Outlet Channel Day Use

Outlet Channel Day Use Area sits along Arkabutla Lake and Dam in the hills of northwest Mississippi. The dam project is on the Coldwater River and offers some of the best sailing east of the Mississippi River. The Outlet Channel has individual picnic sites and a group picnic shelter, a newly constructed playground, fishing at the outlet channel, a tent camping area, and access to the Swinging Bridge Nature Trail and the Coldwater Trail system. The pavilion is situated on the riverfront, among rolling hills forested with a shady mixture of oak, hickory, beech, sweet gum and birch trees. Families come to Arkabutla Lake to enjoy the great outdoors by fishing, boating, swimming, hiking and biking. The Coldwater River Nature Trail System encompasses two hiking trails as well as an interpretive trail that helps educate hikers on the wildlife and ecosystem. The Swinging Bridge Nature Trail is also nearby, and includes a section of land that was part of the river prior to the dam being built; it too is an interpretive educational trail. Thousands of people each year visit Arkabutla Lake to go fishing, for native species such as largemouth bass, bream, catfish and crappie. Wildlife management areas around the lake boast a combined 30,000 acres of public hunting lands where whitetail deer, wild turkeys, quail and waterfowl roam.