Visiting Acworth, Georgia
We are back on the road! This is only our second camping trip of the year and it feels good to be camping again. Acworth, Georgia is not new to us. We lived in Kennesaw for two years and during that time, I came to love the Acworth area. It’s a beautiful, old town that’s located on Lake Allatoona. The old downtown area is so quaint! With the delicious food from Henry’s Louisiana Grill (https://www.chefhenrys.com) and a stroll around Cauble Park, you really can’t go wrong with a night out in Acworth!
https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=17w79ihHT__F8fuNtY1LgFXk3D-I&hl=en&ehbc=2E312F
McKinney Campground
Mckinney Campground is part of the Georgia State Park system. There are 150 campsites available at McKinney Campground. This is a large campground, but only a portion of it is open year round. In Winter, some of the sites are closed. Booking campsites for the weekend can prove challenging, as they can be reserved up to six months in advance. If you have a spontaneous weekday trip, like we usually do with travel for work, you will usually find last minute sites available only Monday-Friday morning. Having flexibility in our schedules makes these work trips a little less painful when we can still be together as a family. It’s definitely more effort than just staying in a hotel, but we prefer the camping life!
Here is the link to the campground map: http://www.allatoonalake.org/resources/campgrounds/mckinney-campground-map.pdf
With 150 sites, there is a wide variety of campsites available at this park! You really have to be careful here, as most of the sites are NOT level. Depending on the length of your camper, it could be an issue when you get ready to level your unit. I try to look at pictures on the reservation site and check out reviews too. Even some of the pull through sites can be tricky! Just look at these photos of our current site here:
In the first photo you can see how close we parked to the right side of the pull through. The pull through is not very wide and has a steep drop off on the entrance side of the camper, so we had to park as far to the right as we could to be able to get into the camper. The steps just barely fit on the edge of the site, and they are right at the drop-off. It is not ideal, but it is just for two days so we will deal with it. If we had children with us, this site would not work. The step situation is not safe but we also can not open the bunk room slide. The reservation site photos and reviews did not mention any rv slide restrictions or limitations, so please be careful when reserving a campsite in an unfamiliar park. Because we have stayed here before, I knew to be careful but we still ended up with some issues. We will walk around the park and make a list of “good campsites” before we leave so that next time I make a reservation online, I will know which sites to look for.
Allatoona Lake
The lake here is beautiful! The campground is located beside a marina so boating is very common. The water is clear, so fishing and swimming here are both good.
Lakefront Campsites are always my first choice so here is our view from our campsite:
Our picnic area is located down a set of steps, and the water access is from a very short trail to the left of the picnic table. It is easily accessed. Some of the lake front sites don’t have good access for swimming because they have stabilized the shore with large rocks. These campsites have beautiful views but no swimming access. There are two “swimming beaches” here for campers to use that are roped off for safe swimming in the busy boating season.
Trains, planes, and boats!
Sometimes you will hear trains, planes and boats here because this is a busy little town!
If you want to check out the train museum in Kennesaw, look here for more information: https://southernmuseum.org. For lots of Civil War history, I recommend a visit to Kennesaw Mountain National Park. The ranger led talk through the small museum was one of the best! Check out more here https://www.nps.gov/kemo/planyourvisit/things2do.htm.
Whether you are camping at McKinney Campground, or just looking for some fun things to do in this area north of Atlanta, Georgia, I highly recommend this beautiful part of Georgia!
