Roosevelt State Park — Attraction in Mississippi

Let’s talk PROS; it’s shady and that’s it. CONS, we spent two nights during the Car and Truck Show. Check in was disappointing - I was handed a card for my window but apparently the young lady was too occupied to fill in the site number or our departure date. Map or Park guidelines you ask - nope none were available. Let’s talk site - actual pad was concrete but the approach was asphalt. Both had experience serious erosion to the point stepping off either you risked twisting an ankle. Road throughout the Park was seriously eroded. Our Fire Ring was missing - a fellow camper nearby said one of the recent guest had stolen it. The site grill had been removed and the charcoal dumped on the ground. The picnic table was disgusting and where the fire ring would have been, there was a pile and I mean a pile for cig butts. Trash littered the site. Stopped by the bath house and while management told us they were inspected twice daily for cleanliness I seriously doubt during our stay there were ever cleaned. The entire Park was disgusting so we went to the registration office and said we were leaving early and wanted a refund. Lady said no refund. I then spotted the advertisement for the Car and Truck Show and it listed free access to the Water Slide with a purchased ticket. Right beside this notice was a sign saying WATER SLIDE Closed for the SUMMER. I asked the lady if they gave refunds for the tickets as they included the Water Slide and it was closed. No response - she just glared. Let’s talk about the management of the dam repair. They took out over a 100 trees, many 60 years old. Then used dirt and sod to reinforce the back side of the damn. I would have guessed the trees were doing a better job. Then the engineers couldn’t get the water valve open to drain water. Once they did, they let out over 6’ of water and then when they went to close the valve, it’s stuck. So, water is draining from the lake faster than it’s flowing in. It will be YEARS before the water level returns to normal level and it’ll never happen while the valve is open. There is a host family, but we NEVER saw them clean sites, bathhouse, etc. In fact, we never saw a Park Ranger. To add to this disgusting Park, as we’re walking our best pal the morning we left, this older gentleman steps out of his camper and begins to relieve himself next to the road. I’m sure he got some on his leg when I yelled at him that there were women and kids in the Park. Don’t waste your time. There are better Parks in Mississippi. This one has potential, but it’s seriously being mismanaged...

This is a really nice state Park in the deep woods of Mississippi. Well kept, priced Right (for camping with an RV) and not too close to or too far away from the interstate.

Update: 2 August 2019 - I'm knocking off one star because of the disappointing "hotel".

We normally use this state park with our motorhome, but this most recent trip the RV was in the shop for maintenance so we opted for using the cabins. When the cabins proved to be full they offered a room in their "hotel". Not realizing they had a hotel we accepted the offer ($75/night). Checkin was supposed to be at 3pm. We arrived early (just after 2pm) and the room "was not ready". So we drove around and admired the scenery, checked out the outside of the "hotel" which reminded me of a military barracks type of abandoned military base structure. The room was "ready" just after 4pm so we got the key and this is what we found:

The building itself is in need of renovation. The room immediately smells of mold. It is damp and musty. The paint is old. The appliances are circa 1980's. The bed is the most disappointing of all. It is a queen sized bed with a box platform, no box springs and no proper standard mattress. No mattress cover. The mattress is a 3" sofa seat style upholstery foam mattress sitting on a wooden box. The presentation did not include a fitted sheet. It was made up with a single flat sheet that easily slipped off exposing the 3" thick upholstery fabric covered mattress, no pad, and the overall smell was not fresh. There was no lingering smell of any cleaning products. The TV was relatively modern being a flat panel but the size (22 inch) is best suited as a computer monitor and not as a primary TV. The room was uncomfortable, dark and grossly disappointing. In fact it was so bad we decided to leave after 4 hours and just drive home.

I do recommend this park as a camping destination but we DO NOT recommend using the "hotel". The hotel is not a $75 value. With the prevalence of the smell of mold and the age of the hotel it needs to be...

We had our family reunion there this summer. We rented cabin1 for a week. All cabins boast "lake side", but you cannot get to the lake due to fallen trees and overgrown brush. I broke my toe on a tree root in the yard. The roof has ferns and grass growing off of it. The windows were covered with green slime, which I had to ask them to clean so I could see outside. The back porch had a hole in the roof, and rain poured through it. The back steps were very unstable. We were afraid if anyone needed to use the rail for stability, they would fall over. The outside patio, grill, and picnic table were filthy, covered in dirt, and not cleaned from past guests. For the inside...the carpet needs to be ripped out. The entire canin is so damp and molded. You walk across the floor and black mold sticks to your feet. There are mice leaving mouse droppings everywhere. The back door wouldn't lock, which we told them day 2, and it still wasn't taken care of when we left. There was a hole in the floor in the bedroom, but the moldy carpet kept us from falling through. When I asked if someone could clean the picnic area and windows, I was told the power wash was broken and budget cuts did not allow them to repair or replace it. A kid showed up with a towel and water to clean the windows. We had to go to the store and buy a bucket with cleaners and a mop to clean the windows ourselves. We were told the cabins were supposed to be rustic. That would be great. That's what we wanted. We did not want a filthy, mouse infested, moldy grimey, slimy cabin which we couldn't secure at night, and couldn't walk out to the lake. We did notice however that the 2 ranger cabins were very well maintained with immaculate yards. Reminded me of how all the cabins looked when I grew up there. I would not recommend staying in these cabins for anyone. Very very...