Sandy Creek — Hotel in Jasper

Not to be mistaken for the small municipal park with the same name in downtown Jasper, this park is located along B.A. Steinhagen Lake, about 12 west of Jasper. The roads leading to the campground from nearby US-190 (county roads 156 and 155) are a bit narrow, but they are paved and the tree limbs are high enough to drive under with tall RVs like our 5th wheel.

As you approach the campground, before you reach the entrance station, there is a fork in the road where a right turn takes you to an isolated cluster of sites (68 through 77), while following the main road off to the left will take you past a string of non-electric sites prior to reaching the entrance station. So know your site number and where you need to go before you get there. Past the entrance station is a cluster of campsites along the lake, followed by a long stretch of road with no campsites but with a dump station, and then finally the largest cluster of campsites in the southwest corner of the park.

Each of these groupings of sites has a bathhouse with toilets and a shower. Our was not particularly clean, so I’d consider that as a negative, especially if that was your only option. None of the sites have sewer hookups. The other negative we experienced during our stay were the shallow ponds of water that appeared next to our site and several others (mostly the sites on the southern end of the cluster) after it rained one day. I don’t know if that’s a normal occurrence or a result of recent unusual weather (like actual snow on the ground) in the weeks prior to our arrival.

Otherwise, we were pretty happy with the campground. All of the sites have paved pads or driveways (site 67 where we stayed was one of those curved road-style pull-throughs), a fire pit, a covered concrete patio with a picnic table, and a pole with hooks for hanging lanterns or trash. Our site was level, and despite not being along the shore, we still had a good view of the lake. There are plenty of places to walk dogs, either around the campsites or in the open grass field along the road between the campsites and the nearest dumpster (there is no off-leash area). They warn you to watch out for alligators, but we never saw any; we did see deer, armadillos, and one raccoon during the late evening hours. Our section of the campground also had a playground, a volleyball net, and a boat ramp.

It got a little noisy during the evenings on the weekends; all other times it was pretty quiet.

In terms of cell service, the best speeds I got on my Verizon Jetpack with MIMO antenna during our stay were about 28Mbps down and 25Mbps up, and those speeds were pretty consistent, resulting in nearly flawless video streaming. The one speed test I performed on my AT&T phone showed 48Mbps down...

This is an off the road location where you can enjoy the quiet side of nature. Camp sites are generally well spaced with more than an average amount of room between sites. Fishing is available by pier and bank, but if you are serious about fishing I would say bring your catfish rig and some patience. If you like walking and biking, and you like a little privacy at your RV site, this is a nice place to laze about.

If you are younger and like playing music at your site, fast paced fishing, and people stirring... it might not be perfect for you :)

All in all, the location and access to sites with your RV/Travel Trailer are great. The power did not dip or cause surges, no tripped breakers. The water pressure was good and the dump site is fully functional. 2 RV's/trailers at a time can access the dump site.

You will need to be sure you have the gate code after 10 or the swing arms will not come up and your truck will stay outside the gate. The road you enter on is narrowish and goes on for a good while...

We discovered this campground 4 years while staying at neighboring Martin Dias State Park. We have just come back and stayed here for a couple nights. It’s a great place with spacious and generously-spaced campsites. There are 75+ campsites all with power and water. Many are waterfront. Loops are separated by up to one mile so check them all out. We’re now camped in a loop of 10 or so campsites and we’re the only campers in it. We like that you can hike to Martin Dias State Park and hike trails there. Wildlife sightings — white egrets, blue herons but no gators yet. It’s been a long time since I’ve been a fisherman but this place looks fishy to me and it looks like you tie up your boat right at your campsite for half of these sites. Only downside — this is a National Public Radio desert — there is not an NPR station to be found on...