Buccaneer State Park Hike and Campground Review

Although we may have picked one of the muddiest weeks to stay at Buccaneer State Park in southern Mississippi, at least we didn’t stay during a hurricane! If it weren’t for the muddy campsites and trails though, this really is a beautiful state park and super close in proximity to the Gulf of Mexico.

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Website

Buccaneer State Park Reservations

Amenities:

One of the biggest things to note about Buccaneer State Park is that it really mostly is a campground. There are certainly activities to be had within the park, but the main focus is definitely on allowing places for people to camp.

There is quite a wide range of campsites available. From nice and flat paved spots, to a less updated gravel spot towards the north part of the campground. All spots north of the beach are full hookup minus a primitive loop really meant for tent camping.

Although we didn’t stay there, the beach spots are partial hookups with water and electric. I am not 100% sure on the amperage at those locations though.

At this park you will find fairly new laundry facilities, bathhouses, swimming pools (yes plural), a hiking path, a fairly sizable water park, disc golf, recreation center, camp store, and a beautiful beach to chill on.







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Water Drainage

Alright, so this is not a category used in previous posts, but I may start adding it. We did draw a shorter end of a stick with our spot while visiting Buccaneer State Park as far as muddy sites go. Before I start any rant, the people working at the state park were EXTREMELY nice and offered many times for us to move to another site. They even went out of their way to make us their version of a pallet red carpet to get us in and out of our RV relatively dry.

First off, folks can’t control the weather at any park you go. If you get enough rain anywhere, it is going to flood. However, this park was just recently rebuild from nearly scratch after hurricane Katrina passed through the area. So a couple suggestions for the state park after investing a ton of money in the rebuild. Charge less for the spots that are obviously a sub grade of the paved areas, or at the very least build some trenches to direct the water away from the sites.

Discounts:

None that I am aware of, but I’ve been wrong before!

Noise Level:

This is not next to a busy road whatsoever, but as we found out relatively soon, the north side of the campground is bordering a train track. How often is it used you may ask? Quite a bit. If you are going for some peace and quiet, I recommend staying in the different paved areas of the park towards the central/southern ends.

Dog Friendly?

Totally. I saw dogs of all types hanging around this park and they do even have a dog park near the camp store on the north end of the park. Blaze is odd and doesn’t enjoy dog parks, but I’m sure many dogs do. 🙂

Big Rig Friendly?

Yes. We saw many larger 5th wheels and Class A RVs throughout this campground. Getting to the campground however can be a bit of a challenge. I didn’t get a picture of it but I’ll slap in a screenshot from google street view.

Although I have absolutely no idea what the clearance level of this bridge, I would not recommend heading to this campground via north beach blvd from 90. You still have to come via north beach blvd, but head further west. We came down Nicholson Avenue and ended up being fine. There is however a large railroad track …bump to go over on Nicholson Avenue, so if anyone knows a better route, feel free to chime in within the comments below.

Cell Signal and Wifi:

If you are digital nomads like we are, cell signal is crucial. AT&T was a great performer at this park having great download and upload speeds. Verizon was kind of iffy, but it might be ok for lower data intensive tasks.







Things to Do in the Area:

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Well, you are in a state park! One of the things we attempted to do was hike the pirates alley nature trail. It too was extremely muddy, but I imagine it could be quite fun on those less rainy days. It was a wee bit too cold to do any swimming during our visit, but there are definitely some nice swimming pools/wave pool at this campground to check out during the late spring and summer time.

We didn’t really go explore outside of the state park much during our stay, but there are some casinos and some other marshy areas nearby that could be checked out.

Right outside the entrance to Buccaneer State Park is a fairly small, but nice beach you can check out as well. We saw many families enjoy the beach while driving by and we also checked it out a couple times ourselves.

OTHER NEARBY ADVENTURES

Dauphin Island and Fort Gaines

Alfred B Maclay Gardens State Park

Cathedral Caverns State Park

St Bernard State Park

One Day To Explore New Orleans







NOTE FROM WRITER

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