McLeod Park Campground Review and Campsite Recommendations

McLeod Park is just six minutes north of I-10 in Kiln, Mississippi making it a convenient stop for those traveling through on I-10.  It’s a beautiful waterfront campground for RV’s

and tent camper, although you’ll mostly find RV’s.  The park offers many opportunities including fishing, a nature trail, disc golf, canoe rental, playground, splash pad and basketball court.

The Park seems more targeted to RV’s than tents, but most sites will accommodate a tent just fine.   If you’re looking for the best group site, seclusion, waterfront or to see our picks of the best campsites, download our recommended campsite map.  It’s best to make reservations ahead of time especially on holiday weekends.  Halloween is a particular busy week here.  Check the county website for more details and up to date rates.

It’s a convenient campground for locals and travelers alike.  It’s a great place to camp for Cruisin the Coast which often fills all the coast campgrounds and hotels.  It also offers camping near New Orleans or Biloxi when other campgrounds may be booked for big events or you want to get away from the city.

Youth Outdoor Adventures include frisbee golf, fishing, hiking, canoe rentals, playground, splashpad, bike riding, and a basketball court.  

Pro’s

• It’s close proximity to I-10
• Waterfront
• Lots of adventures

Con’s

• Airport and highway noise
• close camping

Our Stay,  February 28-29

We recently stayed at the park on a last minute decision to get outdoors and out of the house for the weekend.  The park is only fifteen minutes from our house so it makes for an easy pack and go, not having to worry if we forget anything.   So we loaded up the tent and our couple camp totes and headed up.

We arrived late Friday evening due to work and some things we had to take care of.  We considered waiting and heading up in the morning, but we both knew we’d rather wake up and be there.  We set up camp in the dark and gathered some wood to get a campfire going.  Finding firewood in the park is doable, but many campsites are a good hike from any woods so consider a wagon or your truck to go gather some wood.  If you don’t mind spending a few bucks on firewood, conveniently a local drives the park with a truckload of wood for sale each evening.  

Saturday morning we awoke to a flock of crows cawing away.  The sound of highway noise could also be heard in the distant, but we were in a tent after all.  It was a chilly morning for south Mississippi, thirty seven was the low for the night.  Although the kids were cozy in there ten degree mummy bags, I thought we’d be fine with just a couple blankets, wrong.   Since Heather had to head to town for a baby shower that day she grabbed our down quilts for Saturday night. 

We got up and cooked some breakfast on the Coleman Stove, got the minnow traps set and put some fishing poles out with the hot dogs we had for bait.  We rode bikes and scooters to the park, played a while and then headed back to camp to meet some friends arriving by boat.  While away a small perch had taken the hot dog and got hooked, but was quickly eaten by a small bass.  Are friends arrived with some worms for bait.  The kids fished for perch, but the bite was slow.  With the help of friends the kids gathered up some firewood for the night.  We grilled some chicken wings and cooked up some mac and cheese on the stove.  The rest of the evening we spent just hanging out riding bikes and playing Uno until it got dark.  As it got dark, we made a fire and heated up the leftover chicken on the gas grill.   Everyone was tired from the long day so we turned in relatively early on Saturday night.  

Sunday morning we woke up and got our coffee going.  We’ve been using our Jetboil backpacking stove for boiling water and the GSI coffee press to make our morning coffee.   The Folgers singles also work great if you don’t want to bother with a press, but we wanted french vanilla, so the press was the only option until we can find french vanilla singles.   Once we got going we biked down to the playground to spend a little time before heading back and packing up.  We had a birthday back in town for eleven so we left a little early, check in/out time is 3pm.

Reservations: https://www.reserveamerica.com/explore/mcleod-park-campground/PRCG/1070600/overview

Hancock County information: ttps://www.hancockcounty.ms.gov/mcleod-park-campground/

Recommended campsites:  recommended campsite map