Steve G.

The Dyrt Pro

Lookout Mountain, TN

Joined August 2020

Lovely little campground just off the Interstate

We spent a night here and were very pleasantly surprised by the facilities and the warm welcome from the staff.  The campsites are small in size, but very clean.  The creek running through the campground is beautiful.  We would cheerfully stop in again.  Very nice looking little cabins are available should you have forgotten your camping equipment.  But they do ask you to bring your own linens!

Nice campground nestled in the pines

Online reservation was easy as was the check in.  The staff were helpful and friendly.  Some reviews balked at the price and the tight spaces.  Expected in this sort of prime location.  Live with it!  That being said, we were there at the tail end of the season, with the other campgrounds around us literally closing.  The result for us was that we had few neighbors.  This made navigating the narrow roads and tight campsite much easier.  All in all a very pleasant couple of days.

Excellent lake front campground

Getting there: Located out in the plains South of Pawnee National Grassland near and a bit NE of Ft. Morgan off I-76 

Check in and staff: We made an online reservation, entered and camped. We were on the far Southern side of the campground, which is much larger than it looks. Later we discovered the Visitor Center as we were leaving. The ranger there was very nice and helpful. 

Amenities: Water is available, as are dumpsters. Roads are dirt/gravel and can be uneven in places, but not bad at all. Power available as well. 

Bathrooms: clean, well kept. On the southern side near our site there is a single toilet, no shower. Those are located in the area near the visitor center, a long walk from where we were. They were reasonably clean, but we did not use them. 

Site: Lakeside, on the Southern end of the campground. Cannot recall the number!

Comments: It was quite windy when we were there. On the other hand, no bugs!

Small Riverside Campground

Getting there: A winding drive through Nebraska City to the River’s Edge. 

Check in and staff: None 

Amenities: Few Bathrooms: clean, well kept 

Sites: Mostly open, very little shade. Campground is right on the banks of the Missouri River.

Excellent Lakeside Campgrouind

Getting there: Easy access off Illinois 13 East of Carbondale 

Check in and staff: Campground is now under the egis of recreation.gov& reservations through them are a must. This is new& when planning the trip the website said“first come first serve” so we arrived on a Friday evening(4pm) with no reservation. The sign said RV sites all taken. The host was wonderful! He has been here 9 years and steered us to a nice site for the one night we will be here. The online experience with recreation.gov was not pleasant, impossible in fact. So I had to call. This took quite awhile. Once I got a real live person it was great, and we got our site with no problems. 

Amenities: Bathrooms: clean, paper towels& air dryers. 

Site: A-35. In the middle of the A loop and therefore not on the water. Still, very nice. After all, beggars can’t be choosers! Sites are somewhat spacious, but not terribly private.

Very quiet wooded campground on Chilhowee Mountain

Overall: Very quiet wooded campground on Chilhowee Mountain Getting there: Off TN SR 64 East of Cleveland& Ocoee. Very nice lakeside drive along Lake Ocoee. There can be a lot of traffic. Turn on marked road just past Ranger Station turnoff and take Oswald Road 7 miles up a winding mountain road, narrow in spots with multiple scenic overlook views of the Blue Ridge mountains and Lake Ocoee.  There is also a marked "Historic Site" that is worth a stop.  See pics. Advise not to take back road from/to Benton. There is a sign on the entry to the drive in that says“full up” on electric campsites, but not so. Mostly empty mid week. Most sites are reserved for weekends. If you do not have a reservation and are going up without one this can be totally misleading. 

Check in and staff: There is no check in gate. Campground Hosts are present and did make the rounds checking on us in the late afternoon. Very pleasant. Reservations for sites are made on-line, so you follow the signs to your reserved site. 

Amenities: Electric is available at some sites, but not others. There is no water available at any of the sites. Some of the loops have a water source nearby with instructions to bring water to your campsite, do your dishes there, strain out any food particles for the trash and dump the grey water at the campsite. Since bears are present and attracted to scents this seemed an odd instruction to us. There are no dishwashing sinks available in the restrooms, and this is discouraged. 

There is a very nice small lake with a beach, many hiking trails including one to Benton Falls.  The hiking trail around the lake is very nice, level and shaded most of the way.

Bathrooms: The bathroom in loop B was not very clean. See pics. The hot water was hot, but very difficult to use. The shower had a little button to push after turning it to the left for hot water. This stayed on for exactly 4 seconds per push. So in order to get a decent shower you have to hold it in. 

Site: Campsites are large, wooded and relatively private. Nice flat gravel covered parking/landing areas with excellent fire pits. See pics. Firewood is available with the Host. We were there mid week and it was very quiet. There was only one other camper in Loop B at the time.

