Fort Pickens Florida Campground Review

I will start out by stating that summer is not my favorite season to camp.  I much prefer the cool, crisp fall temps.  But, we decided to take a week to go camping this summer and one of our destination stops was Fort Pickens campground located in Gulf Shores National Seashore on Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola, FL.


It was fairly easy to find, as we were somewhat familiar with the convoluted way to get to the Pensacola Bay Bridge (dog leg through downtown).  There are some additional fees in addition to the campground site fee.  You will most likely cross a toll bridge - our path took us across a $1 toll bridge near Gulf Breeze and there is an $8 admission to enter the Gulf Shores National Seashore.  This admission is similar to what you will pay to get into Yellowstone.  It is not per person, it is per vehicle and is good for 7 days.

The road into the National Seashore reminds me of Pidgeon Forge in Tennessee - very commercialized and built up but once you get into the National Seashore, it is a different story.  Miles and miles of sand on each side of the road.  It is a unique experience to look to the right and see the Pensacola Bay and then look to the left and see the Gulf.

The campground technically consists of 5 loops; however, loops B,C, D and E are part of one big loop.  Loop A is by itself.  Each loop has a bathhouse and there is a campstore with laundry facilities.  Don't expect much from the campstore, mainly bread and ice.  The bathrooms and bathhouse is not air conditioned, there is actually no air flow in the building.  By the time you took your shower and got dressed, the outside actually felt cool compared to the inside of the bathhouse.

There are 200 campsites at this campground.  If you are in an RV, I would HIGHLY recommend that you check out the length of the pads on recreation.gov before you reserve.  Quite a number of the sites are much shorter than what we were used to seeing.

The majority of the campsites have no shade.  The relentless heat and humidity made it difficult to sit outside.  That being said, we saw a lot of people tent camping.  Honestly, I don't see how they do it in the suffocating heat.  I did see some people who had 110 window AC units blowing into their tents.  Each site has water and electricity.  There is also a central dump station.

On to the things we enjoyed about this park.  Of course, the beach.  I really enjoyed getting out into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and getting knocked down by waves.  The water is clear and the beach is beautiful.  Unlike the crowded

beaches along the highway in Pensacola and Gulf Breeze, the beaches in the park are not crowded at all.  We brought back a bag of shells that I plan on making a wind chime with.

This park also has a bicycle trail which is paved with limestone and runs from the group camp near the front of the park, through the campgrounds to the old fort and on to the fishing pier at the end of the island.

There are several "batteries" that you can explore throughout the island.  The fort is located at the tip end of the island.  We enjoyed exploring this historical building (actually a series of buildings).  There are guided tours but we did a self-guided tour with the help of a brochure that points out several features.

This campground is right across the bay from the naval air station in Pensacola so you will hear jets.  One afternoon, my husband got to see the Blue Angels perform some of their air show maneuvers.

Camping at Fort Pickens was a great experience and if you are a hot weather person who loves the beach, this is a must see for you.  While we enjoyed what this park had to offer, we would need a compelling reason and cooler weather to go back.

Paul B. Johnson State Park Campground Review

We took a week-long camping vacation last week (third week of June).  Our first stop was Paul B. Johnson State Park near Hattiesburg, MS.  This state park is super easy to find - right off Hwy 49 South about 15 miles south of Hattiesburg.

Paul B. Johnson State Park is a large park with lots to do.  If you have kids, they will surely enjoy this park.  There is a 225 acre lake where we saw people skiing, fishing, and just enjoying the water.  There is also a designated swim beach, playground, disc golf course, nature trail and lots of paved roads to ride bikes.  The park has a huge day use area with lots of picnic sites as well as group pavilions.  The park office is inside the Visitor's Building adjacent to the swim beach and has a game room with video games, pool tables and a sundeck.

The 125 campground sites are sectioned into 5 loops.  The first section is across from the Visitor's Center and consists of several pull-through sites that are very close together with no privacy.  It reminded me of a parking lot with some grass.  The next two sections are traditional campground "loops" with a bathhouse containing laundry facilities in each loop.  Some of the sites are well spaced.  The next section, called the straightaway is a roadway with camping pads on both sides.  One side borders the lake.  Some of the lakeside sites in this section have gravel "patios".  This straightaway section has a circle at the end with 3 campsites that back up to the lake (this is where we stayed).  The final section, called the North End campground,  looked newer with level concrete pads.  But, this section had no shade and not much privacy between the campsites.

