There are typical RV parks and resorts, and then there is Indian Point RV Resort which takes eclectic to new heights. It is an RV park brimming with “personality” both the kind that is endearing and the kind that is a bit scary.

Nights: 2
RV Park Cost: $58 ($29/night)
Discounts Used: Good Sam
Address: 1600 Indian Point Parkway  Gautier, Mississippi 39553
GPS: 30.406437, -88.634818
Website: www.indianpt.com

Pros

• Inexpensive
• Wilderness setting
• Boat dock and launch
• Wide range of amenities

Cons

• Dirty facilities
• Wildly uneven quality of parking spaces

Our parking spot at Indian Point was just about the best in the park in terms of its condition.

The Details

Indian Point is an RV park that is clearly a bit past it’s prime. It is clear a lot of love and personality went into creating and expanding the park, but less has been lavished on keeping it up and keeping it clean over the years. I took more pictures here than any other park I’ve visited because there was so much to look at. It is a large park and everywhere you turn there is something curious and surprising.

The parking pads here have clearly been installed in stages over the years. As a result, they vary wildly. We had a nice individual concrete pad that was up on a little hill with a relatively new 50amp hookup. In other areas, folks were parked on large shared concrete pads. In yet others, they were on gravel pads. And way in the pack of the park, they seem to have foregone pads altogether and campers are parked willy nilly on lawns and embankments. Some spots are large, some are small and utilities range from full hookups to none.

There is a large mini-golf course here. It has outdoor lighting (some of which works), this native themed statue, and an odd fountain.

It was clear that in the back portions of the park there were many long term residents who had set up elaborate campgrounds around their RV. These were the older and less developed areas of the park and the roads were partly washed out and very narrow. Up front, the roadways were larger and in better shape and the equipment newer. Here you would find newer RVs and likely shorter term tenants such as ourselves. Likewise, the cabins here ranged from new and shiny to old and grungy. It wasn’t clear which ones were still in use and which were simply abandoned to the Bayou forest.

Indian point is located directly on the Mississippi Bayou. Swampy woodland surrounds most of the park, but the back half runs down into the reedy wetlands where they have a full dock as well as multiple boat launches. Because of its setting, there was a bounty of wildlife in and around the park. Fishing is allowed in the Bayou both by boat and from the docks. Wandering around I found a nice Gazeebo to sit in and watch for birds including egrets, ducks, and woodpeckers. Squirrels were also abundant and fun to watch.

This was a cool spot to watch the wildlife of the Bayou from. Bring some insect repellent, they have biting gnats here.

The park has many amenities, but often they are not well kept. The bathrooms are pretty funky with the women’s having cracks in the walls. The laundry appears to have been dusted sometime last century. While we waited for the laundry I discovered a family of silverfish living inside one of the Laundry Rules signs. We had to clean out the machines before using them as they were full of lint and other nastiness. There are two pools, one of which appeared to be maintained, the other had a lot of debris in it. There is a large meeting hall, a lodge, the boat docks, a mini golf course, an RV storage lot, a restaurant that serves breakfast, and various oddities like the Jimmy Shack. The wireless internet was too weak to use at our parking station.

No doubt there is a story about Jimmy’s Shack, but we were not here long enough to find out. Inside I found a couch and an old TV playing NBC News.

I can see how folks could really like Indian Point for its natural setting, personality, and low price. I can also see many people who like clean and orderly RV parks hating it. For my part, I was glad to have had the chance to explore it but was happy to be moving on after a short stay. The price is quite decent, but a little elbow grease on the part of the owners would go a long way to improving the experience. If you travel with a boat of some kind, then this park could be a real gem for exploring the coastal Bayou.

If you have a boat, Indian point can be the gateway to all kinds of aquatic adventures.