Fort Mountain State Park

We stayed here for two nights in early August, 2023. Site 2 was a nice long pull-through and easy to get in and level. Nice patio area that faces the forest and a mountain bike / bear trail. This is the first CG I have been to where signing a "bear aware info sheet" was requested. And for good reason. The trail behind our site was used by a bear daily (from what the neighbor said - she saw it every day - we saw it twice - it literally came in to our site!). There are some really pretty sites on the bottom of camping area 1 - sites 8 (steeper back in), 9 & 10 and the pull-throughs at the bottom of the loop. The ones in the center are a little closer together. Camping area 2 has some steep roads and possibly some harder sites to back into.
The lake is pretty - decent walking our Lab, but holy cow do the roads need new asphalt!
We were at Cloudland Canyon prior to this and Vogel directly after, both of which have been renovated with new roads. This one needs some work. Still a great time! Bathhouse decent.
P.S. Suggest driving in from Ellijay, not Crestview. That road about killed our truck.

Overall, the park was fairly nice but it could use some updating. BEST THINGS: the lake was pretty, the walking trail around the lake was level and easy to navigate. The beach looked nice and had a concession stand that was open. NOT SO GOOD THINGS: We walked over to the beach area and went past the Putt Putt golf. Very, very run down. See photo of the algae that was growing on the putting surface. Not sure when the weeds were trimmed last. They charge $4 to play it but that woudl be a waste of money if you paid at the park office and then went to see the condition of the course. We stayed in site #28 which was generally in a lower portion of the park. That probably led to the lack of any cell service because if we walked up a hill we could get 5G coverage. We did not use the bath-houses because we had an RV. The hookup at the site was good... "fairly level" overall. The dump station wasn't in such great shape. It had been raining and there was mud all around where you needed to stand to operate the dump station. A little bit of gravel to promote drainage would be a good idea here. We hiked all the way from our campground up the Gahuti Trail... this is not an easy trail... it was about 4.5 miles and most of it uphill with roots and rocks to watch your step. Once we finally got to the top, the observation tower was not accessible to go up... you could walk up a few stairs but that was it. You'd think that one of the main sites to see at this park would be open to the public, or better yet, that they would TELL you it was closed so that you didn't expect to go up there and be locked out. You pay for your camp site, and still have to pay the "parking fee" of $5 even though you've already paid to park your camper there. We did not have any additional vehicle. When we walked back down from the top, we took the road part way and the bike trail #302 the rest of the way down. There were at least 3 separate blow-downs of trees that had fallen and not been cleared. No way this bike trail could be ridden. There were "hosts" at the camp site who had 3 of the yappiest, barkiest dogs I've seen. They'd sit in the window of the camper and watch everyone go by and barked. Not sure why they called them hosts because they didn't greet or talk to anyone, nor did their presence there make the stay any more comfortable. Their dogs were extremely annoying and I'm CERTAIN we weren't the only ones bothered by them. The grounds have a lot more potential than what they've done to keep the park up.

The trees on the Lakeside campground all were dropping hundreds of acorns day and night. Fortunately, none of them dented our airstream or truck. The campground itself was very small, with very little privacy between sites. There’s a large field at the bottom of the hill where all the kids congregate and play all day long. Fun for families, but not for adults with our kids. The kids noise is constant. The park itself is very cute but not as well kept us other Georgia state parks. Shout out to the people at check-in, who were very patient when we showed up before our reservation. The park is convenient to Dalton, which has a lot of nice new restaurants in the downtown area as well as a great brewery.

Lovely park on Fort Mountain. Twisty roads to get up to the park and into the campground but doable, even with big rigs. We stayed on the Lakeside Loop and the inner roads are tight and narrow but again, doable. The sites themselves are level and in good shape, many on the lakeside are better suited for tents and smaller rigs. The sites on the Creekside are nice as well, many pull-throughs which seem to be better for larger rigs. There are many lovely trails from the campground that can get you up to the CCC tower and lookout as well as an easy trail around the lake. Mountain bike trails are tough, steep grades. No cell service but enough to text from the site. If you drive to the top of the mountain the service is better. Bathrooms were clean and well maintained. Very quiet during the week with more folks coming in for Easter weekend, but still very quiet and peaceful.

Lovely park on Fort Mountain. Twisty roads to get up to the park and into the campground but doable, even with big rigs. We stayed on the Lakeside Loop and the inner roads are tight and narrow but again, doable. The sites themselves are level and in good shape, many on the lakeside are better suited for tents and smaller rigs. The sites on the Creekside are nice as well, many pull-throughs which seem to be better for larger rigs. There are many lovely trails from the campground that can get you up to the CCC tower and lookout as well as an easy trail around the lake. Mountain bike trails are tough, steep grades. No cell service but enough to text from the site. If you drive to the top of the mountain the service is better. Bathrooms were clean and well maintained. Very quiet during the week with more folks coming in for Easter weekend, but still very quiet and peaceful.

We enjoyed our first stay at Fort Mt. State Park very much. Our site was lakeside which can’t be beat. It was colder than expected so we didn’t go kayaking but we did some good hiking. The campground is well maintained. The girls working the shop are super nice. Shout out to Chrissy and her good service. The road is curvy but manageable. We have a 35 ft. class A with a Jeep. Our site could use some more gravel. It was a little bare. The WiFi was down due to maintenance and there is absolutely no cell service. It was ok for the short period we were there. We look forward to going back.

Although the roads were windy, they were doable (truck with 28 foot trailer. The sites are nicely spaced and private. The bathhouse and laundry were clean. The trails around the park were great too, we spent two days doing various routes around the park. The nearest town is about 15 minutes down the hill but has everything. The downside, if you want to call it that, was zero service at our site. We could get enough to check messages at other places within the park though. Overall, A great little state park.

This campground has the most steep hills of any we have seen. Our site, #38, was at the top, It was downhill and then back up another hill to the comfort station. A reasonable downhill walk to the lake and the surrounding trail. The very steep nature trail near the dam is a challenge. Other attractions and trails require driving to get there. There were some well spaced, level sites near the lake, but most sites are crowded together.