Excellent campground with close access to the Chattahoochee River

Overall: Excellent campground with close access to the Chattahoochee River, access off AL State Rd 165. Second stay here so I will shorten this somewhat. Again, this time of year not crowded at all. I had my pick of lakefront sites, and chose one where I could hang my hammock between two trees. 

Getting there: Known as Bluff Creek Park on Google maps, it is located South of Fort Benning and Fort Mitchell in the most Eastern part of Alabama. 

Check in and staff: Check in was very easy and one can make advance reservations. Next time I will make them ahead of time on the website listed, but doing it by phone was easy. It just took more time than I wanted to spend. But then again, you have to know what site you want to do it ahead of time. 

Amenities: There is a boat launch site, a fish cleaning hut, and multiple bathroom facilities. Water and electric are present at each site. Bathrooms: clean, well kept. Laundry machines available. The showers had plenty of hot water and were clean. No mold or mildew. 

Site: I had site 79. It was right next door to where we stayed last time, and on the water. The site setup was the same. Very comfortable and a beautiful view of the lake.

Excellent campground with close access to the Chattahoochee River

Overall: Excellent campground with close access to the Chattahoochee River, access off AL State Rd 165. The sites are, for the most part, reasonably private with most sites being right on the water and have excellent views of Bluff Creek. Some of the campground areas were closed for the season as traffic falls off quite a bit in the Fall. Most of the campers had RVs, but there were one or two tents as well 

Getting there: Known as Bluff Creek Park on Google maps, it is located South of Fort Benning and Fort Mitchell in the most Eastern part of Alabama. 

Check in and staff: Check in was very easy and one can make advance reservations. We were allowed to take a quick tour to pick out a site, but did have to call the central number to pay by credit card once we had picked out a site. They have stopped putting up a note on each site and now simply issue a parking pass for your vehicle. I did have to go back to the gate to get that and while doing that the reservation was verified.  The staff were kind and very pleasant. 

Amenities: There is a boat launch site, a fish cleaning hut, and multiple bathroom facilities. Water and electric are present at each site. 

Bathrooms: clean, well kept. Laundry machines available. The showers had plenty of hot water and were clean. No mold or mildew. 

Site: We had site 81. It was right on the water. There was a good size picnic table and another square table at the site. The fire pit was out near the water and there was a stand up BBQ as well. Also provided was a hanging hook for provisions. The campground was very quiet, but in the evening one often heard the chimes of a RR crossing that is just outside the park entrance. The chimes& red flashing lights go on after dark when a car approaches the tracks to make sure that the driver stops and checks for train. There are occasional low flying airplanes due to the nearby military fort.

Marvelous little campground very close to the Springs

This is off the beaten path a bit, just out of High Springs Florida.  The RV campsites are relatively small with little space between them.  The campers there were quiet and respectful. The tent sites, however, are tremendously spacious by comparison.  The whole area is beneath shady live oak trees.  There is a little camp store that was not open during my visit there.  Kayaks were available for rent. The rangers were wonderful folks and very helpful.  They told me that I was there during a "very wet time" with a lot of standing water = MOSQUITOS!  They are not normally a bother at this campground, but they were when I was there.

Nice Campground close to I-75 in North Florida

This was a return visit for me, the last time was in November of last year.  What a difference in the water level of the river makes!  The campsite was nice, quiet and relatively large and private as before.  We had our teardrop TAG along and appreciated the parking bed that was well drained as it was a bit wet the night that we were there.  The bathrooms were clean and well cared for, as were the grounds in general.  In summary, a great place and one I know we will gladly return to.

Great campground close to I-75

Overall: Excellent campground with close access to the Suwannee River, not far off I-75 near White Springs. The sites are, for the most part, nicely private with a good bit in intentional foliage between them. Most of the sites are well shaded. The river access and trail are beautiful. The water level was quite high when I was there compared to prior visits so it was not possible to walk along the waterline. 

Getting there: Get off I-75 at the White Springs exit, go East on NW thunder Street, left on State Rd 100 and follow the signs. 

Check in and staff: I was there on a Saturday night, having easily made reservations online using the Florida State Park website: https://www.floridastateparks.org/camping. My ticket with site number and map was there in the little booth for pick up. I did not see any staff the entire time that I was there. 

Amenities: Most of the attractions like the carillon tower, craft center etc were closed when I was there. The canoe launch and the river access were easy to get to and beautiful in the early morning light. It seemed that a wedding was recently done or going to be done down by the river in the little pavilion there. Fresh water and electricity at sites with them worked well. 

Bathrooms: clean, well kept. Laundry machines available. I did not try taking a shower so I cannot comment on that but they looked clean. 

