Mammoth Does Not Go to Vicksbug Military Monument Day 1

Tue 9/20

This trip was trashed by a tornado. It appears that a tornado went through the National Military Monument at Vicksburg. They had to close the whole park and cancel all the camping reservations. I only found this out when I went to the web page to verify my reservation--early last week. I called the park, and the lady who answered said that she was just about to start calling campers who'd made reservations.

Great--since this was the place that the whole rest of the trip was built around.

However, for reasons that shouldn't be explained, we were in no mood to cancel the whole trip. So I found a new site for two of the three days we'd planned for the Military Monument campground, and I extended our stay at the campground coming before it.

Which is where we were headed, bright and early on a Tuesday morning. Beaver Dam Campground at Caney Lake Recreation Area, Kitsatche National Forest.

I don't remember the drive very well. My head cold had reached its apex and I was miserable, snotty, and dozing off most of the trip. We arrived after about four hours of drive time (including a 20-minute backup at road construction just West of Shreveport) and a 30-minute refuel stop at a huge, crowded Love's. The dogs got their walk and water before we were even done filling up the tank.

Next we had the joy and excitement of driving through Shreveport on I-20. Wow. That is some rough road. It would be miserable even in a car with healthy shock absorbers--in Mammoth I was surprised we didn't break anything or shake our  brains loose.

 

With difficulty I overrode Google Maps recommendation and forced it to bring us in from the East side of the park. It turned out to be very easy to find that way. I was told that the western entrance was impossible to navigate so I didn't even try. And on we went, following signs (why can I never remember to print a map???) to the camping loop and our site. The places was nearly deserted--I saw a host and maybe two other campers. There were several sites marked "reserved" but without any dates, so who knows?

REVIEW:
Site 16
Quiet, quiet and more quiet. Even the birds were silent this early fall weekday. Since we were there on Tuesday and Wednesday, the campground was mostly empty. It is--as we were warned--far off the Interstate on some pretty narrow, junky roads. But nothing we had trouble with. On advice from other campers, we took the eastern route, though Minden and up 159.
The camping pad was asphalt, pretty level, and very long. Crumbling at the edges but who cares? 50-amp power was excellent; water fine. The dump station was small but usable.
Our site 16 was in a little loop along with two other sites--it would be a good place to camp with friends. We had a view of the lake through trees with a mowed spot where you could easily access the lake for fishing or launching a kayak. (You'd get your feet wet, though)
The campground loop road is very narrow and had a few overhanging branches, but they were small enough to be ignored or ducked around.  I'd strongly advise printing out a campground map before you go--it wasn't all that hard to find our site, but it could have been easier with a map.3
I didn't try the restroom or showers.
Trails meander here and there through the camping area, boat ramp and spillway. At the tiny boat ramp there is a trail that crosses the spillway, goes over a bridge, then continues between the two lakes on a grassy bank. After that it goes up a nice, shady hill with lots of tall trees, but we didn't go that far. It would be worth going on to the end...where ever that is. I didn't have a map and never saw any sort of ranger station that might have had maps. But no matter, the trails were easy to follow.