Fort Yargo State Park

Cost: $32/night.
Hookups: Water, electric.
Amenities: AMAZING bath houses with laundry.
Additional Fees: One-time $5 parking pass.
Hiking: Several mountain biking and hiking trails all over in this park. My mom and I hiked the 7.1 mile trail around the lake. It was stunning.
Online Reservation: Yes.
Wifi / Cell Service: No to free Wifi. Yes to cell service (Verizon). My mother is on U.S. Cellular and she had no service.
Overall Rating: 5/5

Beautiful campsites and really nice clean bathrooms.

Popular state park about an hour east of Atlanta with lots of hiking and mountain biking trails, lake with boat rentals, and a small 18th century fort (open to the public on select days with historic reenactments and activities). Campground has very large, mostly level sites. A few pull throughs, but most are back in (campground host led us to the site and helped us back in). Some sites back up to the lake; all are very wooded and shady. GA state parks campground reservations are not site specific; you pick from the available sites when you arrive. The campground was completely full the weekend we were there, and by the time we got there at around 6, the host had two open campsites for us to pick from. That said, all the sites seemed fine; ours was very big and private, and we had no issues with it. There are two loops; we stayed in campground #1, but we walked over to campground #2 a few times, and the bathhouse there is MUCH newer and nicer than the one in our loop (which was not terrible, but definitely was showing its age). Campground #2 is also where the playground is--next time we'd try to stay there. No camp store at the campground (there's a very small "trading post" at the park entrance, but not walkable from campground); they sell firewood on site, but you'll need to leave the park for much else. Lots of shopping nearby (within 10 minutes), though.

This state park is in Winder, GA, which is roughly between Atlanta and Athens. The drive was easy. It is a very convenient place to stay if you want to look around a nearby town. We couldn't believe how close the park was to loads of restaurants, Walmart, an historic train depot, and churches. There are many tidbits of interesting history to be learned from the surrounding area. Check here to get started.

We stayed at site #6. It was the best one in our opinion. Good space between neighbors and the view was great. The lake (Marbury Creek Watershed) is just a few short steps away. There were many sites close to the water in the first loop. The park was set up by someone who must camp because it was so user friendly. There were clean bathrooms, easy to follow paths, dog bag stations, garbages set up in helpful areas, a beautiful dock by a nice boat ramp, cabins, yurts, and easy access to trails. We have Verizon and had wonderful cell service.

This must be an intermediate to expert mountain bike mecca because of all the attention and care that has been put into miles and miles of well-maintained trails. When it isn't so cold I would like to give that a try. But, even in the freezing temperatures, there were several diehard bikers enjoying the experience. The hiking trails were good, too. A lot of time and work has been put into this park.

One night my husband was sitting by the fire he just made and three Canada geese came up out of the water. They sat by the fire with him. It was so funny. We loved the wildlife. During our stay we saw several squirrels chasing each other around, ducks, a blue heron, and some doves.

This is a park we hope to return to in the future.

Fort Yargo State Park
210 S. Broad St.
Winder, Georgia 30680
Phone: (770) 867-3489

Quiet campground with beautiful sites. No matter where you stay on the lake or in the Forest, it's beautiful here and quiet. Small lake, great fishing, camp hosts are always on site. Tennis courts, swimming, playgrounds and other family and historic things to do. Lots of places to shop and dine out in town of Winder & nearby. Park is within 30 minutes of Athens, Georgia and Mall of Georgia. Highly recommend this Park. Does take up to 40'

Great Park. Camp hosts were awesome friendly. Very convenient access to Dallas.

I’ve been searching for a spot to go with fun mountain bike trails, easy access (1 hr from home), and cell service so I can work from the site. Found it! Very nice campground. Clean bath house. Camp host was very friendly and helpful. I’ll be back.

Nice size lots. Pretty level. Spaced large enough for Class A’s. Very clean and friendly staff.

Friendly welcoming staff and well maintained park. Bathrooms were really clean and many trails for running, hiking, biking and a nice lake for paddling. The park is surrounded by many stores and restaurants to meet your needs.

Overall great campsite. New comfort station, very flat sites, etc.

We came to Fort Yargo on our way to visit out son. It allowed us to avoid the spaghetti bowl in down town Atlanta. Fort Yargo is a well organized State Park with recreational facilities on a small lake. We were traveling with another couple and the management very nicely accommodated our sites next to each other. We were in a well wooded area and nearly unaware of other campers in adjacent sites. Our site was level gravel with a pull through. Our stay was truly very pleasant. We will keep this on our list of places to stay the next time we are in the area.