Site: I had site 33. Very nice, private and relatively close to the bathroom.   Flat and well drained.  Bugs not too bad this time of year.  Fire ring, BBQ and wooden picnic table were clean.  The only negative that I experienced while there is that one neighbor or the other seemed to have the entire population of the campground at the site, having a very raucous noisy party. I finally had to yell for quiet about 10 pm to try to get some sleep. Fortunately the folks responded by quieting down, even though “quiet time” starts at 11pm per park rules.

Small, shaded and quiet!

Overall: Small, shaded and quiet. Way off the beaten path near the Tennessee River. A drive to the nearby Lady’s Bluff Small Wild Area is worthwhile. 

Getting there: If you want to get away from the crowded I-40 Interstate and do not mind a 30 minute drive through the gently rolling hills and farmland of rural Tennessee this might be a good stop for you! Be sure to set your GPS before leaving I-40 because at least with ATT you will lose signal.  

Check in and staff: Online reservation was easy and the website has photos with a good listing by site of what is there, including whether or not there is a tent pad and the size of same. We needed to change sites at the last minute. The ranger was very kind and helpful. 

Amenities: power and water available at main campground but not all site:, spotty cell service with ATT. Does work on the hilltop of the main campground. Washer/dryer available in bath house. Camp store closed for remodeling and paving while we were there. 

Bathrooms: older but clean, well kept. Small, one shower. 

Site: partial shade, some reasonable separation between sites but some close together. Fellow campers were quiet and courteous. Picnic tables and fire pits clean and in good order.

Excellent 3 night stay in a quiet, creekside campground

Campground: Indian Creek

Overall: This is a very nice, small, quiet commercial campground way off of the beaten path. Very friendly folks, clean and well-kept with a mixture of site options. It is very shady and many sites are right along Bunch Creek, so with a Reservation Fishing permit you can fish from your backyard! I’d come back! 

Getting there: 9.5 miles out of Cherokee just a bit off Big Cove Road. Turn right on Bunch Creek Cove Road 

Check in and staff: Courteous and helpful. Just plain nice. 

Amenities: Good well stocked camp store, sites with water, power, both. Pretty creekside sites. Caveat: NO ATT service and Wi-Fi spotty and slow except when in pavilion. If connectivity is important(and it legitimately can be), this might not be the place for you. There is an outside double sink for doing dishes and cleaning fish. It was always clean and had extra dish soap, sponges, plastic grocery bags and trash can right nearby. 

Bathrooms: clean, well kept with lots of hot water! 

Site: Level gravel covered sites, some with more privacy than others. Fire pit and movable table provided. You can buy kiln dried wood for use—the store has it and delivers it to your site. It needs splitting so consider bringing an axe. Mosquitoes not much of a problem but there are no-see-ems that can be annoying after a rain but citronella candles(available at store) and bug spray did the trick.

Nearby: Town of Cherokee, Mingo Falls (a short 0.44 mile round trip hike up 161 stairs, then a relatively level trail to the base of a beautiful waterfall.  Upper trail closed.

Clean and Convenient

Wonderful campground with easy and clear call in reservation process. Like most of these urban campgrounds realestate is expensive so sites are on the small side, but plenty of room and the place is well designed. Bathrooms are warm and clean, access code used. We appreciated the area for dishwashing outside the bathroom area, though the water there was not very hot. We spent two nights and enjoyed it very much, nice neighbors and very quiet at night.

It’s gotta be there somewhere!

Tried to go there following the directions on the app map. Not there! Probably beautiful but do yourself a favor and call the correct number before you venture out into the Oklahoma countryside! 877-444-6777

We drove away with tears in our eyes...

We tried to get in to this nice little place late on a Friday afternoon only to find it was all booked up. We talked to the hosts in person having driven in there. They were very nice and helpful, but full up! Beware—-I had tried to call ahead hours before, but the phone number listed on Dyrt takes you to the Army Corp of Engineers who are technically in charge of all these campgrounds but they do not know the status of reservations so you must call this number: 877-444-6777. We did and after a 30 minute call back wait we got immediately disconnected! They did not try again and neither did we. We were driving around the backroads looking for the other two nearby campgrounds, which do not exist on the app map locator. We gave up and called the nearby KOA.

Very Nice Oasis

Heading West on I-40 and tried, without success, to get a site at one of the 3 campgrounds on nearby Robert Kerr Reservoir (see other reviews!). We got the last site at the KOA. As first time KOA campers, we were pleasantly surprised with the entire experience. Restrooms clean and nice showers. The staff was kind, cheerful and very helpful. The sites are a bit close for our tastes but for a quick overnight it suited our needs perfectly.