Big Acres
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Big Acres is a popular day use area at Sardis Lake. Located at Sardis Dam, Big Acres is conveniently located near other day use and camping facilities at Sardis Lake. Keep reading
Recreation
Big Acres is a popular spot for picnicking. The large playground in the area and the basketball courts also draw visitors.
Facilities
Big Acres has two large group picnic shelters. There is a large playground and a basketball court in the area.
Natural Features
Big Acres is located on the shore of the "Lower Lake" at Sardis. The Lower Lake is a 400 acre lake on the downstream side of Sardis Dam. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (662) 563-4531.
What the agency tells you
Group picnic shelters in Big Acres may be reserved for $100 per day
Amplified Music and Bouncy Houses are not permitted without prior approval from Sardis Lake Field Office
Beginning August 11, 2024, Sardis will begin drawing down water in the Lower Lake to perform maintenance on the outlet channel. During this time swimming areas will be closed and boating traffic on the Lower Lake will be limited to fishing only. If you have any questions, please contact the Sardis Lake Field Office at 662-563-4531.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 2 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER (SEASONAL) on 1 of 2 campsite records
- Playground
- Yes
Nothing here to sleep in
The agency files 2 records here and marks every one of them day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 records · the site map
All 2 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 2 of the 2 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| Big Acres 1 (292) | day use | 591 ftLower Lake | 2,089 ft | $100 |
| Big Acres 2 (411) | day use | 325 ft | 1,845 ft | $100 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Paradise Point0.2 miOak Grove Campground0.2 mi
Oak Grove (MS)0.3 mi
Outlet Channel (Sardis)0.3 mi
Engineer Point0.8 mi
Cypress Point0.9 miBig Acres is located on Hwy. 315 along the bottom of Sardis Dam. It is approximately 8 miles from Interstate 55 in Sardis and 8.5 miles from Interstate 55 in Batesville.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sardis, MS
Typical weather
Typical October night 54°F, day 76°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 33°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Big Acres is in Mississippi’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Bennie Thompson (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- The member who votes the moneyBennie G. ThompsonU.S. Representative · Mississippi’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationCindy Hyde-SmithU.S. Senator · Mississippi
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRoger F. WickerU.S. Senator · Mississippi
Read the draft, or change the wording
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Big Acres has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Bennie G. Thompson, I’m a constituent in Mississippi’s 2nd district. Big Acres, Mississippi carries 2 records on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Big Acres (Mississippi) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Big Acres has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Cindy Hyde-Smith, I’m a constituent in Mississippi. Big Acres, Mississippi carries 2 records on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Big Acres (Mississippi) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Big Acres has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Roger F. Wicker, I’m a constituent in Mississippi. Big Acres, Mississippi carries 2 records on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Big Acres (Mississippi) via campanac.com