Sam Houston Jones State Park

I grew up going to Sam Houston, so I’ve seen the part over the last 45 years change, but stay the same fantastic park. After hurricane Laura destroyed over 90% of the trees and all of the facilities and trails, they had to rebuild the park and it just reopened after two years.

The facilities are fantastic. All of the RV sites have full hook ups and excellent concrete pads with brand new picnic tables, barbecue pits, and fire rings. Our site was slightly unlevel, but I believe that is on purpose because it allows the rain to run off the concrete. Like I said, 90% of the trees were destroyed, so the RV area, which used to be heavily wooded, has no trees. And they’re waiting for the grass to regrow so there’s quite a bit of dirt and mud around the RV sites. But, they did put in fresh sod immediately surrounding the sites so that you will be able to walk on grass around your pad.

The bathrooms are brand new and all of the trails have been re-opened.

If you don’t mind a back inside, I would recommend one of the sites at the very back of the RV park because those push up against a beautiful cypress swamp with some neat little Glamping tents.

The park was very quiet and everyone was very friendly. It’s a great spot for hiking, mountain biking, fishing, kayaking, and taking your boat out on the river. It’s truly at Louisiana gem,

We stayed here for 3 nights in Aug 2020. Hot, hot, hot but shady campsites.
The trail system is awesome for running, hiking and biking. The park is well maintained. Staff very helpful and friendly. Laundry facilities ($1.75 per machine) and the bathrooms were clean.
The campground area is quite small and at the weekend was pretty much full. The spots in the middle looked quite close together but the ones on the edges were better spaced.
We stayed in #35 which was great and quite private but I have my eye on # 33 next time!
We only paid $12.50 per night as we have a NPS card.

This park is old and needs some work, but we enjoyed the stay. We were there mid-February 2019 and stayed for a week. It rained almost the entire time we were there so didn’t get to explore as much as we would have liked. However, one day we were able to walk the trail beside the river which was very nice and well-maintained. The campground is small and for the weekend it was full. During the week there were very few campers. We were in spot #53 and I would highly recommend that spot. We only had one neighbor to one side, and it felt a bit more isolated than the others. When things are full on the weekends, it can seem a bit crowded with spots being close together. It never felt like to cramped for us because we had (IMO) one of the best spots in the campground. Some spots have full hook-up, while others are electricity and water only. Ours was electricity and water only. The dump station is nearby and if you need to dump with a tote you could easily do so. Most of the campground is not level, but nothing bad enough that you can’t get level with blocks. There is a very nice laundry room that is free. That was a great perk. There are 3 washers and 3 dryers. Several of the units seemed brand new. We took advantage of that and did some laundry during our stay. Like I said, it rained the entire time, so the site was muddy, but not as bad as we thought it would get. Internet access was good. We had 3-4 bars of AT&T and Verizon. Lake Charles and Sulphur are not far away and have anything you need while visiting. The park has some nice scenery and the trail provided some good wildlife. The main things they need to do to improve it would be fix some of the roads/camping spots that have significant potholes. Also, the camping spots could benefit from some grading to make them a bit more level. It is my understanding that the park has made vast improvements recently and it shows. Give it a bit more time and it will be a great place to stay. Overall, we would probably camp there again. Cost is $20/night during the week and $28/night on the weekend. These price are for off-peak season.

Ive grown up going to this park. Over the years I have watched it start to get neglected. Fortunately, funds have finally been allocated for improvements. With that being said, 2 years ago the park was in terrible shape. Grass up to your knees, so for those that have complained about the leaf blower, get over it! I for one am thankful that they are cutting the grass and blowing the sites. (by the way, when should they do the maintenance?)
There are deer (Maggie is friendly if you get the chance to see her) and other wildlife.
The hiking/biking trails are very good.
Overall a great park with friendly staff and campers.

Camped in campground II for 2 weekday nights. Both mornings woke up to very very loud leaf blowing machines operated by park staff. Continued on and off through the day. So annoying considering we are in an out of the way state park where we should enjoy peacefulness and serenity. Not so here. When we spoke to park attendant about it, our comments were sort of brushed off and we were told it was probably not going to occur on the second day. Not so. Workers with loud equipment started up just after 8 am and continued on. Otherwise, we enjoyed the nice trails, clean washrooms and campground II site layouts.