LeFleur's Bluff State Park Mayes Lake — Attraction in Jackson

On the way in, be careful not to turn into the first street that says State Park. That entrance is to the museum. The CG entrance is 1/2 mile east of there. Friendly and helpful staff at the entrance station. That is where it ends for me. Tight turn after the entrance booth. Then you go a mile on an un-maintained road. All asphalt looks to have been laid 40 years ago and not maintained since. The road is so worn it looks like a gravel road, pitted and full of large potholes. Sites have concrete pads, but several have been flooded with mud and sand, and no one cleans them. Many sites have tent pads, but they are unlevel and full of rocks. A few sites have tables and utilities on the wrong side. The bathroom building is on stilts over 2 stories high. The whole building is sagging and collapsing. Floors are sagged and have cracked and broken tiles, allowing more water to penetrate and likely rot the sub-floor. The bathroom is dirty, no one cleans above 5ft level. The stairs and ADA ramp are all sagging, If a building inspector ever checked this place, it would get a yellow tag. They have a washer and dryer, no app required. Just scan the QR code and use google pay, which I prefer to having to download an app. There is a fire extinguisher for the CG at the top of the stairs for the bathroom. At 7ft off the floor, it is hanging 2 feet too high per fire code. And according to the tag has not been inspected since 2019. So, it probably won't work. There is no trash can or dumpster inside the CG, it's across the street out on the road leading to the boat ramp. The place is mostly quiet. The park is completely surrounded by residential neighborhoods and businesses. The park is very urban though you largely don't know it when you are here, except for a little noise from the freeway about 1.6 miles away. There is a primitive campground outside the RV CG, but it doesn't even have a water spigot. Just picnic benches and fire rings. And they have to walk a quarter mile to the bathroom in the RV CG. There is a nice day use on the other side of the lake, but it is over a mile walk. There are also some trails but no loops, they are out-and-back only. We took the trail to the museum, but it was closed. The only staff we ever saw were a few maintenance people over at the day use, and one maintenance guy in the CG on a tractor smoothing the road. There is a host site but never saw them. We camped at LeFleurs Bluff State Park in a...

I wanted to like this place...

The guy on the phone was great! I was calling campgrounds looking for a place to camp on the final night of a long trip up and down the east coast. Homebound for Texas, this place sounded like a the perfect place. The guy I spoke to obviously loved where he worked, upsold me by mentioning that a trail from the campsite ended at a on the premises children's museum... featuring dinosaurs.

The last day of the trip, we loaded up early with the intention of having lunch in town, checking into the campground and spending a few hours at the museum. I talked it up and my children were excited.

And then the needle scratched across the record...

The woman at the entrance kiosk was inept. I explained my reservation, which somehow confused her. She said she didn't see me in the system, after barely looking at the computer in front of her. She explained that they had "primitive" campsites still available and gave me poor directions to find them.

We finally found what we thought were the primitive campsites, and had to decline based upon having to cross a bridge over a small creek to get to the facilities in the middle of the night. I went back to the lady in the kiosk, looked over her shoulder this time and watched her look in her reservation system... my name was right at the top.

I returned back to the camper campsite, which apparently was part of the upsell the guy had sold me when I made the reservations. This should have been good, accept my booked location had a concrete pad and swampy ground by the lake... no place to pitch a tent.

Disgusted and running out of time, I returned to the kiosk and cancelled my reservation... preferring to end my agitation by checking into a hotel.

We arrived at the children's museum 10 minutes before closing...

I inquired after the manager. He could do nothing for me but, offered to have his director call me the next day. He took my contact information, it's now several months later and I've not heard back from them.

This is a one-star review mainly due to the focused incompetence of one employee and management making false commitments to call a disgruntled customer back.

But it is a well earned one star for taking an excited expectant family and creating an environment that made them tired and...

If you’re road tripping and need a place to stop, this is not the place. The manager here (5’2” curly blonde hair shoulder length) is so rude. There was no one at the gate during their operation hours and someone kindly helped us. We called multiple times to get help and no one could help us so we thought waiting until morning would be best and we can stop by during morning hours (just as we’d done at multiple state parks across the country). The manager as mentioned above proceeded to imply we were low life’s with no money to stay and definitely not welcomed at her campground which mind you is only $35. She continued to harass us until making a member of our party cry. Then as we’re going to the gate to pay (you cannot leave without paying) she had us escorted by someone in front of us and fallowed closely behind as if we were going to drive full speed with our huge camper attached and bust the gate?!? lol okay lady.. If you are not from Mississippi she will treat you like trash. Better to stay at a different park. Staff here do not know how to be kind. They need to hire staff that doesn’t play favoritism and treats travelers kindly. It’s a beautiful place but sad that the...