sam houston jones state park

We are on an extended trip to tour the southern part of our great country! We came upon this park from trip advisor contributors. Thank you all! Even though it is the middle of February we are able to take short hikes on well marked trails, see plenty ago wild life, and then go back to a very clean quiet campground with electric and water hook ups and a dump station close! Yesterday we went on a day trip to the gulf via a ferry ride ! We jeeped on the beach in the afternoon and then gambled in the beautiful casinos on Lake charles in the evening! Beautiful clean, close drive to cool things! Next stop, Farr equestrian center and rv park. Central place (we hope) to tour plantations!

The park personnel and the park itself are always a great to us when we stay! The park is located deep in the woods yet very close to shopping and anything you may need. We stayed for a week while traveling with our 5th wheel camper. There are two loops and the first one you come to when you enter is developed with both sites with full hook-ups and sites with just electric and water. The second loop is somewhat developed but a bit more rustic, there are also tent sites on this loop. We use Reserve America which lets us look at the sites and try to get one of the two pull-thrus as we are pretty long (40 ft camper) and some of the interior sites are too small for us to maneuver. Great hiking trails along the water many picnic tables, lots of birds and things to see. If you are into Casinos there are several in a ten mile radius. One is about 2-3 miles from the park.

Excellent place to hang out in a cabin. It's very quiet. 2 parks for the kids to play. Cabin has coffee pot, pots and pans (bring PAM), has fire pit , no bbq pit, plates, coffee cups and dining ware. They provide bath towels, dish towels, bed linens, washcloths, toilet paper, microwave, refridge and freezer, oven and stove. In my research I found it difficult to see what they provide and don't provide..so,I hope you find this useful. Fat racoons around the property too!!! Great screened porches and chairs ! :-)

We had our family get-together here for the second straight year. This time we had Cabins 8, 9, and 11. See our prior review from December 2013 as most of the info in that at one still applies. I'll add a few new photos though. Cabins are identical and good for 2 adults and up to 4 kids. The main bedroom has double bed. Smaller bedroom has 4 small bunk beds with very little extra space.....essentially just a good place for the kids to sleep as there is no room to do anything else. The water heaters worked fine this time. We spent a lot of time on the small screened porch as it was a bit rainy during our stay. Kitchen has an oven and small microwave. It's stocked with the basics...plates, silverware, some pots/pans. We wished we had brought cookie sheet and scrubber to wash dishes. Bedrooms have sheets, blankets, and pillows. If you're looking to go out for dinner, we recommend Steamboat Bills on I-10 by the bridge. We didn't use it, but there is a nice frisbee golf course in the park. There are lots of picnic tables with grills near the playground.

Rented a cabin for one night for $85. First impression the cabin looks nice, it's cozy. We arrived at four in the afternoon and ate dinner at six. I found a sunflower seed shell in the cabinet where the plates and glasses are stored. After cleaning up from dinner, we saw our first roach at about seven o'clock coming out from under the kitchen sink. The next roach was on the counter at about 7:30pm. My wife saw four, I saw four, my son saw two in the course of one night! ALL our food was kept in the fridge or our cooler. We couldn't get out fast enough in the morning. Underneath the beds were FILTHY! A line of dust and crud could easily be seen from months of neglecting to sweep or mop under the beds and just getting the walkway. I found a dirty sock when I was making the bunk bed for my son. The biggest disappointment was in the morning checking out. The "manager" I talked to was interested in nothing but justifying how she "sprayed the entire cabin and there shouldn't be any roaches." Well I agree that there SHOULDN'T be roaches, but they were definitely there. I told her about the lack of cleanliness and she proceeded to tell me how well she checked after every guest. I don't buy that line for a second. Disgusting, she seemed at a loss of how to fix the problem, it's called fumigation or hire a professional! The most the manager would say is, "I'm sorry you had such a bad experience." It would have been a great experience if she would have done her job. The girl at the counter when she called the manager asked if that was the cabin they had "been having the roach problems in." So they knew it was a problem and didn't bother to properly fix it before letting someone stay there! She didn't even bother to offer a partial refund, I would have been so ashamed I would have comped the night, not just apologize for the nasty state of the place in a way that said "I'm sorry you had a bad enough experience to complain." Yeah I don't do nasty little German cockroaches for $85 a night! Wish I could have left a glowing review, but the reaction in the morning by the manager solidified a bad experience.

