Best Equestrian Camping near J. Strom Thurmond Lake

Bussey Point is primarily for equestrians. The campsites have pre-installed horse hitches and plenty of room to move a horse trailer. The sites have a picnic table and a fire pit. The campground has a well for water and an open pit latrine. There's no power which is perfect for camping off grid away from all the trailers.

The campsites are right on the water and the view is beautiful. Over the weekend I was the only one here and the only person I spoke to was the volunteer Camp Ranger from the US Army Corps of Engineers.

There is a 12-mile horse trail that goes out on the peninsula and some pack-in or canoe-in campsites out on the peninsula.

Fee per night is on an honor system at $10. I have no complaints about this campsite only about the other campers that leave their trash behind.

I recommend this campground if you're looking to get away from all the people especially the crowds at the more popular campsites at the state parks, and if you're fine with more primitive camping that doesn't involve daily showers.

Large, well maintained sites. We stayed on 17 and it was very private. We hiked from the campground to Lake Buncombe and also hiked from Sunset Drive trail to Lake Liberty and the office. Equestrian trails are closed to hiking during the weekend. Equestrian campground has a new stable and bathhouse and a campground that is under construction now. The old equestrian campground and stable are still there. The cabins on Federal Lake just reopened after getting new flooring. All of the rangers were friendly and helpful. We did the A. H. Stephens museum tour and that was very nicely done. We did a day trip to Greensboro and walked the shops and went to Oconee Brewery. Everyone was raving about Yesterday Cafe so on our next visit Lucy May have to stay back at the camper. We will definitely return in warmer weather for canoeing and a trip to Warrenton which is close by.

Very nice quiet park with a small campground (21 sites, all with electric and water). The sites are shaded, and flat with a gravel drive and tent pad. We hadn’t planned on staying here but were pleasantly surprised to find a few vacancies on the first Saturday in November. There is also an equestrian campground located several miles from the main campground. The main feature is a covered bridge, the longest one in Georgia, that is located ¾ of a mile from the campground (an easy walk). 

A nice perk was laundry facilities outside the restrooms. The restrooms were very clean. 

There are seven miles of hiking trails, five miles of bike trails, canoe rentals, and we saw several people fishing. 

There was also a nice day-use area with picnic tables within view of the covered bridge.

Our favorite park is Mistletoe, a GA state owned park. This park is just a few miles away from Mistletoe and we only stayed here because we could not get a site at Mistletoe. In the end, we are glad that we did as this park is about 35% less expensive than Mistletoe and provides the same great lake views (ok, Mistletoe is still our favorite, but for the money this is a no brainer).

We stayed on two sites as nothing was available for our entire duration. So, we started on site 38 and then moved to 58 after a couple of days (we can be quite fast at breaking down/setting up for in-park moves).

Site 38 was interesting because we had about 100 whitetail deer in our back yard every night. The camp host apparently was feeding them, and he set up spot lights so that they could be watched as they ate. The deer had no fear (not sure that is good), but I am sure the appreciated the food. The only bad side to this is that the lights stayed on very late and it was impossible to block the light from our windows. I can overlook this, though.

Site 38 was large enough and had big, flat, surface for the picnic table, fire ring, camper, and truck. Beyond this pad there was not much distance before you got to the next site, which just had a tent camper (who mostly was gone because this time we visited during a VERY cold spell and I don't think the tent camper would have survived the night!).

Site 38 had views of the water, kind of like a finger cover, but it was not very close to the camper. Still nice though as the walk through the woods to the water was easy. 

We moved to site 58 after a couple of days and it was directly on the water. This site was smaller than 38, and was only one of a handful of RV sites that are situated in an yurt camping area (if you have family that does not have an RV, you could stay in your RV and they could stay in the really upscale yurts!). 

The weather, as noted already, was very cold and moving to a true waterfront lot made going outside something only for the brave! It was 40 degrees with 60 mph wind gusts that day...kind of fun!

We walked around to see what the park had on that side, and it included a nice sandy beach, picnic tables under the shade, and a really cool primitive camping area that was out on a peninsula.

As noted at the start, a nice park for the money. The cost was only $25 a night in March 2022 and that is hard to beat. If this were $40 a night I would de-rate it to 4 stars.

All of the photos are from site 38 except the white caps on the lake, which was taken On our walk near 58.

Park is the home of the VP of the Confederacy and features his home and Civil War artifacts (check for open hours). Hiking trails. Power and water, with dump station. The shower house is new (2019) and is ADA. Also laundry is at shower house. Firewood for sale with camp host. Shady, level, back in and pull thru sites with fire ring and table. Ask camp host for tour of CCC built fire tower. About an hour to Augusta, GA, via interstate (Costco with gas/no diesel), lots of shopping and resturants. Also stables if you are traveling with horses. Can reserve 1 year ahead.

While the tropical storm weather cut our trip to AH Stephens Historic Park we still very much enjoyed our visit.

We stayed in 2 sites with the grandparents. #9 & #12

Site 12 was a very nice straight site with the picnic table and fire ring down a few steps off the back of the main pad. Nicely wooded there was a tree very close to the hook up that caused us to park forward a bit to allow for a slide and side bunk to fully function.

Site 9 (handicapped site) was perfect for the grandparents as there was a short paved walkway straight to the bath house.

Both sites were nicely graveled and level.