Elijah Clark State Park - Lincolnton, GA

ctechbob

ctechbob

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Elijah Clark State Park | Department Of Natural Resources Division

ReservationsEventsPhotosPark Map
gastateparks.org gastateparks.org

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33°50'58.9"N 82°23'52.8"W

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Stay Dates - November 17-19, 2023
Site#: 48
Site Type: Back In
Full Hookups: No (Water+Power - Dual Dump Station at exit)
Bob Rating: 9/10
Would Stay Again?: Yes

With 172 electric/water campsites, EC is a pretty big campground. We picked a waterside site for this trip and were not disappointed. Bigger than most sites we've been to our site was listed to take up to a 50' RV, and there would probably still be room to spare, although it is a 30a-only site (But there are 2-30a connections with separate breakers, so bring your adapters if you're a 50 amper) This time of year, the Army Corp lets the big lakes in this area down so that people can work on their docks, plus we're in a bit of a drought here in GA so levels were lower than usual as well.

To be honest, this was mostly a 'get out of town and sleep' weekend for the two of us. We didn't make a lot of plans other than to walk the dog, watch the football game on Saturday (UGA v Tenn), read, sleep, etc. So, we didn't get to explore the area much, but the part we did see was nicely kept with lots of space. The cable tv was a bit spotty, but being as the only channel we needed (CBS) was working, we were happy.

There seemed to be a good mix of wooded and lake-view sites with some interesting pull-through sites available.

Overall, this is a big win for us as it is only a little over an hour from home, and it is a nice place to boot.

This pic is a bit of an optical illusion. It looks like the lake is right up on the campsite, but there is actually a LOT of room behind the trailer.

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This is with my back to the lake, tons of space.


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This is 180 degrees around from the last pic:


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Our power/water/cable pedestal. The box looks grungy, but there were 2 30a connections inside with fairly new breakers.

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Plenty of space. I'm not even backed the whole way up to the rear of the site and there is still plenty of room in front of the truck.

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Wayne said:
Campgrounds with lots of mature trees are great, as long as they don't scrape the trailer. It looks to be a real nice campground and even has a miniature golf course:

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33°50'58.9"N 82°23'52.8"W · 33.849694, -82.398000

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Everything is very well maintained. Even the biggest of trailers won't have tree issues as they've kept the roads very well pruned.

We intended to do the mini-golf thing but I think we both ended up asleep for the part of the afternoon before the game that we'd planned on doing it.

For some reason, the time change has really been kicking our butts this year. I'm ok during the week, but weekends (every other) are a real struggle when I'm off work. All I can do to get my butt in gear on those days.
 
ctechbob said:
For some reason, the time change has really been kicking our butts this year. I'm ok during the week, but weekends (every other) are a real struggle when I'm off work. All I can do to get my butt in gear on those days.
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Darkness at 5:00 tells our bodies it's time to sleep.
 
that's a nice area of the country. Doesn't that area have a Strom Thurmond Dam or reservoir?
in fact I am going up to Hendersonville NC on the 29th, was thinkin of wandering back to Fla via the area you currently are in..
maybe I will check it out.. I quit doing to 750 mile trailer pulls in one shot like I used to, now I take 3 days to get from SWFLA to NC.

if you have been working 3rd shift since 2015, yeah it takes a toll
I always liked the late shifts ( aka say 3 pm to 11 pm) but not the sundown to sunup work ( aka 10 pm to 6 am) .
favorite oddball hours I worked was 4 pm to 2 am... because you get back in bed when it is still dark
which does something for the pysche that sleeping only in daylight hours takes away.
 
That's Lake Strom Thurmond you're looking at in the pictures. The State of Georgia recognizes it as Clarks Hill Lake, for....reasons.

Pretty much all of the state parks we've been to along the lake chain that is the Savannah River have been great. I think this park is our favorite so far though, just based on the size of the site we were able to get.

It's our second shift, we work 12-hour shifts, so add some REALLY long nights into that.

