Chewalla Lake Recreation Area
1Heads up1 fire 28 mi away
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:11 UTC
- A night
- $7–$20When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 39In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Chewalla Lake Recreation Area is located in the Holly Springs Ranger District in northern Mississippi. Visitors enjoy swimming and relaxing on the sandy beach on the lake shore, as well as canoeing, kayaking and fishing. Keep reading
Recreation
Chewalla Lake covers 260 acres and is a no-wake lake, making it a perfect location for swimming, canoeing and kayaking. Anglers enjoy fishing for largemouth bass, bream, crappie and catfish. A boat ramp is located on-site.
Facilities
The campground offers sites for RV and tent camping. Each site is equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. RV sites have electric and water hookups. During the season the campground is open 24 hours and does not close on the major holidays, i.e. Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day, allowing families and friends to celebrate together. Don't fret if you happen to arrive later in the day or evening for your reservation we will leave a note up on the site showing that its reserved.
Natural Features
The lake is surrounded by a dense forest of pine and hardwoods, such as sweet gum and oak. Many dogwoods are scattered throughout the campground, creating a beautiful, blooming display in the springtime. The campground lies on land once used heavily for farming. Erosion has caused deep gullies to form throughout the area, but split-rail fences line the gullies, adding character to the facility. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (662) 236-6741.
Nearby Attractions
Holly Springs is 8.5 miles northwest of the lake. This charming town is known as the Antebellum Capitol of the mid-south. More than 200 buildings in town are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A variety of dining and shopping options are available, as well as grocery stores and gas stations.
What the agency tells you
Click here for more information on Mississippi's National Forests
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Pets are not allowed on the beach.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 39
- Hookups
- 9 electric, 10 water
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Paved pads
- 37 of 39
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed at 37 of 39 sites
- Campfires
- 37 of 39 sites
- Shade
- 37 of 39 sites
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Kayaking
- Picnicking
- Swimming
- Water access
- Wilderness access
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 31st darkest of 61 in MS
- Bortle 4
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:11 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 15
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Chewalla Lake Recreation Area closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 150 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Bear Creek Lake Recreation AreaSt. Francis National Forest · 77 mi
- Jeff Busby Campground, Milepost 193.1Natchez Trace Parkway · 91 mi · walk-up · 18 sites
- Meriwether Lewis Campground, Milepost 385.9Natchez Trace Parkway · 120 mi · walk-up · 31 sites
- Brushy Lake Recreation AreaWilliam B. Bankhead National Forest · 122 mi
recreation.gov availability, read 16:11 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
40 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 36 mapped sitesAll 40 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 39 of the 40 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| CHEWALLA LAKE RECREATION AREA | Shelter | day use | $40 | ||||
| North | 001 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 97 ft | 619 ft | $20 |
| North | 002 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 97 ft | 663 ft | $20 |
| North | 003 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 90 ft | 728 ft | $20 |
| North | 004 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 90 ft | 799 ft | $7 | |
| North | 005 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 92 ft | 887 ft | $7 | |
| North | 006 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 92 ft | 941 ft | $7 | |
| North | 007 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 71 ft | 953 ft | $7 | |
| North | 008 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 71 ft | 913 ft | $7 | |
| North | 009 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 75 ft | 919 ft | $7 | |
| North | 010 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 87 ft | 1,030 ft | $7 | |
| North | 011 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 87 ft | 945 ft | $7 | |
| North | 012 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 91 ft | 992 ft | $7 | |
| North | 013 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 106 ft | 1,091 ft | $7 | |
| North | 014 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 78 ft | 1,136 ft | $7 | |
| North | 015 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 78 ft | 1,067 ft | $7 | |
| North | 016 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 82 ft | 995 ft | $7 | |
| North | 017 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 84 ft | 963 ft | $7 | |
| North | 018 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 82 ft | 964 ft | $7 | |
| North | 019 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 77 ft | 904 ft | $7 | |
| North | 020 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 77 ft | 839 ft | $7 | |
| North | 021 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 97 ft | 731 ft | $20 |
| North | 022 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 86 ft | 642 ft | $20 |
| North | 023 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 86 ft | 584 ft | $20 |
| S&P | S&P Standard | type not stated | $7–$20 | ||||
| S&P | S&P Standard Nonelectric | type not stated | $7–$20 | ||||
| South | 024 | type not stated | 60 ft | 30 amp | 480 ft | $7–$20 | |
| South | 025 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 160 ft | 289 ft | $20 |
| South | 028 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 131 ft | 168 ft | $7 | |
| South | 031 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 97 ft | 132 ft | $7 | |
| South | 033 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 97 ft | 186 ft | $7 | |
| South | 034 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 106 ft | 233 ft | $7 | |
| South | 035 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 106 ft | 215 ft | $7 | |
| South | 036 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 89 ft | 323 ft | $7 | |
| South | 037 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 78 ft | 316 ft | $7 | |
| South | 038 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 78 ft | 392 ft | $7 | |
| South | 039 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 105 ft | 475 ft | $7 | |
| South | 040 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 126 ft | 412 ft | $7 | |
| South | 041 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 107 ft | 446 ft | $20 |
| South | 042 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 107 ft | 515 ft | $20 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 40 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Hurricane Landing22 mi
Clear Creek (MS)30 mi
Pat's Bluff31 mi
Outlet Channel (Sardis)34 mi
Big Acres34 mi
Engineer Point34 miIn Holly Springs, Mississippi at the intersection of State Routes 4 and 7, take Route 4 east 1.4 miles to the Chewalla Lake sign. At the sign, bear right and go 5.7 miles to the Chewalla Lake Recreation Area sign (Forest Route 611/Chewalla Lake Road). Turn left at the sign and go 1.3 miles to the campground. Physical address is 726 Chewalla Lake Rd, Holly Springs MS, 38659.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Holly Springs, MS
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 75°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
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 Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Chewalla Lake Recreation Area is in Mississippi’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Trent Kelly (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →