Davis Lake Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 47 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:56 UTC
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 28All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Davis Lake Recreation Area is home to beautiful Davis Lake, Campground and Day Use Area, popular for all kinds of recreational opportunities, including swimming, fishing, boating, birding and wildlife viewing. The surrounding scenic forests make Davis Lake a picturesque place to spend quality time outdoors. Keep reading
Recreation
Davis Lake covers 200 acres and provides multiple recreational opportunities. A grassy swimming beach is situated on the shore, where many anglers cast for largemouth bass, hybrid striped bass, crappie, catfish and bream. The campground has 27 sites on the lake, many of them with space to anchor a boat. A 2-mile trail wanders along the north edge of the lake to several earthen fishing piers. Visitors can also spend time birding, watching for a variety of geese and ducks that migrate through the area. Hawks, herons, bluebirds and doves are also plentiful, among many other species. Wildlife viewing is also available, as foxes and bobcats call the area home. The Chickasaw OHV Trail is a newly renovated 12-mile motorized trail that is within three miles of the campground. The trailhead lies between the Davis Lake recreation area and the Natchez Trace Parkway. It is within a mile of the Owl Creek Mounds archaeological interpretive site. The OHV trail is open between April 1 and Oct. 31. The trail accommodates off-road vehicles 48-inches in width or less. Cyclists and hikers will enjoy the Tanglefoot Trail . This multiple-use Rails-to-Trails path is located 5 miles west of Davis Lake. It runs 43.5 miles from Houston to New Albany, MS through Houlka, Algoma, Pontotoc, Ecru, and Ingomar.
Facilities
The recreation area offers more than two dozen campsites, a picnic area, a group shelter, accessible flush toilet facilities and a dump station. Davis Lake has multiple fishing docks, including some that are accessible. Campsites are equipped with tables, lantern posts and campfire rings with grills. Drinking water is provided. Campsites have electric and water hook ups. There are no sites with sewage hook up; however, there is a dump station located near the front entrance. A picnic shelter can also be reserved on-site, for an additional $40 per day fee.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a hilly, mixed hardwood and pine forest that stretches along the eastern shore of the lake. It is located within 4 miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway, a 444-mile drive through exceptional scenery and 10,000 years of North American history. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (662) 285-3264.
Nearby Attractions
The recreation area is located 21 miles south of Tupelo, Mississippi, and 12 miles north of Houston. The Owl Creek Mounds, an archaeological interpretive site containing Native American ruins, is located half a mile south on the paved road (heading towards the Natchez Trace exit). The Witchdance Horsetrail is an 18-mile horseback riding trail that can be accessed from both the Payamatha Trailhead (on Highway 32, west of the Natchez Trace and east of Highway 15), or the Witchdance trailhead, that lies on the Natchez Trace Parkway (approximately 5 miles east of Houston).
Charges & Cancellations
Cancellations may occur during severe weather events.
What the agency tells you
This recreation area is labeled as an expanded amenity site. Day Use: $5 (fishing, hiking, swimming, boating, picnicking, etc.) Day-use closed during campground "Quiet Hours: 10pm to 6am." With a pass, the $5 is discounted to $2.50. Camping: $20/night ($14 camping fee + $6 hook-up fee) (check-in & check-out is 2pm) When adding a pass with online payment, the 50% discount applies to the $14 camping fee. Therefore, the total will become $13 per night, with a pass. ($7 camping fee + $6 hook-up fee). When paying online and/or scan and pay, Recreation.gov will charge a service fee at check-out.
Pets are not allowed on the beach and must be leashed at all times in the recreation area.
Click here for more information on the Tombigbee District of the National Forests of Mississippi
Everything else this campground posts · 5
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.
No drugs or alcohol allowed per Closure Orders
NO WAKE EXCEPT SKIING HOURS: (Fri. Sat. Sun. Holidays.) NOON - SUNSET. AVOID Swimming Beach/Area.
All sites have water and electric hook-ups only; however, there is a dump station located adjacent to the front entrance of the recreation area.
ATVS, UTVS, & GOLF CARTS are not permitted.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 28
- Hookups
- 27 electric, 27 water
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed at 27 of 28 sites
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…picnic area, a group shelter, accessible flush toilet facilities and a dump station. Davis Lake has…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 29 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 18th darkest of 61 in MS
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 15:56 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 16:03 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 6 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 12 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:56 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 17
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“Cancellations may occur during severe weather events.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:03 UTC
- Blue Bluff Campground (Aberdeen MS)Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway · 27 mi · 81 of 178 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:56 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
29 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 27 mapped sitesAll 29 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. 28 of the 29 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| DAVI | 001 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 139 ft | 338 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 002 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 115 ft | 192 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 003 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 108 ft | 268 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 004 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 116 ft | 149 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 005 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 102 ft | 115 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 006 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 100 ft | 202 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 007 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 102 ft | 79 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 008 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 100 ft | 180 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 009 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 128 ft | 236 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 010 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 92 ft | 197 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 011 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 122 ft | 285 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 012 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 124 ft | 174 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 013 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 109 ft | 24 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 014 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 103 ft | under 10 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 015 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 103 ft | under 10 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 016 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 110 ft | under 10 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 017 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 110 ft | under 10 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 018 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 94 ft | 16 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 019 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | under 10 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 020 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | under 10 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 021 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | under 10 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 022 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 68 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 023 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 88 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 024 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 101 ft | 74 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 025 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 101 ft | 110 ft | $20 | |
| DAVI | 026 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | yes | 87 ft | 105 ft | $20 |
| DAVI | 027 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 169 ft | $20 | |
| S&P | S&P Standard | type not stated | $20 | |||||
| Shelter | Shelter | day use | yes | 90 ft | $40 |
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 29 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Blue Bluff Campground (Aberdeen MS)27 mi
Whitten Park34 miJamie L. Whitten Campground35 mi
Town Creek Campground - West Point - Ms39 mi
North Graysport41 mi
Dewayne Hayes41 miFrom Tupelo, drive 17 miles south on the Natchez Trace Parkway to the Davis Lake Recreation Area Exit at milepost 243. Turn right on Davis Lake Road and continue 4 miles to the campground.
859 CR 124
Houlka, MS 38850
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for New Houlka, MS
Typical weather
Typical October night 51°F, day 74°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 31°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 · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Davis Lake Campground 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: D-. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyTrent KellyU.S. Representative · Mississippi’s 1st 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
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Davis Lake Campground, Tombigbee National Forest, Mississippi
Dear Trent Kelly, I’m a constituent in Mississippi’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Davis Lake Campground, Tombigbee National Forest, Mississippi, and couldn’t. All 28 sites at Davis Lake Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Davis Lake Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Davis Lake Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Davis Lake Campground (Tombigbee National Forest, Mississippi) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Davis Lake Campground, Tombigbee National Forest, Mississippi
Dear Cindy Hyde-Smith, I’m a constituent in Mississippi. I tried to camp at Davis Lake Campground, Tombigbee National Forest, Mississippi, and couldn’t. All 28 sites at Davis Lake Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Davis Lake Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Davis Lake Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Davis Lake Campground (Tombigbee National Forest, Mississippi) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Davis Lake Campground, Tombigbee National Forest, Mississippi
Dear Roger F. Wicker, I’m a constituent in Mississippi. I tried to camp at Davis Lake Campground, Tombigbee National Forest, Mississippi, and couldn’t. All 28 sites at Davis Lake Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Davis Lake Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Davis Lake Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Davis Lake Campground (Tombigbee National Forest, Mississippi) via campanac.com