Out first thought was that the campground was about to be renovated, but that didn’t explain why they confirmed our reservations only to cancel them later. Then we started seeing people comment on several online forums that their reservations at other COE campgrounds in Georgia were also canceled. Our questions were answered when we saw a news story saying multiple COE campgrounds were closed because there were not enough volunteers to keep them open. How sad!
Only a handful of sites were available when we made our reservations at Duckett Mill. When it closed, we knew that more than 100 displaced campers would be hunting for sites in any open campgrounds in the area. We also knew we were fortunate when we succeeded in getting a site in Shady Grove Campground for Rosie, our Airstream trailer.
We called some friends who live in the area and told them about our change in plans. Our friends said they loved Shady Grove, but some sites would be tight for a travel trailer. We were happy to hear back from them saying they drove out to the park and confirmed our assigned site was level.
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| Stopped on the road to the park because a tree fell and pulled down power lines |
We almost made it to the campground when we saw the road was blocked by a utilities truck and a truck from the park. A tree had fallen over blocking the road. It also brought down several power lines that served the campground. We waited about an hour for the crew to remove the tree and reconnect the power lines.
One of the first things we noticed once the road was cleared was that Shady Grove has the look and feel of a COE park. We found out that this campground was built by the Engineers and leased to the county.
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| Sign at the entrance to the campground |
We understood what our friends said about some sites as we drove to our site. Some sites had steep access angles that would have been difficult for Rosie. Our site was a pull-through. By the way, we enjoyed meeting and catching up with our friends at a nearby restaurant.
Shady Grove was an accurate name for that campground. There were tall shade trees throughout.
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| Our site |
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| Rosie parked in our site |
The campground could have been named Deer Grove. It seemed that we frequently saw three or four deer near Rosie while in the park. We saw deer in the mornings, afternoons and evenings. This park may hold the record for the most deer seen while camping.
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| Deer were everywhere in this park |
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| Deer were very close to Rosie's site |
We were also amazed at the number of song birds in this park. We constantly heard birds as we walked around the campground. That was a welcome sound.
Speaking of birds, we had a surprise while camping there. We locked our bikes to the picnic table then placed a tarp over them to help protect them from the weather. We didn’t ride our bikes in that park because it was too hilly. I was surprised when I removed the tarp while loading up to leave the campground to discover that a bird had flown up under the tarp and was building a nest on Becky’s bike. We carefully moved the nest to another location before we loaded the bikes on their carrier.
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| A bird nest built in a day on Becky's bike |
For a campground picked as a last minute replacement for a closed park, we were pleasantly surprised at how nice this campground turned out to be.
Here are some specifics about this campground:
- There were multiple loops in the campground
- Our site was a pull-through
- Our site had shade
- Most sites had plenty of space on both sides
- Our site was paved with asphalt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie
- Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service
- Our site had a water connection
- There was a dump station in this park
- The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground and near the boat launch
- There were multiple bathhouses in the campground. The bathhouse nearest Rosie was clean and maintained
- The park did not provide WiFi service
- AT&T provided 2 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite
- Rosie’s TV sets found more than 80 digital stations.
- There were restaurants and shopping nearby
- This was a pet friendly park
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| One of the camping loop roads |
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| The lake |
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| Selfie in the campground |
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| Becky and Suzy in the campground |
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