COE vs KOA

It has been over a month since our last blog post. We haven’t done a lot of extra special stuff during this time, just meandering our way north to get new furniture in our house on wheels and eventually to Rochester to see our grandkids. We thought this would be a good time to write about different types of campgrounds and why we prefer one particular type over all the rest.

COEs and Other Public Campgrounds

Corps of Engineers (COE) campgrounds are by far our favorite type of campground to stay in. They are usually located on a lake or river and were built by the Army Corps of Engineers, usually as part of a dam project that created the lake and surrounding recreation area. These campgrounds typically have relatively large sites with a reasonable distance between neighbors. They are more prevalent east of the Mississippi and when we are planning our routes in that part of the country, we always look for COEs first.

Through our frequent travels to western Georgia to visit Amy’s folks, we have found a couple COEs that have become favorites of ours. This was our first opportunity to visit them in the springtime. We spent 9 glorious days in White Oak (Creek) Campground located in eastern Alabama, just over the Georgia state line, in the early part of March. The weather during this stretch was absolutely perfect and we spent 7 of those 9 days in a site that backed up to the lake. We had stayed in this exact site in November and knew how perfect it was.

Siting outside the rig in the warm spring sun watching osprey dive for fish just 20 yards off shore was a perfect way to pass the time. As the second weekend approached, we had to move to a different site because someone else had a reservation on our lakeside site (more on COEs and weekends later). This wasn’t all bad because the weekend was projected to be in the 80’s and our new site was off the lake and nestled in the woods with plenty of shade.

We did a lot of hanging around the campground and enjoying the setting, only venturing out one day. We drove about 40 minutes to Providence Canyon State Park for a hike and some sight seeing. A bonus to hiking here was that after the hike, we could drive a few miles down the road and visit Omaha Brewing Company for something cold and refreshing.

Another favorite COE campground of ours is Whitetail Ridge in Lagrange, GA. We stayed here for the third time later in March. Once again, we had a beautiful lake side site. This one sat out on a peninsula and gave us a large site with all neighbors a significant distance away. The weather wasn’t as gorgeous as our time in White Oak and our stay was confined to just Sunday through Friday, but we enjoyed the stay as always. We did go into Lagrange to visit Wild Leap Brewing Company. If you are ever in the Lagrange, GA area, you need to check them out. They have a series of ready-to-drink cocktails based on their vodka that were quite tasty.

If we can’t find an available campsite at a COE, we look for other public campgrounds like state parks or national forest campgrounds. State parks are likely to have a few more amenities than a COE and the national forest campgrounds generally have fewer. State parks will be a bit more expensive than COEs and the national forest parks will likely be a bit less. If you are over 62 and have the senior all access pass from the National Park Service then COEs and national forest campgrounds are half off the already low camping fees.

Among the public campgrounds we’ve stayed in since our last post is Kolomoki Mounds State Park in Georgia. This was a small park and was not as nice as the Georgia state parks we stayed in last fall. We will not return. Cove Lake State Park was in Tennessee, where we were met by our friend, Jim. His wife, Corinne, joined us later in the week.

Jim and Corinne joined us at one more public campground – Blue Heron Campground in Stearns, KY. This campground falls into the category of a National Forest campground. It was smaller than most COEs and the sites were generally smaller. Getting our big rigs into the sites was a little challenging but we managed. Jim has the aforementioned senior pass and was able to stay at Blue Heron for just $10/night. We were the only campers in our loop for most of the week and it was very peaceful.

Jim and Corinne left on Friday morning because their site was booked for the weekend. This is the problem we face as full time RVers. Our favorite types of campgrounds, the public COEs and national forest campgrounds, are also the favorite of weekend campers. This makes getting reservations for the weekends more difficult. When we are unable to get the weekend, we then fall back to private campgrounds.

KOAs and Other Private Campgrounds

When we need to be in a particular area that does not have a public campground nearby, we fall back to private campgrounds. More often than not when picking a private campground, we go with a KOA campground primarily due to the ease of finding and booking through the KOA app. This is a vice we should try to break because some of the non-KOA private campgrounds we’ve stayed in have been very nice and exceed all but the top KOAs we’ve visited.

In the month and a half since we left Florida, we have stayed in three separate KOA campgrounds. The first was in Americus, GA, a twenty minute drive from Amy’s folks in Andersonville. You may recall that we usually stay across the street from Amy’s folks in the town RV park. The park is fairly small and has had some erosion over the past couple years and we felt the KOA nearby would be a better option for springtime. It was a nice enough KOA and we will probably use it again in the future.

The second KOA we stayed in was in Blue Ridge, GA and we had stayed here last fall. Our reason for picking this park is its proximity to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. As some of you may be aware, we are planning to attempt a through hike next summer and wanted to check out the starting point of that journey. This KOA is brand new and very nice. It has only been open since Labor Day weekend of 2020. When we were there in the fall, Dan talked to the owner and he said that his research showed that franchising with KOA was the most profitable way he could go with his new campground.

We hiked what is known as the Appalachian Trail Approach Trail. This is an 8-mile one way trail that takes you from Amicalola Falls State Park to the summit of Springer Mountain and the start of the AT. Yes, people generally hike a strenuous 8 miles just to get to the start of the 2,200 mile trek. We managed to get to the summit and back in a long 16 mile hike. Doing this in late March turned out to be ideal as we were able to chat with several hikers that were just starting out on their long journey.

We also received our COVID vaccine while staying at the Blue Ridge KOA. We got the J&J vaccine and have had no issues in the 3 weeks since. The single dose of this vaccine made it a preferred choice for us as we would not likely be in the same area for the required two doses of the other options.

The third KOA we stayed at this spring was in Sweetwater, TN. We stayed here over Easter weekend because we could not get into any of the surrounding COEs or other public campgrounds. We were probably lucky we booked the KOA when we did because they, too, were completely full for the holiday weekend. This KOA was relatively old, the roads were narrow and the sites close together. It did, however, have a certain charm that made us both think it was a nice place to stay.

As we write this, we are nestled into a nice site in Taylorsville Lake State Park in the heart of bourbon country Kentucky. The big loop hike we took was (surprise) primarily used by horseback riders. Go figure, horses in the middle of Kentucky. I hear they might race them somewhere nearby. From here we will go north some more and have already booked a KOA outside of Indianapolis. Still need to work on breaking that vice.