Tunica Hills WMA Campground

**There is a tent-only, primitive camping area off of Parker Road on the South Tract.** Tunica Hills WMA is composed of two separate tracts. The North Tract (2,346 acres) is immediately adjacent to the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The South Tract (4,156 acres) is off Old Tunica Road, which is part of the scenic Natchez Trace System and has been used for travel since colonial times. The WMA’s terrain is characterized by rugged hills, bluffs, and ravines. The area lies at the southern end of the “loess blufflands” escarpment that follows the east bank of the Mississippi River south from its confluence with the Ohio River. These blufflands offer a diverse and unique habitat that supports some species of plants and animals not found elsewhere in Louisiana. The forest on the area is classified as upland hardwood, with some loblolly pine and eastern red cedar mixed in on the ridge tops and creek terraces. Hardwoods include American beech; American holly; flowering magnolia; cherrybark, water, and cow oak; hickory; sweetgum; Osage orange; hackberry; eastern hophornbeam; ironwood; yellow poplar; elm; and maple. The understory varies from dense in younger areas of timber to fairly open in older areas. Common understory species are oak leaf hydrangea, two-winged silverbell, trifoliate orange, pawpaw, flowering dogwood, sweetleaf, spicebush, blackberry, and switchcane. At least 20 species of plants classified as rare in Louisiana are found on this area; two of these species have not been found anywhere else in the state.