South Abutment Campground
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:08 UTC
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 7875 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
South Abutment Recreation Area sits along Arkabutla Lake and Dam in the hills of northwest Mississippi. The dam project is on the Coldwater River and offers some of the best sailing east of the Mississippi River. Keep reading
Recreation
Families come to Arkabutla Lake to enjoy the great outdoors by fishing, boating, swimming, hiking, and biking. Wildlife management areas around Arkabutla Lake boast a combined 30,000 acres of public hunting lands where whitetail deer, wild turkeys, quail and waterfowl roam. Several trails wind around the lake and throughout the nearby landscape. The Coldwater River Nature Trail System encompasses two hiking trails as well as an interpretive trail that helps educate hikers on the wildlife and ecosystem. The Swinging Bridge Nature Trail is also nearby, and includes a section of land that was part of the river prior to the dam being built. This trail is also an interpretive educational trail. Thousands of people each year visit Arkabutla Lake to go fishing. The lake is home to several species of native fish to Mississippi waters, such as largemouth bass, bream, catfish and crappie.
Facilities
This year-round campground offers 81 family sites and one group day-use shelter, all with electric hookups. Amenities include flush toilets, showers and drinking water, creating a comfortable camping experience for guests.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the waterfront, among rolling hills forested with a shady mixture of oak, hickory, beech, sweet gum and birch trees.
Nearby Attractions
The Lost Indian Spring Disc Golf Course is just below the Arkabutla Dam near Pratt Road. The course has 18 holes and is free to the public. The Senatobia Wetlands project is just a 30-minute drive from the park. It provides visitors with educational displays and an area to observe wildlife and waterfowl.
Charges & Cancellations
Once your reservation has been created, there will be a $10.00 fee to cancel and a $10.00 fee to change your site or dates. Cancellations made the day before, or up to the day after your arrival will also be charged the first nights use fee. No-shows are charged a $20.00 fee plus the first nights use fee. If your reservation is for 1 night, and you ahve been charged the first nights use fee, there is no $10.00 service fee.
What the agency tells you
Visitors are expected to be aware of park general rules
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.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reminds all visitors that coast guard approved personal floatation device is required when conducting activities on or in the waters of Arkabutla Lake. These activities include but are not limited to swimming, waterskiing, riding on personal watercraft, kayaking, and other boating related activities. If vessel is under 16 feet in length a PFD is mandatory at all times. If vessel is over 16 feet in length, PFDs are only required while making way under main propulsion.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 78
- Hookups
- 75 electric, 78 water
- Longest rig
- 85 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 15
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 63 of 65 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…with electric hookups. Amenities include flush toilets, showers and drinking water, creating a comfortable…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on 75 campsite record(s) that are not a cabin, of this campground's 78
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…include flush toilets, showers and drinking water, creating a comfortable camping experience for…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Night sky · 53rd darkest of 61 in MS
- Bortle 4
30 of 70 sites open on Sat, Oct 17read 15:08 UTC
recreation.gov lists 75 of the 78 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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.
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.
“Once your reservation has been created, there will be a $10.00 fee to cancel and a $10.00 fee to change your site or dates. No-shows are charged a $20.00 fee plus the first nights use fee.” · this campground’s own no-show 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:08 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
78 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 75 mapped sitesAll 78 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 75 of the 78 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.
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 01 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 1,188 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 02 | standard electric | 37 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 1,176 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 03 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 110 ft | 1,180 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 04 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | yes | 111 ft | 593 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 05 | standard electric | 29 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 492 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 06 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 445 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 07 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 374 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 08 | standard electric | 53 ft | 50 amp | 80 ft | 402 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 09 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 80 ft | 310 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 10 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 349 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 11 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 330 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 12 | standard electric | 47 ft | 50 amp | 93 ft | 235 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 13 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 83 ft | 231 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 14 | standard electric | 43 ft | 50 amp | 80 ft | 302 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 15 | standard electric | 68 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 392 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 16 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 373 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 17 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 120 ft | 172 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 18 | standard electric | 66 ft | 50 amp | 123 ft | 119 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 19 | type not stated | 73 ft | 50 amp | 122 ftArkabutla Lake | |||
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 20 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 158 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 21 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 205 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 22 | standard electric | 76 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 198 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 23 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 213 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 24 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 178 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 25 | standard electric | 66 ft | 50 amp | 104 ft | 99 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 26 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 136 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 27 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 116 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 28 | standard electric | 79 ft | 50 amp | 116 ft | 121 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 29 | standard electric | 76 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 176 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 30 | standard electric | 68 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 186 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 31 | standard electric | 79 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 233 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 32 | standard electric | 68 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 190 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 33 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | yes | 82 ft | 255 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 34 | standard electric | 85 ft | 50 amp | yes | 86 ft | 201 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 35 | standard electric | 81 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 284 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 36 | standard electric | 67 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 213 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 37 | standard electric | 68 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 215 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 38 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 115 ft | 428 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 39 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | yes | 55 ft | 408 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 41 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | yes | 64 ft | 418 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 42 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | yes | 77 ft | 453 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 43 | standard electric | 57 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 489 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 44 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 867 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 45 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 879 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 46 | standard electric | 51 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 987 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 47 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 980 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 48 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 1,073 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 49 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 1,064 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 50 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 160 ft | 1,072 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 52 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | yes | 97 ft | 596 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 53 | type not stated | 59 ft | 50 amp | 526 ftArkabutla Lake | |||
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 54 | standard electric | 64 ft | 50 amp | 89 ft | 420 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 55 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 330 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 56 | standard electric | 28 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 259 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 57 | standard electric | 67 ft | 50 amp | yes | 87 ft | 234 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 58 | standard electric | 33 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 295 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 59 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 112 ft | 445 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 60 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 555 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 61 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 623 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 62 | standard electric | 34 ft | 50 amp | yes | 85 ft | 704 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 63 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 90 ft | 821 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 64 | standard electric | 61 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 774 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 65 | standard electric | 57 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 748 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 66 | standard electric | 62 ft | 50 amp | 89 ft | 739 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 67 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 89 ft | 734 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 68 | type not stated | 60 ft | 50 amp | yes | 650 ftArkabutla Lake | ||
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 69 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 593 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 70 | standard electric | 61 ft | 50 amp | yes | 71 ft | 530 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 71 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | yes | 100 ft | 400 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 73 | standard electric | 57 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 317 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 74 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | yes | 68 ft | 289 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 75 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 97 ft | 271 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 76 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 85 ft | 371 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 77 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 85 ft | 430 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 78 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | yes | 93 ft | 513 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 79 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 83 ft | 593 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 | |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 80 | standard electric | 64 ft | 50 amp | yes | 83 ft | 665 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
| SOUTH ABUTMENT | 81 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 90 ft | 894 ftArkabutla Lake | $30 |
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 78 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
South Abutment Pavilion0.3 mi
Outlet Channel Day Use0.9 mi
Dub Patton Campground2.2 miKelly's Crossing Campground2.7 mi
Hernando Point Campground3.7 mi
Hernando Point Pavilion3.8 miFrom I-55, take the Hernando, Mississippi exit and follow Scenic Route 304 to the main dam. Follow signs into the recreation area; the campground is just south of the dam.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Arkabutla, MS
Typical weather
Typical October night 50°F, day 74°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
South Abutment 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: F. See every public-lands vote →