McKinney Campground – 82
06.09.23-06.18.23
Finally found it, my favorite campsite at McKinney Campground. Am I crazy for sharing all the details with everyone? Maybe, but after six years of maintaining this website – I can’t hold back now.
McKinney Campground is located in Acworth, Ga on Lake Allatoona. A Corps of Engineers park, it has 150 RV campsites, two beaches, one playground, and a boat ramp. We have camped at McKinney fourteen times; it’s our go-to campground, nine miles from home. To help you choose your next reservation, details and photos from all of our previous visits can be found in the McKinney Campground category.
This campsite was booked about six months out from the reservation date. When we were staying on site 114 over Spring Break, Heather came back from a run and said that we should book site 82 sometime. Well guess what? I had already reserved it for a week over the summer!
Campsite 82 is a 25-ft back-in site that sits high above the water. It is located on a one-way road in the loop that contains sites 78 through 104. The best features of the campsite are the privacy, shade, and water access. Campsite 82 sits far away from site 83 with many trees between the two. The only other site close by is 81 (right behind you.) This would make a great buddy site situation. Because of all the trees we had plenty of shade throughout the day.
There are two water access points from campsite 82. Straight off the back of the site are stairs down to a path that leads to a rock ledge. This water access is doable with a toddler as long as you hold hands going from the path to the rocks at the water. The large rocks created a ledge that was perfect for little kids to play in and throughout the week we would bring our chairs down and sit with our feet in the water. There are multiple places in this lake access where there is a gradual descent into the water with no big rocks to slip on.
The other water access point was off the front corner of the camping pad. Down a path through the trees leads to a beach entry with small pebbles. This is a great place to shore a boat (if you are staying on campsite 82 or 83.) It would not make sense to shore a boat here if you are staying in any other campsite because you would have to walk through these sites to access the boat. Campsite 83 has its own path down to the water, but this beach area is between the two sites.
What someone might not like about campsite 82 is that it is missing the grand view of the lake and boats going by that you have in campsites such as 34 and 47. Did we have a sunset view? Yes – you could see it through the trees from the camping pad and down by the water it was beautiful. We traded the view for the shade and distance from the lake wind.
Not sure why the website labels campsite 82 at 25-ft. The driveway is rather long. We could fit our 26-ft camper and four cars on the driveway. It would be great for someone who needs space for a boat trailer during their stay. The road in front of site 81 and 82 is great for bike riding. We did the full loop (.8 miles) often throughout the week.
We drove over to the beach and playground a couple times. During the week the campground was less than half full, which surprised me a little. Maybe people canceled because of the weather forecast. We have learned that you can’t always trust that and thankfully it changed for the better more often than not.
We ran out of firewood about halfway through the week and instead of going all the way home we stopped by the seller at the signs by the campground. It’s a gate with a gravel drive right off the main road. There are a few pop-up tents and stacks of wood at the end. Heather said the older gentleman was so nice. He sells it for $20 a stack and seemed to throw in a couple extra pieces. We will purchase from him again!
Unfortunately we did not have our kayaks this trip because our truck was in the shop after being rear-ended. Heather’s brother was super nice to let us use his truck to bring the camper to the site and home at the end of the week, but with his set-up there wasn’t room for the kayaks. Either water access would have been great for putting the kayaks in. The rock ledge off the back of the campsite would have worked as a natural kayak launch, but could have been more difficult to get them up the stairs. I survived with my floats all week.
Places to eat, drink, have fun near McKinney Campground.
We plan to book this campsite again next summer. Will I have more competition now after sharing these details? Maybe. See you on the reservation website six months out!
