Tunica Hills WMA — Attraction in St. Francisville

First, a warning - be prepared, be cautious and be safe. We had a wonderful time and laughed until we cried, but the day could have ended very badly had we not taken our situation as serious as we did.

Second, let me point out that Tunica Hills is NOT the same as Clark’s Creek! CC is where you will find waterfalls and dogs allowed, Tunica Hills has neither!!

Having not visited Tunica in 20 years but finding CC closed due to Covid-19, our group of 5 set out for the trails of the WMA (wildlife management area). The trails are accessible from the South Tract, which feels like off-road driving, to the first parking lot. My daughter almost had a panic attack going up because it’s not marked AT ALL, leading you to wonder if you’re in the right place, only one car fits at a time and there are no areas to turn around. Do not attempt this if there has been any rain at all!

We pinned the location of our car and decided to hike Trail B first, which is pretty boring and dry. It is clearly marked with blue and green squares. There were hundreds of ticks and spiders already during the first weekend in May.

Next we set out for Trail C. The trailheads are clearly marked but there were no maps available at each. I studied the map on my phone and felt confident we knew where we were going. After nearly sliding down a very steep embankment head first into a tree, we made our way into the creek. There was very little water, so we followed it up until cool, crystal clear water flowed. Kids are able to splash in the water and that is about the only nice thing for kids on the trail.

There are many fallen trees that you either have to hoist yourself over or limbo/crouch under. Trail C is described to be the most “exciting” and it was, so much that we missed the orange marker leading back to the trail from the creek. I now know this happens often and wonder, is it even there?

After walking for far too long, the creek opens up to the river at a T. We went to the left and followed the sounds of traffic and the line of homes we could see about 200-300 ft up, thinking that the trail would eventually present itself. When we started to slip in clay and quicksand and saw tons of wild pig tracks in the mud, we knew we were way off the trail.

By that time it was 4:30pm and there wasn’t going to be sunlight for much longer. We met up with a group who had done the same as us and were backtracking for what would be 5-6 miles from what I could tell. Cell reception was spotty and GPS useless, as it wasn’t picking up our elevation. Knowing we couldn’t make it back before the sun went down, we opted to call for help while the other group kept going backwards.

We found that there are ATV trails off the river, which we had attempted to follow earlier but are very overgrown with briars, that actually open up into a backyard. If you get disoriented and see this path with what looks like a junk car and railroad tracks hanging off the left side on a cliff, you’re in the right place!

We hiked almost 15 miles before finding our way out. I now know that many other hikers have gotten lost off Trail C - one man wasn’t found for 3 days. Another for 27 hours. Another it took police 6 hours to get to after their car was located. After we were safe, rescue went to look for the second group and found them 3 miles from us, way off the trail.

When in doubt, call for help! And do so before the sun sets as it was also confirmed that the wild pigs can be bad at night. If you know anything about them, you do not want to come face to...

I really liked the north trail (I believe it is this one) until around A12 when you have to cross an openfield. I would advise to just to go back at this point. The first part (A1 to A12), you get to walk on a dried river, make your way under fallen trees and walk on logs. The difficulty was perfect for us. We could find our way even though it was unclear sometimes. BUT! At A12, the field didn't have a path so we had to go through high grass with sometime very spiky weeds. We after realised we were on a 4x4 track and it stayed like that from A12 to A20, with another high grass area). Because of the high vegetation, we got many ticks stuck on us even though we put a good anti-bugs cream. In summary, if you stop at A12, you will have a great time :). We didn't try the south trail. I believe it is the one that has...

The campground itself is nice. The day we went there was another group of campers which was fine until they started shooting handguns off IN the campground. We were tent camping with our children, and even though we had chosen the furthest site from our trigger happy neighbors, we decided after the hour or so of gunfire that we didn't feel comfortable sleeping in their shooting range and left. I would've liked to stay, but I guess you get what you pay for? If you're looking for a quiet place to go with your family to enjoy nature I would pick somewhere else. We only had this one experience but it seemed to me like a party spot with our neighbors riding a loud motorbike through the campground, loud music and it seemed like they were drinking before the...