Bonnet Carre Spillway Campground

My husband and I stayed here a week in late January 2024. It was a rainy week, and we were glad to have site #8 which is slightly higher than the rest. While we were the only ones camping full-time, the park gets many visitors during daytime hours. It’s a great spot for birding, fishing, boating, and long walks. For those on mountain bikes, there’s an 8-mile loop. For road biking and other, the MS River levee is two miles away, and you can cycle to the Audubon Zoo. It’s a rigamarole to get the permit since the local parish, not the park rangers, issue the permit. The cost is $10 per night; no hookups. The lights at night are garish. Noise from the train and Airline Highway are acceptable.

Our December stay was wonderful. We stayed for 5 days so we could explore New Orleans (30 minutes away from this locations) and Baton Rouge (50 minutes from this location) so it was perfect. I filled out the online reservation permit and no email, call, or person ever contacted us to pay the $10 a night fee. So it was free for us. We unhooked our travel trailer for the full time and left it there each day while we explored and never had any issues. No theft at all with rug left outside while we were away so I feel like it is a safe area. It is close enough to the road so at night you can hear some traffic but it isn’t bad at all. Very pretty little camping area. It rained one night and we had no issues of our camper getting stuck or excessive mud, which was concerning because of other reviews. We were in site #8. Utilized the fishing dock which was fun for my two young boys. There is a bathroom but we didn’t use it but seemed newer and nice. Mosquitoes are crazy at night so be prepared and bring spray!

Used to be great when it was free - when they mentioned they were going to start charging I asked if they were going to add any amenities … but no.

For free I can look past the factory smoke, the heavy winds, loud airplanes, people coming late at night, no facilities etc. but for $10 a day all it has is a bathroom that many spots you have to drive to. No water, not even a spigot. It’s close in location to New Orleans, but that’s about it

We arrived at night, around 11pm and camped by the lake (spot 12) for one night in a tent. There was no body around but the area is very clean and safe. Mosquitos were wild but I get it, there’s a lake. We paid 10$ for the permit as they have changed their policies and it is no longer free. You get noise from the highway but wasn’t a big deal.

Not bad for tent camping. if you have a kayak there’s a canal nearby with fish but it’s right next to the freeway so it’s not the best paddle. lots of people come everyday and it was so humid my body heat made the interior of my tent wet and the storms were pretty serious. lots of locals come by daily so if you’re ever looking for a chat there’s plenty of people around. there’s little to no privacy and the trails around are fairly urban but for free it’s an easy stay. I was there for 5 days and i only packed up because i’d fully exhausted the area and a big storm came in.

What a nightmare to reserve this place! I highly recommend you get a reservation well in advance. These guys are very hard to get ahold of, even after several emails and voicemails. You have to somehow catch them when they're in office.
As other reviewers have said, spots 1-5 are no good for RVs. The best spots are 6-9.
10-15 are okay too but not very nice.
Some spots are missing trash cans, some are missing picnic tables.
The road noise is really loud and kept us up each night.
Good luck.

This is the spillway where we got stuck in the mud. Avoid site 9 if it's rainy and you are heavy. You'll end up stuck too. After about an hour or two, we finally were able to pull out of it. Once we finally got out of it, we parked near spot 6 where there was more gravel than mud and spent the week there.

The park ranger had driven by and told us that it wasn’t that uncommon to get stuck out there. He offered to help pull us out the next day, but we gave it one more go and were able to finally make it.

If you’re going to make a reservation for Bonnet Carre, the only one I would recommend is site 6 or really just near the road... more gravel there. The ranger said he didn’t really care where we parked as long as we weren't blocking others.

This is dry camping, no hookups, so come prepared with water and empty gray and black tanks. The only place we found in the area to fill our tank was at a nearby RV park and water was not cheap.

Starlink was 35 down 10 up. Our Verizon phones had 4 bars. AT&T and Verizon on the cell antenna were both at 5 bars.

This was a little gem! Stayed several days while visiting NO. Beautiful park and fishing area with about 15 sites. Picnic tables and trash cans at each site - small plaza about ten min away with market - drugstore - etc. Felt completely safe - easy 30 min drive to city for sight seeing. This was a great find in an area without many other decent camping options! Other reviewers are right about the mud - heavy rains the night before so was muddy when we arrived - but our site was ok. Rest of time sunny and dry so site totally dry within a day or two. Would avoid sites 1-6 if rain in forecast. Reviewers also right about noise - sounds like a jet taking off - and heard trains with horns off in the distance. Mostly in eve when sound travels - still able to get decent sleep. No problem communicating via email to get approval - responded within a day or so. Great spot - Enjoy!!!