Old Stone Fort State Park Campground

We spent one night while traveling to Florida for a winter vacation. It was a quiet spot with about 8-10 other campsites taken. The nature and hiking trails were great. By the time we walked up to the Old Stone Fort and back we’d logged 5 miles. I should say 5 beautiful miles. Great place and very peaceful. We had both electric and water hookups. Also, 2 bars on Verizon so we could watch some college football games.

The cons - We did everything wrong - new place after dark with a new to us 43’ fifth wheel. Prior to this we had diesel pushers. Either would be a challenge getting into these tight campsites - but in the dark when road weary - we set ourselves up for a headache. Life happens and so does traffic - so we arrived hours later than planned. Either way, the roads into the campground are narrow, sites are not very deep, so no place to park the truck - and almost took our awning off backing in as not only are there lots of trees, they arch over the paved pad and lots of branches scraping.

Pros - picturesque campground with the nicest shower house and secluded feel. Folks are so so nice. Had a fellow camper trying to help us last night, then the park ranger stopped by to check on us. Such nice staff and def would come back in a smaller rig. Well equipped sites, but small due to the trees. Tent pads look nice. We woke up to rain, so rather than hang out and explore, we continued on our journey.

I arrived and went straight to campsite. Ranger will check in with you once you are settled. I was traveling alone and felt extremely safe. Bathrooms were clean and lots of natural light comes in from the skylights.
There’s a 1 mile path on the grounds but you can now walk over the bridge and there’s more paths, I didn’t make it that far. I enjoyed my stay here and everyone camping was super friendly. AT&T service was fine.
Will definitely be back when passing through since it’s not far off the highway.

While the campground is close to Manchester and waterfalls etc, the park itself can be completed in a few hours. The campground is poorly laid out, especially now that they’ve closed the 1 lane bridge. While they’ve made improvements the campground still needs lots of work. One spot next to our site has electrical cables just sticking out of the ground. I can only assume they’re old since they seem to have made electrical improvements. They do have one of the nicest shower/restroom facilities I’ve ever seen at a campground. That said, whomever decided to put jet driers in them that can be heard all over the park, should be fired. There are many campgrounds not far from here I should have chosen but we rode out our 4 nights anyway

The park is close to Manchester TN and the interstate, but feels very isolated. They closed the old bridge access and thus you enter the campground on a new road about a 1/2 mile away. This isolates you from the main park but you can still walk over the old truss bridge. The ancient site is very magical and the history is both inspiring and sad. The biggest caveat is that the campground is in a lowland areas and is very densely forested with young trees so the ground remains wet after significant rains. We did not have bug issues but I could see this as an issue. The bathhouse is renovated but there are only 2 showers each for the entire campground. When full at 50 sites this might be an issue. We camped mid week and only a few folks were here. This park is well worth a visit but we will come in fall when things are drier

We arrived after a rainy afternoon to a site with mud surrounding it and big puddles. Our picnic table is on the left side of the trailer, inaccessible through the mud. The pads are paved but very narrow, leaving only a marry walkway. Some sites have an pad that ties to picnic table pad behind it. The space between sites is fairly large and staggered for privacy. The park itself is very pretty with quite a few activities planned for the weekend, both hikes and family friendly art projects. Lovely waterfalls and nice trails. Watch out for ticks!

As others have said, there is a new entrance to the campground on Country Club Drive but Waze, Google maps, RV Life GPS for RVs and others are not up to date on the change. If you are approaching the park from the north on US 41, there are brown signs stating the entrance to the campground is second right (very short notice). It is about 1/2 mile north of the main park entrance.

Cell service (AT&T) is almost nonexistent, no WiFi in the camp, no over the air TV stations. We did not use bath houses. Lots of big trees have fallen over throughout the campground but have not been removed, still have mounds of dirt where roots are exposed.

This would be a good day use park but we would not camp here again.

Nice park with recent renovations. Campground entrance is now off Country Club Drive. The one lane bridge is closed. Park is kinda tight for our 36' class a, and an evening arrival of a bumper pull trailer had them working pretty hard. For that reason, we won't be back here - there are other state parks nearby with more room. CG is full on weekends, even in November! There are areas of dirt piles from the renovation on some sites, and now they are hiding under the leaves. :) New power posts and water connections, no issues there. Some sites are not level, so be sure to check the site details before online reservation. There were plenty of choices when we checked, so we just drove in. Check in was at the museum on the other side of the river. Pleasant process with Sarah there. TN state parks give 25% discount for seniors, regardless of residency.

Everything was great, sites are a little narrow, at least the one we stayed in, but not really an issue. We did buy wood there, $5 a bunch, but it had less wood in each than what we typically see at Tennessee state park stores. That was really the only disappointment. Really pretty area! You can hear road noise, but that is to be expected since the park is next to a main road right in the city of Manchester. Kids loved it, the whole family had fun!