Ford's Well
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:22 UTC
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 18All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Ford's Well Campground is located on the south side of Enid Lake. This campground is designed for horse enthusiasts to be able to camp with their horses. The campground features eighteen campsites with full hook-ups, a shower house, dump station, picnic shelter, playground, six picnic sites, five interpretive buildings that date back to the early 1900s, and a 20.8 mile equestrian trail. The Ford's Well Recreation Area is a point of historical significance as an early 1900s site where many visitors came to either drink or bathe in the therapeutic waters that were produced by Mr. W. B. Ford's water Well. It was also a way station for a major stagecoach route through North Mississippi. This area is popular among equestrian riders and historians. Keep reading
Recreation
Spyglass Hill Trail offers outdoor enthusiasts 20.8 miles of moderately hilly terrain with rock outcrops and scenic views of Enid Lake. Interpretive programs and guided tours of the buildings are provide on request. Nearby recreation areas on Enid Lake offers access to the lake for boating, fishing, and designated swimming areas.
Facilities
The horse-friendly campground has 18 sites, each with a 70 foot RV pad with parking apron, water, electric and sewage hook-ups, charcoal grill, grill table, picnic table, lantern holder, fire ring, and hitching rail for horses. An accessible shower house with flush toilets is located in the middle of the campground. Other amenities in the campground include: A picnic shelter, playground, dump station, horse shower station, horse waste deposit bin, mounting block, and historical interpretive buildings that includes: a water well with gazebo, log cabin, blacksmith shop, outhouse, and barn are located in the campground. Spyglass Hill equestrian trail offers 20.8 miles to ride or walk. Rest stops along the trail includes picnic tables, grills, service tables, swing bench and a prominent peak to provide a view of the lake.
Natural Features
There is a distance view of the lake from campsites but they are nestled among towering native pine and oak trees. The surrounding woods provide habitat for squirrels, raccoons, chipmunks, deer, butterflies, and variety of birds. Spyglass Hill Trail offers outdoor enthusiasts 20.8 miles of moderately hilly terrain with rock outcrops and scenic views of Enid Lake. Visitors hiking, horseback riding, or mountain biking along this trail will find numerous locations for viewing the local plants and animal species found in this northern Mississippi Hill County. It a perfect location for capturing a sunset or a rock sculpture made from some of the largest sandstone outcrops in the area.
Nearby Attractions
The nearby towns of Water Valley and Batesville, Mississippi offers shopping, hotels, restaurants and emergency care facilities if needed. Memphis, Tennessee, approximately 60 miles, offers tours of Graceland, Elvis Presley home. His birthplace is located in nearby Tupelo, Mississippi.
What the agency tells you
Must have reservation before camping. America Beautiful Senior and Access card holder has to be present when card is used. No Pets in buildings. No ATV's allowed A large picnic shelter is available for $50/day Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information. For more information on camping with livestock/horses/pets contact the main office at 662-563-4571.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 18
- Hookups
- 18 electric, 18 water, 18 sewer
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…horses. An accessible shower house with flush toilets is located in the middle of the campground. Other…”
- Showers
- Accessible Showers
- “An accessible shower house with flush toilets is located in the middle of the campground.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 19 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE DRINKING WATER on 1 of 19 campsite records, WATER SPIGOT on 1 of 19 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
32 of 32 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:22 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $30 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.
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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:22 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
19 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 17 mapped sitesAll 19 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. 18 of the 19 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 1 | rv electric | 50 amp | 65 ft | 585 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 10 | rv electric | 50 amp | 59 ft | 752 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 11 | rv electric | 50 amp | 73 ft | 686 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 12 | rv electric | 50 amp | 59 ft | 757 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 13 | rv electric | 50 amp | 68 ft | 997 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 14 | rv electric | 50 amp | 68 ft | 998 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 15 | rv electric | 50 amp | 65 ft | 957 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 16 | rv electric | 50 amp | 65 ft | 1,008 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 17 | rv electric | 50 amp | 69 ft | 1,076 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 18 | rv electric | 50 amp | 87 ft | 1,133 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 2 | rv electric | 50 amp | 65 ft | 640 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 3 | rv electric | 50 amp | $30 | ||
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 4 | rv electric | 50 amp | 105 ft | 897 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 5 | rv electric | 50 amp | 41 ft | 921 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 6 | rv electric | 50 amp | 41 ft | 953 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 7 | rv electric | 50 amp | 89 ft | 1,009 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 8 | rv electric | 50 amp | 68 ft | 883 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Ford's Well 9 | rv electric | 50 amp | 60 ft | 804 ft | $30 |
| Main Loop | Picnic Shelter (665) | day use |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Water Valley Landing1.8 mi
Chickasaw Hill3.1 mi
Long Branch Campground3.2 mi
Plum Point Campground4.4 mi
Persimmon Hill(Enid Lake)5.6 mi
Wallace Creek6.3 miTake Exit 227 off of U.S. Interstate 55 Highway toward Water Valley, MS. Go east on Mississippi Highway 32 for 6.9 miles. Turn left onto County Road 41 which turn into County Road 557 for .8 miles and the destination is on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Oakland, MS
Typical weather
Typical October night 49°F, day 76°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 30°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 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
Who answers for this land
Ford's Well 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 →