 There is a primitive tent-camp area located behind the North End area.  Each of the RV campsites have electric, water and sewer.  There is also a central dump station.

Our site (#85) had a beautiful view of the lake but had little shade.  If we were to camp here again, we would opt to stay in the first loop in a more shaded spot.  We fished from the bank but it was "guarded" by crafty turtles.  If you ride bikes, be prepared for some challenging hills (at least they were challenging to this out-of-shape middle ager).

The large lake and close proximity to Hattiesburg make Paul B. Johnson a big draw for local campers on the weekends and the park was full both Saturday and Sunday.  By Monday when we left, the park had thinned out a bit.

We used this park as a rest-stop on our way to Santa Rosa Island outside Pensacola, FL.  It was a nice park with lots to do.

Hernando Point COE Campground Arkabutla Lake, MS

We have had an unusually cold and long winter in north Mississippi this year and did not have a chance to go camping after our stay at John Kyle State Park at Sardis, MS last fall.  We decided to stay close to home for our first trip out this year so we chose Hernando Point COE campground at Arkabutla Lake.


The Army Corps of Engineers operate several campgrounds around Arkabutla Lake.  The one we usually stay at is at the South Abutment but we decided to stay somewhere we have never camped at this time.

We had a site (#7) right on the lake.  It turned out not to be such a great weekend to be on the lake.  It was extremely windy with constant wind and gusts over 20 mph. The wind made it impossible to enjoy sitting outside for any length of time.


On our walks and bike rides through the campground, we found that there were several sites in the "interior" sections as well as along the back loop that were protected from the wind by trees.  If we ever go back to camp here again, we will opt to choose one of these sites instead of a lakeside site.

This is a nice COE park with 83 sites and 3 bathhouses with hot showers.  Each site has water/electric hookup with most being able to accommodate large RVs.  Sites 25-64 are non-reservable (walk-up) only sites.  The rest can be reserved through recreation.gov.

There is a day use area with a swim beach but it was closed.  There is also a well-used boat launch area.  This campground does not offer a lot in the way of

things to do.  No hiking trails, disc golf, etc.  But, you can take a very nice walk along the beach or walk and/or bike ride through the campground.

We stayed here April 11-13, 2014.

John Kyle State Park in Sardis MS

Fall has finally arrived in northwest MS and we have been dreaming of camping for a while.  After several weekends of working on a construction project at home (a cover for our camper), we are finally finished and can take a weekend off to go camping.


Sardis Lake is a pretty large lake in northwest MS, east of the town of Sardis and a little north of Batesville, MS.  It has a state park (John Kyle state park) with a campground as well as multiple Army COE campsites, day use areas and boat ramps.  There is a large "upper lake", a dam, and a smaller "lower lake".  While

we were there, the spillway at the dam was open but not full blast.

We watched a guy pull catfish out with minnows one after the other near the spillway at the lower lake.






This is our first time camping at this state park.  It is an older park with mature trees scattered throughout the campground.  There are over 200 campsites and must of them are spaced very close together.  There is electricity and water at the campsites and some have sewer on site.  There is a dump station in the campground.  One thing to note - some of the utilities are in odd places.  We noticed some of the electric pedestals are a long way from the campsite.  Some of the electric pedestals are shared as are the water hookups.  It is best to be prepared with a proper extension cord/long freshwater hose.  We camped at Premium campsite #216 which backs up to the lower lake.

Here is a picture I took out of the camper's back window as the sun was coming up.

We picked this site due to the large living area at the "living" side of the camper.

This campground has laundry facilities, 2 older bathhouses and one new/updated bathhouse.  All of the facilities were cleaner than I thought they would be.  The older bathhouses were .....well, old.  We did notice quite a few unoccupied campers in the campground - not sure what that's about.

There is a short trail - I think it is called Clear Creek trail.  At the beginning, it is a raised trail that goes into the marshy wetlands area.

The trail circle around to the street then crosses the street and climbs a ridge through the hardwoods.  It ends with a staircase back down to the parking area.

This is a GREAT area if you are interested in fishing.  We are also considering camping at the adjacent Army COE campground at Sardis called Oak Grove COE campground.  That campground had around 80 sites and they were spaced nicely.  There is a boat ramp between the 2 campgrounds.

We camped here Nov. 1-3, 2013.  The fee for this campsite is $24 (lake site with sewer).

