Turkey Bayou Campground

One of the best free campgrounds I have ever stayed at. Road in is 4.5 miles of gravel, but easily doable at 15 mph while towing. The campground has well defined gravel sites of varying size. Some can accommodate a full size class A. There are no amenities, but a porta potty is provided by the entrance. Sign says the contract for campground was extended until 2028.

After a 20 minute drive down a straight and mostly pothole free road, passing by a pavilion/ picnic and birdwatching area (with dumpster) we watched others fish.
We hunkered down for an intense thunderstorm, but the tether ball pole seemed to keep us safe! Plenty of spaces so there is distance between campers, though little privacy with a handful of trees. We did not get bit but massive horseflies!

Read papers on bulletin board about potential closure in the nearing year

Register on site! Paper notebook located in wood box at the bulletin board

Pulled in on a Wednesday. Not very busy. Pretty view of the lake/pond. No trash but there is o portable toilet. No water at the site but a local told me that when you leave the road to get in, turn right and go about half a mile. On the side of the road is an artesian well. You can fill containers there. It'll be on the left side of the road.
While you're there, drive to the Little Grand Canyon. The hike is great. First time I ever hiked up a waterfall.
Site 12 will give the most solar and you could fit 3 campers in it.

We arrived on Memorial Day and there were several campers there. By evening, all left except one tent camper and us. The road in was 4 miles of gravel, a little washboardy but not bad at all. The sounds at night are amazing, FROGS. Alot of locals drive through, and come for the weekends. All in all it was a nice place to relax. Would have stayed longer but was told a jeep club comes every year and gets pretty rowdy. Don't want any of that stuff, so we left before their weekend.

The campground had plenty of drive up spots, nicely wooded and some spots along a lake. Each spot had a fire ring and picnic table. We drove in at night. You do down a 4-mile gravel road. A bit bumpy, but not bad. We passed a field alight with fireflies. It was incredible. The sounds of nature surround you.

…Until someone runs their generator all night and all morning, as was the case with our stay. The weather was temperate, but they wanted their outdoor movie time and AC. That, and trash left at the campsite is the only reason for four stars.

Wonderful spacious sites directly at the lake or with more shade a little more away but still with lake view. Suitable for solar, but I doubt cell service is enough to work. We stayed here one night at a weekend and loved it. Had no issues to find a spot with our 30ft travel trailer any site would do it. Our site was super level the others looked the same.

Tl;dr: 5 mile gravel road in the way in, level sites, super spotty AT&T service, super quiet, clean, and pretty!

We pulled in at 8:30pm on a Saturday night and had no issue finding a site. We pulled into site 2 with no need to level out. We had a picnic table, a fire rings, and we’re pretty close to the one porta-potty.

We had really spotty 5G extended service while we walked around but in our bus we had no service. If you need to send texts, you’ll have to walk around and find your signal, shoot off your messages, and return to your site (unless you park in one of the more open sites not covered by trees).

The 5 miles gravel road gave us no trouble but since we have a decently heavy converted short bus, we took it extra slow just to be safe. There were some deeper ruts and light washbording but we had enough room on the road to navigate around and avoid them as best we could. There were a handful of fifth wheels, another short bus, and a couple of tent campers when we pulled in. Everyone was super quiet, minding their business, and totally not interested in us. It was perfect.

When we woke up in the morning we were pleasantly surprised to find that we were surrounded with lots of greenery, goldenrod, and access to a pond/lake. A group was already up and fishing when we took our dogs for a walk.

If we were driving through this area again, we’d stay here again! It’s great for an overnight and I can imagine lovely for a weekend especially if you like minding your business and fishing

We didn’t actually stay AT Turkey Bayou, because there was no cell reception (T-Mobile) and we needed it.

But the place is beautiful and we would have stayed for sure!

Instead, we drove up north along a gravel road that we saw back on the road into Turkey Bayou and then drove down into a grassy area to park for the night... and got stuck!

This was not normal mud- it’s very sticky and clay-like, and quickly filled all of our mud tyre treads so it was like driving bald. We knew we couldn’t get out without a tow, so networked around and the local sheriff showed up in the early morning with his truck and pulled us out!

If you go, Turkey Bayou is great, but don’t go off road EVEN if you have 4wd and off roading abilities!! Stay on the gravel roads and avoid muddy areas at all costs!