The last time we camped in a Georgia State Park, a reservation was nothing more than a hunting license to look for the best open campsite. Things have changed because your reserved site is now where you must park your camper.
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| Sign at entrance to the park |
Had we known that, we would have been more selective when we made our reservations. The East Rim camp sites are closer to the more popular trails. The West Rim sites are larger, but you need to drive to get to most trails. Our reservations were for the West Rim and that is where we had to park Rosie, our Airstream trailer.
We are not complaining because the old policy didn't make sense and late arrivals were always stuck with the least desirable sites. We know going forward to be careful when making reservations in Georgia State Parks.
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| Our site in the West Rim Camping Loop |
We felt better after driving through the East Rim Campground. Those sites were much closer to each other and those sites didn't have as much shade as the ones in the West Rim. Also, we felt we had a better area to walk our dog in the West Rim campground. Maybe the West Rim turned out to be a better choice during the COVID pandemic.
If you need to get a few supplies while camping here, there is a grocery store at the base of the hill. It takes about 15 minutes to get there and you have to go through two hairpin curves.
We expected the composure of the campground to change over the weekend. While we did see more children on bicycles, we were surprised at the increase in number of single people camping.
The big draws to this campground are the trails. There are multiple trails to waterfalls and into the canyon and some are highly rated by a national backpacker's magazine. It is easy to see why the trails in this park are favorites of many campers.
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| One of the park's trails |
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| The view from a trail |
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| The overlook trail |
Some of the trails in this park are steep and challenging. We decided to keep to the knee-friendly trails this time. We were surprised by the lack of other people on the trails. We shared the trails with multiple people the last time we camped in this park. We only saw one couple behind us for a short way on a trail this time.
Here are some specifics about this campground:
- There are two camping loops in this park
- Our site was a back-in
- Our site was gravel. We needed leveling tools to correct a slight side-to-side lean
- Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service
- Our site had a water connection. The documents from the park claimed the campground had high water pressure. We measured the pressure as 42 psi
- Our site did not have a sewer connection
- There were multiple gray water dump stations in the campground. The black water dump station was a significant distance from the West Rim campsites
- We could not find any WiFi service in this park
- AT&T provided two bars of 5Ge service for voice and data over our site
- We were able to watch ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, NBC and PBS using Rosie's TV antenna
- We were able to see Antenna, ME-TV, Bounce, COMET, Charge, GRIT and THiS digital TV channels
- There were several bath houses in the West Rim campground. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not check on their conditions
- This was a pet friendly park
We ended up leaving a few days early. Our neighbor from home called to let us know we had a jury summons in our mailbox and we were on deadline for turning in the accompanying questionnaire and paperwork. That took the wind out of our sails and we left to get home in time to turn in the documents required by the court. Now we are waiting to see if we will watch our local version of Perry Mason in action.
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| A waterfall |
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| A view from a trail |
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| Another waterfall |
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| The canyon |
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| A hummingbird in the canyon |
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| Rosie in our camping site |
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| Suzy gets to watch a work machine |
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| Selfie next to Rosie |
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| An interesting tree in the camping loop |
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