Southeast U.S. Camping Blog

We are spending the week of spring break at the southern most part of the Georgia coast.

The park is located on the St. Mary’s Sound\the Crooked River and offers great views.  The most notable part of the park is the individual campsites.  The are large, flat, grassy and most are quite shady.  These camping sites remind me of Skidaway Island’s but larger and with a lot more grass and green plants.   While almost full, the park is really quiet at night.  I should also note that while the state has cut the budgets used to run and maintain these parks, the staff appears to go above and beyond to minimize visitor impact.

This is now one of our favorite Georgia State Parks to visit despite the six hour drive from North Atlanta.

So about the rest of our trip…

Day 1:

The Georgia State Parks are running a program whereby you take around 30 miles of Canoe trips in 6 specific state parks throughout the state.  The program is called the Park Paddlers Club and more info can be found here:

http://www.gastateparks.org/ParkPaddlers/

We decided to start our paddling journey at Stephen C. Foster State Park on the western side of the Okefenokee Swamp. The drive from Crooked River State Park to Stephen C. Foster State Park was about 2 hours. We took the 4 mile canoe trip through the swamp and observed a turn of the century swamp town and an abundance of wildlife like alligators both large and small.  Well worth the time in transit.

Day 2

We took a inter-coastal canoe trip where we rode low tide out to a sand bar then rode high tide back into shore from the sand bar…about 5 miles total.  Here we observed sea otters and dolphins.  It was a nice couple hour trip despite the strong winds that made paddling tough at times. This was also part of the Park Paddlers Club.

Day 3

We spent the day at Jekyll Island enjoying the beach and local food (especially local shrimp in the form of a low country boil for dinner).

Day 4

We planned to spend the day at Cumberland Island but found out that reservations two weeks in advance are required.  Maybe next time.

Day 5

Included some down-time and salt water fishing and a visit to the local Submarine Museum visit in downtown historic St. Mary’s.

Crooked River State Park: http://gastateparks.org/net/go/parks.aspx?LocationID=39&s=0.0.1.5

Overall Ratings (1-10)

Bathhouse Cleanliness -10

Campground Cleanliness - 10

Campsite -10

Roads - 10

Jeff, Michael, Dad and I spent a long weekend at Fort Mountain State Park with plans to hang out and fish.  Well, we did manage to get some fishing in (and actually caught some bass and brim) but the weather could not have been much worse.  It rained all 4 days and it was really cold.  Thankfully the camper has a heater where Dad and I slept but Michael and Jeff has some issues with their tent which started to leak the second night out.

As was the case with our first visit, we really enjoyed the visit to the park despite the rain.  The people in the nearby town of Chatsworth were very friendly and helpful.

Frank and Art spent a long weekend camping near Savannah at Skidaway Island while fishing the intercoastals and the ocean in Art’s new boat “Reel Nice”.

As is the case with almost all the Georgia State Parks, the facilities were very clean a the campsite very large. All in all the park is very well maintained.

Overall Ratings (1-10)

Bathhouse Cleanliness -10

Campground Cleanliness - 10

Campsite -10

Roads - 10

It is the beginning of fall and the weather could not be much better for camping here at High Falls State Park near Jackson, Georgia.  The campground is clean and the individual sites are level and large.

This trip the kids brought one friend each so we are are sleeping in the camper and one large tent.  We easy fit this equipment plus 2 trucks on the campsite.

There is so much to do here.  High Falls Lake offers opportunities to fish and boat (with a motor < 10 H.P.)  The lake is very large….about 600 acres and almost 2.5 miles end to end according to my GPS.   We put the canoe in the lake and enjoyed the great scenery.

On the other side of the historic High Falls Lake dam, a large creek feeds from the lake along site the campground.  The kids have had a blast playing there….fishing, playing on the rocks and playing in the water.

This particular weekend local volunteers created a civil war encampment in the park.  The demonstrated how soldiers lived 150 years ago while answering any questions offered up by observers.

Sorry there are no pictures posted…we forgot the  camera.

http://www.georgiastateparks.org/info/highfall/

Overall Ratings (1-10)

Bathhouse Cleanliness -8

Campground Cleanliness - 10

Campsite -10

Roads - 10

We spent the long Labor Day holiday weekend at McKaskey Creek campground. The park was clean and the people nice but the park was not as nice as some of the state parks in northern Georgia.

http://www.recreation.gov/camping/Mckaskey_Creek_Cg_Ga/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=71288

Overall Ratings (1-10)

Bathhouse Cleanliness -8

Campground Cleanliness -9

Campsite -8

Roads -9

Our second camping trip of 2008 was with the Ziller family (including Art and Lauren, Frank’s family, Stephanie and Jeff, Missy and Michael…and everyone’s dogs) at Fort Mountain State Park.

http://www.gastateparks.org/net/go/parks.aspx?LocationID=42&s=0.0.1.5

The views at the top of the mountain are incredible and as are most Georgia State Parks, the park was very clean.   The fishing was incredible in the morning and especially at night; mostly bass and brim.

On the way back to Atlanta we visited the Cheif Vann House Historic Site.

Overall Ratings (1-10)

Bathhouse Cleanliness - 9

Campground Cleanliness - 10

Campsite -9

Roads - 10

This is our first camping trip of 2008. We have visited Unicoi State Park in the past but this is the first time camping at the park. Here is a link to the Unicoi State Park web site:

http://gastateparks.org/net/go/parks.aspx?LocationID=98&s=0.0.1.5

While at the park we visited Anna Ruby Falls (http://www.fs.fed.us/conf/press/arf-hours.htm) to see the beautiful waterfalls.  Not far from Unicoi is another great federal park called Raven Cliffs.  Its about a 4 mile hike round trip to see the falls, but worth the time and effort.

The park has been very clean and the people friendly although the campsite are on the small side compared to other Georgia State Parks.

Before we return to Atlanta, we plan to visit Moccasin Creek State Park to see if we want to spend a few days there on a future trip.

Overall Ratings (1-10)

Bathhouse Cleanliness - 9

Campground Cleanliness - 10

Campsite -8

Roads - 10

We spent several days just outside of Atlanta at this park.  The camp sites were large and functional.  We picked a site a couple hundred feet from Lake Allatoona where we docked our canoe.  The fishing was great and the people very friendly.  As you might imagine the kids spent a lot of time in the water.

Overall Ratings (1-10)

Bathhouse Cleanliness - 9

Campground Cleanliness - 10

Campsite - 9

Roads - 10

What a great park tucked away in the Georgia State mountains.  We setup camp near a small creek in which the kids spent a good amount of their time.  The woods surrounding the park were beautiful and the lake and nearby waterfall are a must see.

Overall Ratings (1-10)

Bathhouse Cleanliness - 9

Campground Cleanliness - 10

Campsite -10

Roads - 10

Hart State Park offered many campsites on the water.  We managed to arrive in time to grab one upon arriving Friday evening.  This is is a great park to if you own a boat as there is plenty of water.  The fishing was great off the dock adjacent to our campsite.

Overall Ratings (1-10)

Bathhouse Cleanliness - 9

Campground Cleanliness -9

Campsite -10

Roads - 10