Marathon Lake
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 17 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $5–$20Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 35All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
This location is available on a first-come, first-served basis only. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the campground to purchase and claim a site. Once on-site, you may be able to pay for your campsite(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app, and the Scan and Pay feature. If this option is available, you will need to first download the free Recreation.gov mobile app https://www.recreation.gov/mobile-app prior to your arrival as some remote areas have limited or no cellular service. Keep reading
Recreation
Marathon Lake provides various recreational oppurtunties. This includes activities such as biking, hiking, boating, picnicking, fishing, camping, swimming, wildlife viewing, and volleyball.
Facilities
34 campsites with water and electricity 14 picnick tables Sand volleyball court (no ball provided) BBQ grills 2 Pavilions (can be reserved for groups, please call local Forest Service Office at 601-469-3811) Boat Launch Swimming area with sandy beach Hiking Trail (1.7 miles in length) Water fountains Sanitation facilities with showers and flush toilets Dump station for trash Natural Features Marathon Lake is a 50-acre lake located in Smith County. It got its' name from Marathon Lumber Company which closed in 1929. You will enjoy the beauty and seclusion of this quiet campground located approximately 15 miles southeast of Forest, MS and 25 miles northeast of Raleigh, MS. Marathon Recreation area is equipped with 34 camping sites (with water and electric hook-ups), boat ramp, swimming area, 2 bath houses (warm showers), picnic shelters, picnic tables and a hiking trail. The lake has been stocked with catfish, bass and crappie and is open to bream fishing. A dump station is available. The area has a volunteer Campground Host on site most of the time. Contact Info This location is staffed. Please call (601) 469-3811 to speak with local staff.
What the agency tells you
No alcoholic beverages are allowed.
Fishing is allowed, State requirements and limits apply.
Boat motors are permissible with the restriction of no wake.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 35
- Hookups
- 24 electric
- Accessible sites
- 24
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…Sanitation facilities with showers and flush toilets Dump station for trash Natural Features Marathon…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Recreation area is equipped with 34 camping sites (with water and electric hook-ups), boat ramp, swimming area, 2 bath houses (warm showers), picnic shelters, picnic tables and a hiking trail.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…beach Hiking Trail (1.7 miles in length) Water fountains Sanitation facilities with showers and flush…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:29 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $5–$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.
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 15:29 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
37 records
All 37 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. 10 of the 37 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Marathon | Pavilion 2 | day use | ||
| Marathon | Stock Pond Pavilion | day use | ||
| Marathon Lake | 01 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 02 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 03 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 04 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 05 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 06 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 07 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 08 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 09 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 10 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 11 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 12 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 13 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 14 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 15 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 16 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 17 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 18 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 19 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 20 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 21 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 22 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 23 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 24 | standard electric | yes | |
| Marathon Lake | 25 | standard nonelectric | $5–$20 | |
| Marathon Lake | 26 | standard nonelectric | $5–$20 | |
| Marathon Lake | 27 | standard nonelectric | $5–$20 | |
| Marathon Lake | 28 | standard nonelectric | $5–$20 | |
| Marathon Lake | 29 | standard nonelectric | $5–$20 | |
| Marathon Lake | 30 | standard nonelectric | $5–$20 | |
| Marathon Lake | 31 | standard nonelectric | $5–$20 | |
| Marathon Lake | 32 | standard nonelectric | $5–$20 | |
| Marathon Lake | 33 | standard nonelectric | $5–$20 | |
| Marathon Lake | 34 | type not stated | ||
| Scan and Pay | Standard | standard nonelectric | $5–$20 |
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.
25 of 37 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Turkey Fork Recreation AreaDe Soto National Forest · 71 mi
Choctaw LakeTombigbee National Forest · 75 mi
Service78 miSumter Campground83 miFrom Forest, go south on Hwy 35 for 8.5 miles to Homewood. Turn east on Morton-Marathon Road and go 9 miles. Turn south on Forest Service Road 520 and go ½ mile to entrance.
Another route would be to go south on Hwy 501. Turn east on Morton-Marathon Rd. and go 3 ½ miles. Turn onto FS Rd 520 and go ½ mile to entrance.
From Raleigh, go north on Hwy 35 for 15 miles to Homewood and follow same directions above from Homewood.
An alternate route is to take Hwy 18 east to Hwy 501; go north 15 miles: turn east onto Morton-Marathon to FS Rd 520.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Montrose, MS
Typical weather
Typical October night 50°F, day 77°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 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
Marathon Lake is in Mississippi’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Michael Guest (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →