We departed Stockton, Alabama on I-65 and heading west and crossed over the Tensaw River where our last night’s campground was located. We then continued on to Mississippi to the city of Hattiesburg (population around 50,000) which is home to the University of Southern Mississippi (USM). Camp Shelby is located in Hattisburg and is the location of the a military training site for both reserve and active components of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. The Mississippi Armed Forces Museum is also located there.
The Paul B. Johnson State Park is located across from the entrances to Camp Shelby and sits on the shores of Geiger Lake. The park is named after the 46th governor of Mississippi.
Campground: Paul B Johnson State Park
Location: Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Site: 16 (waterfront & back-in)
Cost: $34.24
Services: FHU
Comments: A lovely state park and we had a great waterfront site with terrific views.
The state park is somewhat large and has a number of picnic pavilions and picnic areas along with 3 separate campground loops. Geiger Lake is a fresh water lake just over 262 acres in size and offers fishing (known for its crappie) and recreational boating.
We had a number of ducks in our site looking/begging for hand-outs and also saw a few squirrels, white pelicans, turtles, and egrets. AND we had quite a number of geese in the area that were honking at night, in the middle of the night, in the morning, etc. They seemed to be yelling and threatening the ducks. It took us a while to figure out what was going on outside until we remembered, oh yeah, the geese!!!
Our site provided a beautiful location to watch the steam lift off the lake in the morning and the sun to rise. Beautiful!
As usual, we wish we could have spent more time here!
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