Chickasaw State Park, Henderson, TN

Continuing our return trip to our home we left Willow Beach a bit late, but only had a 3 1/2 hour drive to our next stop. We took a long lunch break at a Tennessee rest stop east of Memphis and then left I-40 to drive into Chickasaw State Park. Mistake number 1: it was too far off our route so we wasted about 2 hours getting there and then back onto I-40. Mistake number 2: we did not check out this campground very well.

The first red flag was that there was no attendant. No one to check in with, no one to get a campground map from or the wifi code (yes, there was wifi; no we could not use it). Even the campground host was absent. So we walked the loop to find our site; it already had our reservation tag on it, so we were expected. Then we drove in - talk about tense. The hills and curves were extreme and even though the trees were trimmed back, they were a bit close to the road. There were deep gullies along the road edge and the roads were badly beaten up. This campground was in serious disrepair. No one had cleaned debris off the pads (they were paved at least), and the picnic tables were filthy. The bathhouses were old and outdated; but functional.

Our site was on an incline such that our auto-levelers would not get it right. So we blocked up the front to get a bit more level; left the large slide in and used only our small bedroom slide. It was tight inside but it was just for the one night. We survived.

Moral of this story: use whatever tools are available to carefully check out the campground and get a feel for how it's laid out. Too many trees might be a problem and lots of tight curves might preclude larger vehicles. I can't imagine a 45-footer navigating that road. 

Chickasaw won our vote for "worst of the trip"; and at $32/night, was not a good value. We would not recommend this place except for the shortest of camper vehicles and trailers and then be prepared for a more primitive woodsy environment. To its credit, it was a pretty place if you like lots of trees and hills. Campsites were spacious, but full of gullies, pits, and washes. A heavy rain would make things quite unpleasant. There are better choices closer to the Interstate.