We really enjoyed the peace and quiet that we experienced during our two-night stay at Sam Houston Jones State Park. This jewel of Southern Louisiana is a beautiful place with tall pine trees, sand, and many other qualities that make it a great place to spend a night or an entire vacation.

A very small and beautiful park tucked in by the river. Friendly staff and lots of deer. Nice trails and camp site area with clean bath house and showers. Hard to believe you are only minuets from Lake Charles!

I was a day visitor. We didn't stay over night.For a day visit the price is very reasonable at $2 per person.You drive or walk round the park. There is plenty of parking all the way round.There are plenty of picnic tables and the bathrooms are very clean.It was very good weather for the day we went.The views are amazing.The time of year was wrong for seeing the alligators but I did see plenty of other wildlife, including a red headed wood pecker.I spent all day here just sitting and relaxing and watching the wildlife run round me. It's probably the most peaceful day I've ever had.The wardens drive round regularly and if your next to the road they will stop, check you are ok, and they are happy to chat about the park.I didn't find anywhere to buy drinks or food, so if you want it, bring it. (There could be a shop but I didn't see it)

Recently visited park to spend the afternoon and see what the park had to offer as we'd never been before. We were not given a park map at the entrance. I downloaded a PDF of the park map from the Louisiana State Park website on my phone (limited signal strength, by the way), but found it to be extremely unhelpful. The map only denotes the campsite numbers, boat launch, and other landmarks (bathrooms, playground) using symbols. This was hard to navigate on a phone. Nothing was labeled in words on the map, not even the road, and none of the walking trails were labeled on the map (they are denoted by a dashed line and a symbol of a man hiking). The map depicts 2 trails, the website notes 4 trails, but we could only find 3 trail heads, and 1 of the trail heads was for a trail not listed on the website. We drove around the park 2 times to figure out which trails were which and to just get our bearings. It's a short loop around, but a detailed map and some description of the trails would've been so nice.We noticed a lot of garbage on the trails and in the water. We did see an alligator. I was rather underwhelmed by the park and have no intentions of ever returning (been there, done that). It looks like a nice place to have a picnic and let the kids play on the playground, but for $2/pp, I'm sure there are other places with picnic tables and playgrounds that a family could enjoy. Perhaps the park is best enjoyed by boat?

We camped in a motor home in Section 2. Most sites were good, some needed some asphalt, but still useable. Most sites are close together. Beautiful old trees gave most sites shade. Bathrooms were updated and clean. Free laundry facility was nice. Lots of hiking trails, but we did not do any. Not many sewer sites. Would definetly go again.

We stayed in Camp area 2 in the back near the tree line. Saw up to 6 deer each evening - one even came so close I could almost touch it. The area was very shady. One drawback - not all camping sites have sewer hookups so check that carefully upon registration. Several trails to walk - all beautiful. The park rangers do a great job on keeping the area clean and they are serious about the noise limits so it is very peaceful. There is a nice playground area inside camp area 2 and multiple picnic tables throughout the park. Bathroom/shower facilities are more than adequate. Free laundry facility as well.

Camped here for 1 night with a group of friends whilst on our way from New Orleans to Texas. Beautiful park, but be careful of the racoons!! We cooked our tea and within minutes we were surrounded by about 10/15 racoons! They can be quite vicious and it was pitch black so as you can imagine we were all quite nervous, also make sure you do up your tents as securely as possible! Two racoons unzipped our tents and took out people's passports, gum anything they could find! Safe to say we had a sleepless night ;) but it was all fun and games and added to the experience! We were camped right next to a swamp also, and by the next morning I was covered in mosquito bites so make sure you pack your spray!!! All in all, was a nice park!

There is tons to do here, including hiking, fishing, camping, biking and playing. The deer park is always a favorite and there is a nice pavilion for large gatherings. The cabins are on the river and are nice places to spend a weekend or a week. The staff is friendly and helpful. This is a great place to stay when visiting the area if you like nature and prefer some time away from crowds and traffic. It's a short drive into town to get to other attractions. The boat launch allows visitors to access the river and then the lake for fishing, waterspouts and pleasure boating.

The playground for the kids was small, and in winter time there just is not much to see. There are free roaming deer in the park, who are not to scared around people. There is water front areas if you like fresh water fishing.

The park boasts a beautiful cypress lake on the river. It has tree shaded sites and friendly campers. We love it!