Long Branch Recreation Area

Melanie West

This was a beautiful COE campground located in a valley by the Caney River. Sites were gravel, large,long and level. Each site had picnic table, fire ring, lantern pole and charcoal grill. Our site #30 backed up to a creek that emptied into the Caney River. Bathrooms and dump station were readily available. Camp host was friendly and efficient. This park was clean but definitely needed to be mowed. Cell signal is minimal. Conveniently located a few miles from I-40. We will definitely return to this park when in the area

Tim Morris

Got here around 11am 10/1/21. Really nice campground close to Center Hill Lake and Dam. It’s really quiet so far and we are next to a running stream which is very relaxing. The only bad is the previous campers left their trash in the fire pit with a hazardous light bulb that has the mercury in it. Folks pack your trash out with you, don’t be lazy and expect someone to clean up after you.

James

We stayed 2 nights at Long Branch Recreation Area Campgrounds site 15 in a 36’ 5th wheel camper. Taking the exit off I-40 onto Hwy 96 I was appalled at all of the trees with branches hanging low over the road. At some sections Hwy 96 looks like a tunnel with all the low branches, which would be really nice if I was riding a motorcycle but not so much for pulling a tall camper. Hwy 141 that leads to the campground is little better. This was my last stop on 6k-mile trip and the worst site for low branches. The campground building/gate has a row of orange traffic cones that come straight out from it, perpendicular to the road. I thought it was odd that they had the cones placed like that. Now I understand why. If one has a long camper and doesn’t swing as wide as the available space allows they might strike the entrance building when entering. It’s probably happened several times so now they have the cones. It’s the same way exiting and if you look you can see where the fence on the right as you exit has been hit often. The campsites are long enough to accommodate long campers but they didn’t seem to have long campers in mind when they located the entrance building/gate. My site was $26 a night for water & electric and my Access Pass brought it down to $13 a night. The asphalt campground roads were in good shape and the tree branches above the road and in the campsites were mostly trimmed. The site had a gravel pad with plenty of room. There was a nice space between campsites. Our campsite was the cleanest of any site I’ve stayed at in a COE campground. Overall the entire campground was clean. There were 2 trash dumpsters, one at the far end of the campground and one on the entrance side, which is poorly placed as people often want to get rid of trash exiting the campground, not entering. The fire ring was clean and the grill was clean. The grill had several large holes in the bottom where it had rusted through. They usually rotate on the stand but I was afraid to turn it away from the wind when I was grilling as I thought the whole thing might tear off the stand because of the rust damage. It needs replacing. I had 1 bar of cell service with AT&T but I could still text, talk and check the weather most of the time. My wife’s Verizon phone fluctuated between no service and 1 bar but she could do nothing with it there. I couldn’t receive any OTA TV channels with my antenna. We were there over Memorial Day weekend and the campground was pretty full. Despite the crowd it was a quiet campground. Lots of people had canoes and kayaks and it seems there was a bit of fishing going on nearby too. I really liked the campground, one of the best COE campgrounds I’ve stayed in but I would not stay there again because of the low tree branches on the roads one has to travel to get there. For anyone who doesn’t have a tall camper, this is a great place.

Nobody Special

Wonderful campground except only 3 sites have FHU but all of the sites are level, gravel, and close to a shower room. This place is peaceful, is next to the river, has a playground for the kids, some of the sites back up to the river and have wonderful views. The campground has a dump station at the exit. The boat ramp is just around the corner and they have a fish cleaning station there.