Persimmon Hill Campground - Enid Lake, MS

Summertime is our LEAST favorite time to camp.  The heat and humidity in Mississippi just makes you want to stay inside in the air condition and well...that's just not what camping is about.  So, this past weekend is the first time we have been out since our trip to Pickensville during the Memorial Day weekend.

We decided to stay at a nearby campground at Enid Lake.  Like a lot of lakes around the northwest MS area, Enid Lake has both a MS State Park as well as

Army Corps of Engineer parks.  One of my favorite campgrounds is the State Park at Enid (Cossar State Park) but this time we camped at Persimmon Hill Campground, an Army Corps of Engineer campground.

Persimmon Hill has 72 campsites, some are reservable (www.recreation.gov) and some are first-come, first serve.  They have "fairly" level concrete pads with water and electric.  Each site has a picnic table, fire ring, grill, and a large tent pad.  There are 2 very well maintained bathrooms with showers.  There is a playground with swings, slide and basketball court.  There is also a paved walking / bike riding trail that connects with an adjacent day use area.  The day use area also has a playground along with 2 group picnic shelters.  This is a very popular campground and is packed during holiday weekends and when school is out.  My Sprint cell phone and internet service worked great here.

The campground is laid out in 2 loops, each ending in a turn-around at the lake. Be

aware that even the waterfront sites are not right at the water unless the lake rises significantly.  We really enjoyed our stay at site #2.  It had a large yard area to the back and a very large side yard area.  When we go back to this campground, we will probably stay at this site again.  We camped here Sept. 26-29, 2013.

Pickensville, Alabama COE Campground

This past Memorial Day Weekend, we stayed at the Army Corps of Engineer campground at Pickensville, AL.  This campground is in western Alabama, just a stone's throw from the Mississippi state line.  It is one of  seven campgrounds that the Army Corps of Engineers operate along the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway.


Knowing that campgrounds (especially those with large bodies of water) fill up quickly for Memorial Day weekend, we made reservations a couple of months in advance.  When we arrived on Friday afternoon, there was a sign at the entrance that indicated the campground was full.

Pickensville is a large campground with five camping loops.  All of the site have electric / water and some have sewer hookups.  The most popular sites along the waterway are first-come, first-serve only.  One of

the unique features about this campground (and I guess all along the Tennessee Tombigbee) is that it is a navigable waterway.  During our stay, we saw or heard several tugboats.  The working boats share the waterway with recreational boats of all shapes and sizes.

We camped at site #44, which was a very roomy spot with woods to our "living side".  This was one of the sites with water/elec/sewer priced at $20 per night.  



This campground is great for children.  There are several playground areas with basketball courts, volleyball courts, and playground equipment.

You can walk on a mostly paved trail that crosses through all of the campground loops.  There is also a lot of area to ride bikes.  Since we had full hookups, we did not use the bathhouses at the campground; however, each loop has a clean, well-lit bathhouse with a washer/dryer.


In the middle of the campground, there are many sites that back up to a body of water named "Clear Lake". The name is a bit misleading because the water is so dark that you can't see anything in it.  It is actually a cypress swamp.

On the other side of the big bridge that crosses the waterway, there is a day use area with picnic tables and a swim beach.  Since our campsite was not on the water, we decided to pack a lunch one afternoon and head out to the day use area to sit and watch the boats go by.  While this portion of the waterway does not get barge traffic, there were a number of recreational boats that zoomed by.  It made for a very nice and relaxing afternoon.

A few miles down the road, you can visit the Dam and Welcome Center.






The Welcome Center was fashioned after an antebellum plantation home.  It looked over the waterway and had a very nice courtyard area.  If you stay at this campground, I would highly recommend a visit to the dam, welcome center and day use area.

Even though we would have liked to be right next to the large waterway, we enjoyed our stay at Pickensville COE campground.

Hitch Up and Go!

The good folks at Hitch Up and Go have added me to their Directory of Camping / RV Blogs.  I discovered their website while looking for other campers that write about the campgrounds they have stayed in.

Hitch Up and Go has a directory of camping websites as well as one for blogs about camping or RVing.  If you have ever been interested in finding out about campgrounds in other parts of the U.S. (and other countries) , what it is like to live full-time in an RV, or how to modify or repair something in your camper, take a look at their expansive directory.

Link - http://www.hitchupandgo.com/index.htm#.Ub0Q1_mG2So