We camped in a Tennessee State Park last year during Halloween and were surprised to find out that children trick-or-treating was a big deal there. We ended up going on an emergency run to the store to get Halloween candy after our camping neighbors warned us about that park's Halloween tradition. It was fun and made us think about being ready for little ghosts and goblins, or little Barbies and Darth Vaders this year, when camping in Rosie, our Airstream trailer, during Halloween.
Not wanting to be surprised by any Halloween traditions in Points West Army Resort FamCamp, we called ahead and asked if trick or treating was popular there. After a pause, the office person said she wasn’t aware of any trick-or-treating in the campground. We discovered she was correct. I’ll say more about this in a few moments.
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| Entrance to Points West Army FamCamp |
This was the third time we camped in this campground. During our first two visits, this was known as one of Fort Gordon's FamCamps. That changed during this visit. We were told while checking in that going to Fort Gordon later that week was a bad idea. That was because Fort Gordon's name was about to be officially changed to Fort Eisenhower. We were warned that the base would be full of people there for the name change. That wasn’t a problem because the base was 35 minutes away. That was too far for a run to the Commissary. In fact, we had never made it to “Fort What’s-Its-Name” yet during any of our previous visits to this campground.
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| The "office" where you need to check-in |
We noticed a change that wasn’t related to the Fort’s new name. This campground was always full during our previous visits. Not so this time. Our camping loop was maybe half full over the weekend. There were only five campers in our loop during the week. There were only three trailers there Halloween night, not counting the two camp host sites, and I’m not sure the hosts spent Halloween night there. It was obvious that Points West doesn’t have a Halloween tradition and I was glad we didn’t bring a big bag of candy with us.
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| Rosie in our Points West campsite |
Why was the campground relatively empty? Maybe the lake had something to do with it. It turns out that the Army Corps of Engineers releases water from the dams near the campground every fall. This is because of the rains that normally occur during the fall. Unfortunately, the rains didn’t happen this year leaving the lakes significantly lower than normal. The level was low enough that it was difficult to launch boats or to stand along the shore and fish. Besides, it was sad to see the lake levels so low.
What the campground had during our visit was weddings. There was a wedding in the campground's Conference Center on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We thought there was another wedding in a pavilion near our camping loop. I guess Halloween is a great time to get hitched.
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| The Confidence Course |
We had an idea about how to make weddings more entertaining at this park. They could place the bride and minister at the end of the confidence course. Three want-to-be grooms would run the course and the first one to reach the bride gets to marry her. Well, maybe that wasn’t a great idea and it may be too similar to some reality show currently on the air.
The main thing we enjoyed in this campground was riding out bikes. There are no bike paths, so we ended up on the roads. That wasn't a problem because the roads were not busy and most people driving on military property tended to observe speed limits and were careful. The roads were hilly and our Apple Watches recognized that we were strenuously exercising while riding our bikes there.
We brought our kayak paddles and life vests thinking that we could rent some type of watercraft there. The low lake level and the cold temperatures discouraged us from doing so.
We were amazed at the number of deer seen while riding our bikes in this park. We also saw deer while walking our dog in our camping loop during the evenings.
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| There were dozens of deer in this campground |
Here are some specifics about this campground:
- There were multiple loops in the campground
- Our site was a back in
- Our site did not have shade
- Our site was paved with grass and gravel. 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 power went out for a few minutes twice while camping in this park
- Our site had a water connection
- Our site had a sewer connection
- There were trash cans at every site in this campground
- There was a bathhouse in each loop of this campground. The bathhouse in our loop was not cleaned during our 10 day stay
- The park provided WiFi service at the office and convention center
- AT&T provided two bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite
- We were able to watch only ABC using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channel seen was ME-TV
- There were restaurants and shopping about 12 miles from the campground
- This was a pet friendly park
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| A pavilion that we enjoyed riding our bikes to while in this park |
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| Taking a break |
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| On another five mile bike ride |
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| Rosie at night |
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| Visiting the nearby dam |
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| Maybe accepting a ride at the Laurel and Hardy Museum wasn't a great idea |
