Montgomery Bell State Park Campground

This is some rowdy place, you get in here at night and it’s like a zoo - there are kids running around screaming, dogs barking, stuff everywhere. I don’t understand this place at all. The driveway is not marked and is very narrow. I wasn’t sure I could get through with my truck & 22’ trailer. It’s just like it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. I don’t understand why anybody would build a huge State park like this and have a campground the size of a postage stamp. I mean, the sites are super close. This place is like a carnival or a 3 ring circus. I was there last October, but wanted to wait a little before I posted about it. Time has not made my heart grow fonder towards this place.

The Park Rangers were very helpful and always there to help out. Bathrooms and showers get serviced 3 times a day. Peaceful and quiet. I stayed from Dec 23 to December 30th. 26 minutes from downtown Nashville. Trails are marked and great!

Perfectly leveled and clean sites. 30 and 50 amp hookups water and sewer on site. 107 is a corner spot, so easy access for small pull trailers.

We stayed here in mid-October. The park’s website says to use Google Maps, which we did with no issues getting to the state park area. We had never been here before, and the signage coming into the park concerning the campground (CG) was a little confusing, but we made it to the check-in office. Check-in was quick and the narrow passage into the CG where we were directed to go looked more like a wide walking path, but we were assured: “people drive big rigs in every day.” We made it on the narrow road through the trees, through the tent area, and around a somewhat sharp curve to get to back-in site 93 with 50/30/20 AMP and water. The back-in was a little interesting as we had to pull forward on the road to the left that goes to the bathhouse to get straight on our site and then back in. We tried the traditional back-in, but because of the immediate curve to the right after site 93, there was no way to pull forward on the main road and back-in. Plus there were too many trees, etc., to swing, and there was a tent site in the way. As with other State Parks we’ve stayed in, the pad length was a little shorter than advertised, but we got our 39’ 5th wheel and F450 on the site. A creek runs through the backside of the CG which made for a nice view off the back of our site. We were at the transition point to the mix of electric/water and FHU sites that also back up to the creek. We got 3 bars on Verizon and 2 bars on T-mobile. Satellite would not be a viable option with all the trees in this CG. There were three bathhouses with one having laundry. We decided to stay here as this state park has a golf course. Montgomery Bell is a large state park, and we did not make it to the golf course due to the weather plus we were only staying one night. With this CG being on the edge of big rig-friendly and windy roads to get here, it would be questionable whether we’d stay here again.

Stayed here while driving/hauling the entire Natchez Trace Parkway.

PROS
Beautiful park
Site 116 backed right up to small creek
Super friendly squirrels who ate from our hand
Clean toilet/shower facility with ample supply of TP
Gravel site with wooden picnic table and small metal campfire ring with cooking grate Campfire wood for sale by camp host
Nice restaurant at Park Lodge which was open Thursday-Sunday only
2 bar signal T-MOBILE Free 200 MB or 3 days( whichever comes first) WIFI with login from park visitor center

Dickson is closest Kroger, Lowe’s, Tractor Supply, Walmart

CONS
$5 fee assessed to make my own on-line reservation
NO senior or veteran discount
Campsites are EXTREMELY packed together, we've had more room in some private RV Parks! Some sites have the neighbor's trailer slide out against their picnic table. Just doesn't make sense that this campground is slammed together when there are acres and acres of land here
Very narrow roadway through campground
Very tight maneuvering to back into site
No privacy from any other campsite
Not dark sky friendly due to huge street lights at all 3 toilet/shower facilities
Site 116 not level side to side
Most campsite trees bare by Halloween


Beautiful State Park with lots of things to do to stay busy or relax by the beautiful stream. We pulled in to use the dump station and ended up booking 2 nights last minute. Sites are close together but that didn’t bother us. We stayed in a site with electric and water only. We will stop by the dump station on the way out. Received senior discount so with tax, just $25/night. Will stay again if in the area Friendly and helpful at check in.

We arrived on Memorial Day around 4:00, and it was busy, but no one in the way, just lots of people enjoying their camping experience. Beautiful location in a deep lush forest with paved roads and level gravel sites. Our campsite was perfectly level gravel and backed up to a serene babbling brook. Campground was quiet by dark and quiet in the morning. If you can come off 70, do so, much shorter, straighter, easier route to the campground. Otherwise, coming from the entrance on 47 is more winding on tight roads with deep gutters just off the pavement. The spread of check out at noon, checkin at 4:00 is a bit extreme, since the ranger updated the site reservation tags at 9am, and they were cleaning bathrooms at the same time, not sure why they need 4 hours for turnover.