East Tower Hunt Camp

A host of spots large, small, sunny, shaded and private or out in the open as you’d like, suitable for any sized rig love here beneath tall pines that appear to all have been logged at one point. The forest itself is beautiful, but definitely heavily timbered. There are a few other spots up and down the main road where smaller vans and truck campers could hide out and get away from the crowd as well, but unless you run into some weirdo in a green truck who wants to park way too close and come over, 2pm drunk, and ask your kids if they like to play with dolls, you shouldn’t have a problem finding seclusion in the main camping area.

Portable toilets, which we did not tour personally, are available. There are those small, brown, bear-proof trash cans as well, but they were full and several bags of trash were piled outside of them. A few rigs looked pretty well settled in, despite clearly marked 14 day camping limits. Absolutely no Verizon service for miles, from somewhere a little after the Georgia line and then again until you get about 10 miles outside of Sanderson.

Some trash scattered about, Budweiser boxes and toilet paper. If I were employed as a detective I’d make some guesses at which types of campers were responsible, but alas I am but a humble civilian so will leave such determinations to your own imagination. Not much in the way of supplies anywhere nearby.

All in all though, compared to the state parks in the Carolinas and Georgia which we’ve been staying, this is a beautiful, spacious place to get some basic camping done.

We stayed at 17 Mile campground, but we checked out nearby East Tower along the way. There is not much here other than some open space around the fire tower, trash receptacles and one port-a-potty. Access is easy right off county road 250. The area was fairly clean except for a few beer cans. You could park just about any size vehicle here on the grass. There are no designated sites and no picnic tables. The road continues into the forest past the camp but it got soft and sandy so we did not go down far before turning back.

I did climb the tower, which gave a 360 degree view of the treetops, but the tower is old and rickety and I wonder if the first few steps were removed for a reason. I didn't see any signs posted that it wasn't safe to climb.

The area is very quiet. Maybe it gets busy during hunting season, but when we were there in early October (Columbus Day) it was deserted.