Vogel State Park Campground

We camped at Vogel State Park a few times and we always had a great time. There are lot of things to do. You can go biking, hiking, fishing, camping, swimming or just enjoy the beautiful view. The park has a beautiful lake which is great for fishing. They also offer a Junior Ranger Program for kids.

Nestled in the Chattahoochee National Forest at the base of Blood Mountain is Vogel State Park. A hidden gem of the Georgia State Parks system.

We arrived on a late Friday afternoon to a busy park. Truly a favorite of weekend campers and locals for all it offers. Things get very quiet during the week as the park usually empties on Sunday's according to the Rangers.

The park offers access to a dozen trails. And a 15 min drive will get you to a trailhead along the Appalachian Trail. At the entrance of the park is Lake Trahlyta, which is stocked for fishing, offers paddle boats and kayaks for rental. You'll also find an easy trail that loops the lake and takes you to a water fall.

Our stay had been a pleasant one. Despite being busy on the weekend, the majority of folks seemed to want camp sites that are creek side between 32-85.

When we got here on Friday, only one spot on that loop was open. We ended up at Camp site 11, close to a playground for our daughter and still next to a creek.

Campsites are wide and of varying levels of level. Most are level and can accomodate up to 40ft.

The campground is heavily wooded. And cell service is a problem within the park. One upside, is that the park has usable wifi in one area. And from my testing, even on the busy weekend, I don't think anyone is aware it's there. I averaged speeds of 10mbps down. Not LTE speeds, but good for park wifi.

During the week the park has been a virtual ghost town. Which has allowed us to enjoy all it offers in peace.

I would strongly recommend making recommendations if you are going to be arriving on a weekend.

This is a very nice, wooded campground. We stayed on a Wednesday and Thursday evening in mid October and the campground was completely full. Luckily, we have a small trailer and we were able to snag a site in the "pop up" loop. We chose this park because we wanted to visit nearby Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia.

We stayed here for 7 nights and loved it. Majority of the campsites are under a heavy canopy of trees. WIFI is available at the Visitor Center and Verizon coverage was barely usable at the campsite. When checking in, I asked if they had any 50 amp hookups and they do (although they do not advertise this). Sites 4 thru 12, 14 and 18 have 50 amp. The bathrooms could use some TLC.

Vogel is the second oldest state park in Georgia, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's. The big draws here are the small lake for fishing, swimming, or (non-motorized) boating, and the several hiking trails that wind in and out of the park and through the adjoining National Forest. Roads to and through the campground are a little tight, but we did fine in our 33 foot trailer (and saw a few larger Class As there as well). It looked to us like the best sites were the ones along Wolf Creek. Those were all full when we arrived, so we ended up in site 38--a long pull off site across the road from the big creek, but with woods and a smaller creek next to our site on the other side (there was a grey water dump directly next to this site, too, which came in handy). Bathhouses typical of Georgia State Parks, which is to say clean and adequate, but dated. All RV sites are water/electric; most are back-in. They're all fairly roomy, though not as big and private as we've seen in other Ga state parks. Trees everywhere; very shady and much cooler and more pleasant than the Atlanta metro area we left behind. Visitor center with decent camp store, mini-golf, playgrounds are all within walking distance (1/2 mile) from the campground. The approach to the campground from the south on 19 has some steep grades and very curvy mountain roads; we took 515 up to Blairsville and then came down from the north instead, and this drive was no problem at all. No wifi and very spotty cell service in the campground, but the office and the area around it has good wifi.

In the midst of our crazy hot summer we decided to head up to North Georgia to find somewhere a bit cooler. It's about 10 degrees cooler here than in Atlanta. It's heavily wooded and while the temps were a little better, it was still very muggy and not breezy at all.

If you're in something smaller the popup/tent only loop is amazing and tucked away from everything else. Head up here if you're in something small. If you're in something a bit bigger, head first to sites 23-31 to see if there's anything open. These are nice in that they back up to the park trail and have a lot of space and no traffic. Otherwise, head across the bridge and try to get something around site 42 on the creek side.

Boats and miniature golf is WAY overpriced. Bring or rent a tube at Pappy's up the road and go tubing on the Nottley River. We tried but the water was too low. It's best after a good rain.

It's a nice park with dated bathrooms, good wifi as you get close to the welcome center, close proximity to Appalachian Trail, good sites, big crowds and lots to do around the lake. If you need to escape the summer heat or see some pretty fall colors, check it out.

Nice state park in the Georgia mountains with a small lake. Nice stream running through the campground. Good hiking right from the park and in surrounding area. Close to Blairsville if you need supplies. Nice little town with quaint places to eat. We had 1 bar/spotty cell service at our site. No service at the sites farther in. Good reception at camp store and on the mountains hiking though.

We were here for a ultra race that started in the park and finished in Amicalola Falls State Park. Vogel is a great park that has many camp sites. We loved that our site (27) was off by itself at the end of the road. Just across the road we’re 3 sites nestled together, one with a path leading to one of the trails in the park. While we were there the bath houses were being remodeled. It look as if they were close to being completed. They did have portable shower facilities that could be used if needed. Park fills up on the weekends and appeared that car limits per camp site were not being enforced.
Check in was easy and cell service was good. Short drive in to Blairsville for any supplies was easy. Will come back if in the area again.

Place was truly beautiful, the whole surrounding area is awesome. I just don’t know if maybe it was we came on a bad weekend, but the bathrooms are absolutely atrocious. I mean really really bad, to where I thought my wife and I might have to consider using our pop-up campers latrine. Luckily were able to find another bathroom down the street that was a little bit better.

First time towing our rig in mountain terrain and survived. Road from Cleveland Ga. from the south wasn’t too challenging. We chose a pull-through site knowing we’d be road weary after the trip. While the site was level east-west it had a steep drop off at the truck end and with the loose gravel I had to add some weight to the bed of the pickup for hitching up on departure. The park is just beautiful. Georgia’s second oldest State Park a Civilian Conservation Corps masterpiece. If you go make sure to visit the CCC museum on property. The museum host Don was super friendly and really helped put in perspective the monumental work of the CCC. We hiked the Bear Hair Loop trail(4.3 miles) which gives you a gorgeous view of the park at around the halfway point. A much easier trail is a mile loop around the lake with a not to be missed spur trail to Trahlyta falls. The park offers a lot for kids playgrounds, bike rentals, kayak and paddle boat rentals, even a putt-putt course that my wife wouldn’t allow me to play. But none of those things compared to the streams throughout the park that allowed kids hours of fun moving rocks around. According to regulars we were lucky to get a spot as they fill up quickly. Only negative is the the sound from Hwy 180 on the weekends. The road is a favorite for Harley riders and it was pretty constant during daylight hours. We pulled out on a Monday and it seemed they had all gone home as we encountered very few on the road to our next campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway.