomery Bell State Park.  This TN State Park is a little west of Nashville. The park appears to be pretty large but the campground is a bit smaller than we imagined.  I think the narrow campground road has a lot to do with the cramped feel while driving through the campground.

Now, with that said, our campsite was fantastic.  Very spacious and long enough to park a large motorhome in.  Our fifth wheel and truck seem dwarfed by comparison.  This is site #108.  All sites are reservable through the new TN State Parks reservation system which can be accessed through their website:  http://www.tn.gov/environment/parks/    For some reason, TN tacks on a bunch of extra fees.  They charged an Occupancy Tax, a Local Tax, a State Tax and a $3.00 reservation fee.  We are not used to paying all this extra to camp, as MS state parks do not charge any of this.  When you reserve a site in MS, you pay exactly what the advertised campsite fee is and that is it.  This site was a full hookup site (water, elec, and sewer).  It was $25 per night (with the taxes and reservation fee it came to $31.69).  Some sites are water & elec only for about $3 less (I think-my memory is not what it used to be).


We would like to go back to this area when we have longer to stay. It looked like a great place to fish (they had a lake in another part of the park) and we saw someone catch a nice size bass from a bridge that goes across the lake.


If you like golf, they have a course at this park.  There is also an inn; however, we did not have a chance to drive around to see it.  

I preferred the campsites that backed up to the creek.  There had been a good amount of rain right before we got there and the creek was moving pretty swiftly.  I can see that flooding could be a problem with extended periods of rainfall. 


The bathhouse was old and somewhat dim but was clean.  We could only pick up a few TV stations but our Sprint internet service worked ok (slow but accessible).  

This campsite made a nice overnight rest stop to begin our journey down the Trace.  I would like to return to it when we have more time to stay.  We camped here Saturday, May 4, 2013.