Ripped from Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org

Lake Strom Thurmond - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

"Until 1987, the lake was called Clarks Hill Lake after the nearby South Carolina town of Clarks Hill named for Augusta businessman John Mulford Clark (1813-1880). (See "Years Gone By: Information on the Origin of the Names Clarks Hill," Reservoirs—Clarks II Subjects, DOC-1991, Georgia Archives, Morrow.) On December 3, 1987, two days before long-time South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond's 85th birthday, Representative Butler Derrick of South Carolina introduced a bill before Congress to rename the lake after Thurmond.[6][5]

The bill quickly passed through Congress and was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on December 23, 1987.[7] Many residents of both states were upset by the sudden change of name of the lake and the dam, which had not been open to public comment.[8] In response, a group of Georgia legislators, led by Representative Doug Barnard, Jr. (who was the only Georgia co-sponsor of the original 1987 bill) introduced a federal bill to rename the lake as "Clarks Hill" once again. That bill, however, was unsuccessful, and the name remained unchanged.

On April 4, 1989, the State of Georgia legislature passed House Resolution No. 115 making "Clarks Hill" the official state name for both the dam and associated reservoir.[2] Accordingly, Georgia's state map still refers to the lake as Clarks Hill.[9] Many residents of Georgia as well as South Carolina still refer to the lake by its original name."
 
Ctech.. people will call something by the old name everybody knew it by even if the officials rename it something else. Of course on the maps it might get labelled as something else.

perfect example would be me calling the Stadium the Dolfins play is as Joe Robbie Stadium... because Joe Robbie built it and it was its first name.. that stadium has changed names four or five times now and most of the locals still call it Joe Robbie Stadium.
 
Stayed here again this past weekend. It is quickly becoming one of our favorite state parks for a weekend getaway. The lake is nice, the campsites have great space, etc.

This trip though, we had a bit of a problem when it came time to leave. When I plugged this in, everything felt solid, felt like a good connection, etc. Trying to pull it out....that's another matter.

So much for that plug. Waiting on the replacement from Amazon. I'm just going to replace the end.

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ctechbob said:
Stayed here again this past weekend. It is quickly becoming one of our favorite state parks for a weekend getaway. The lake is nice, the campsites have great space, etc.

This trip though, we had a bit of a problem when it came time to leave. When I plugged this in, everything felt solid, felt like a good connection, etc. Trying to pull it out....that's another matter.

So much for that plug. Waiting on the replacement from Amazon. I'm just going to replace the end.

View attachment 3175
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yeah, I just replaced two of those on two different cords.. at least they are cheap...

I wish I had somewhere close that I could go to for the weekend that wasn't in Florida.. realistically its about 700 miles to get out of this summer climate . I'm pretty sure were have had a Heat Advisory almost every day for the last month.. I don't know what cutoff point the NWS uses when deciding to issue a heat advisory but it must be about a heat index of 105. But its pretty much like that every day...
 
MSCH said:
yeah, I just replaced two of those on two different cords.. at least they are cheap...

I wish I had somewhere close that I could go to for the weekend that wasn't in Florida.. realistically its about 700 miles to get out of this summer climate . I'm pretty sure were have had a Heat Advisory almost every day for the last month.. I don't know what cutoff point the NWS uses when deciding to issue a heat advisory but it must be about a heat index of 105. But its pretty much like that every day...
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Thinking about it, I should have ordered two of them. Being that they will be field replaceable now, no reason not to have a spare on hand just in case.
 
ctechbob said:
Thinking about it, I should have ordered two of them. Being that they will be field replaceable now, no reason not to have a spare on hand just in case.
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yeah, its way better to have extra stuff like that in a box than playing Ruined Vacation and going on a parts hunt in BFE..
 
I didn't take a single picture this weekend but.

Site #57 and 58. Be prepared to either lock your rear axle or engage 4wd in order to pull your rig out of these spots. The entry/exit is fairly steep for a campsite and loose gravel.

Also the 30a breakers on site 58 need replaced, and so does at least one of the outlets. I could not run the AC and water heater without popping the breaker in about 2 min.

Also, there are some fairly large trees at the entrance to the sites, and they are close. New RV backers need not apply, you'll hit one of the trees.
 
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