Hard Labor Creek State Park

You can tell that this whole park recently went through a renovation. I can't speak to the bathrooms because we visited during COVID-19 restrictions. However, the trails had recently been upgraded and newly constructed bridges, and the sites were very level, wide, and longer than advertised. Sites 18 and 19 are right on the bend in the creek with flowing water and those sites had the best voice/data for us on Verizon. We tested with iPhone 6s+ phones, a Verizon 8800L jetpack both without and with a Netgear MIMO antenna. Comparable data speeds on both the Jetpack configurations around 25-30MBps UL and around 1MBps DL. Some sites are close together and some seem to be off by themselves. Kids can get on floats and drift down the creek and walk back many times before they get tired.

We stayed at this park for 3 nights and 4 days and really enjoyed how peaceful and quiet it was, even with it being Memorial Day. The park was clean and the staff were very friendly and helpful. We stayed toward the back of the campground at site #19 and were accommodated with good canopy cover, a spacious site and somewhat obscure view of the lake. There was no path leading to the lake unless you walked through the foliage. The site we picked was not exactly private but we made it work. Cell coverage was spotty through T-mobile, to which we were amazed we had any coverage at all. T-mobile is not known for good coverage. The main restrooms were closed with only the 2 family ones open, but that's understandable with the virus. The nature trails were excellent and there are a few options to choose from depending how far you would like to hike. The playground was closed and if you had your own gear you can play put-put. Overall we were pleased and will definitely visit this park again in the future.

We didn't camp here but swung through while we were in the area to scope it out. Compared to many of the other state parks in the area, this one really shines. It looked like the campground had been recently refurbished. The roads all had new blacktop, the camp sites all looked to have new gravel and timbers, and the comfort stations were new. The sites were almost all wooded. There were a few sites with a view of a beaver pond, but outside of those, there were no views to speak of other than trees. There were some pull-thrus scattered about and those were huge. The campground as a whole has a nice feel.

The state park has many amenities including like 20 miles of mountain bike trails, a beach and putt-putt ($2.50 for kids, $7.50 for adults...A bit steep). The nearby town of Rutledge was quaint and kinda cool. The beach was so-so. It's big but felt a tad trashy. It's about a 2 mile drive from the campground.

We hiked a short 1 mile trail close to the campground and it was actually a really nice trail.

I think we'll camp here some time in the future.