Goose Point Campground

We stayed here for two nights in October of 2022. Loop C, site 2 - long pull thru lakeside site. All of the sites on the outer side of loop C are beautiful. Some being a little longer than others and the ones from maybe 8 to 16 are somewhat close to each other, but the views are awesome. Site 5 is really nice & a bit forget from the neighbors. T-Mobile did not work, but our booster did. I will be getting a video on this section of the CG done at some point. One of our favorites!
Yes, a long road in, but doable - two tight hairpins, but just go slow.

We greatly enjoyed our first visit to Goose Point! It was also our first visit to camp at a Corps of Engineers Recreation area. We thought that the location and facilities were quite good, and the fall (October 26-28, 2021) scenery was superb! We were impressed by how clean everything was kept, compared to many other places where we have camped. Since I have a lifetime Access Pass we got a 50% discount off the $20 per night fee charged in October.

The campsites are located down a long, winding, two-lane road, but it's generally wide enough to accomodate larger RV's. When we arrived, the area was without power or water due to a recent storm, but this was restored in a little over 24 hours. We don't blame anyone for this. OTOH, we truly wish that we had had more information available on the specific characteristics of the campsites when we reserved. We would not have selected campsite #30 if we had known that while the site itself was fairly level, the driveway leading up to it from the park loop was quite steep, and the loop road itself was at that point narrowed down considerably between two dirt embankments. None of this was apparent from the one tiny photograph that was available on the website.

It was quite difficult to back our 23' travel trailer into the campsite, and we even had to get assistance from a kind neighbor. Accordingly, we would NOT recommend site #30 for campers using a travel trailer - only a small to medium sized self-contained RV or pickup camper. The driveways to most of the other campsites were much more level and there was more elbow room on the park loop road.

As for additional activities in the area, on the way up we detoured to visit Mabry Mill just off milepost 176 of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was restored by the National Park Service and is described on their website. It is located west of Goose Point about an hour away. On visiting, some may experience a bit of deja vu, as photos and paintings of this mill have appeared on many calendars and greeting cards over the years.

This is a great COE campground. 50% off with National Park pass (making cost $10-12 night). Sites are decently spaced, clean grounds and bathhouse. Best of all, the lowest loop (LOOC) sits on smack on the lake. You can fish right from the back of your site in many sites. Mostly forested but some sites with sun. Good Verizon signal in most sites. A really nice place, much better than commercial campgrounds and pretty cheap with NP pass. Highly recommended. Would rate 5-stars if it were free.

Price paid does not reflect discount. We had a beautiful view of Philpott Lake from our campsite above the water. Backing our small rig into the site was rather difficult because of the narrow road and no room to swing. The people across from us had to move a car, and we had to do the same thing for someone else who came in later. As mentioned previously, the access to the campground is 5+ miles of a narrow, steep, and very curvy road. There's one hairpin turn that long rigs would have trouble with.

We enjoyed our stay. Drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway to see Mabry's Mill one day, and drove to the impressive dam on another. While in the campground, we thoroughly enjoyed the view of the lake. Once in, the campsite was nice.

The access road in is hilly and windy, as others have mentioned, but a full two lanes wide and not an issue for access, imho. This COE gem has three distinct loops, each about 150' up the hill from the last. We stayed at the bottom, lakeside loop Right on the water. Sites could be flatter and gravel had some serious soft spots that our jacks sank into quite a bit (even with a jackpad). Ho hiking, which is a shame, because it is a beautiful lake. Water and 50A elec hookups. OTA TV reception was okay (point antenna north). No t-mobile at lower loop, but on our daily (steep) hike up the road to the upper camping loops and gatehouse, we'd get a few bars as we got about 100' above the lake. The upper two loops were not open when we were there, but they seemed more for tents and small trailers. Boat ramp and beach, neither of which we used in March 2021.

Short version: We love this campground. Overall it is clean and well-maintained. We plan to come back. We did not find the road hard to navigate while towing a small camper. The town of Martinsville, VA is roughly 12 miles away -- a 30-ish minute drive from campground to the Kroger grocery store.

Full version:
We found this campground by accident last fall and drove through to check it out. For our preferences, sites #27 and #29 on Loop C are best. They are not near the beach, offer good shade (especially #29) and have reasonable access to the bathhouse. We recently stayed at campsite was #27. Site #27 is a pull-through site. (Site #29 is a back-in site.). I would probably choose site #29 over #27 because it is more private and has better shade.

Before we left we spoke with a seasonal employee who lives at the campground and works at the gate/entry station from April through October. He seemed intimately familiar with the campground, so we asked if he had a favorite site:
Site 5 -- if interested in boating or kayaking
Sites 9 & 10 -- if interested in fishing
SIte 16 -- best view

During our initial discovery a year earlier, we noticed that the sites and activity level near the beach are louder and busier. We prefer quieter sites and therefore the ones away for the beach seemed better for us. If we were camping with children, we might prefer to be near the beach and pavilion.

At times the electricity was a bit flakey. We stayed during mid-August with a full campground including numerous large rigs running 50 amps circuits. Everybody had their a/c going. That might be the cause of the issue. It manifested by causing certain appliances (our portable induction cooktop and a battery charger for our portable drill) to show error conditions and temporarily stop working. We worked around the issue by cutting off our a/c for a short period of time. I cannot say for sure the problem is with the campground. It could be with our equipment -- although we have not experienced it anywhere else.

We dependably had 2 bars of Verizon LTE coverage. Connectivity was easy and fast enough to do light work. Downloads were a bit sluggish; uploads were slow. A typical web page (for example a weather report, Amazon, or the front page of the Washington Post) loaded in a reasonable amount of time. Short videos (say a 2 to 5 minute YouTube video) took appreciably longer than anyone would want.

We stayed on Loop C. The other campground loops (A & B) do not have hook-ups. Loop B was enticing but is laid out for tent campers only. Most sites on Loop B are also pretty far from a bathhouse. Loop A was occupied by rigs of every size. The bathhouse is centrally located on Loop A and should be easy to reach get to from most sites.

There is an amphitheater and a fishing dock within a short walk of all campground loops. The weekend we were here happened to be Smokey The Bear's 75th birthday. The rangers had a special program and photo op at the amphitheater.

In case this review left you hopelessly short of detail and in need of more information about this location, Goose Point has a Facebook page started in 2018. It is called Campers Of Goosepoint.

This was the first place we took our class C motorhome for an overnight stay. We ended up staying an extra night because we enjoyed the quiet and peacefulness of the campground.

Driving into the campground was a bit tricky for us because there was a lot of rain and fog, making it a tedious drive with the curves.

We took our dogs on several hikes around the area and they absolutely loved it! We would camp there again!

We always enjoy camping at Goose Point. This time we were in site #11. We saw a black bear on our way into the campground about a mile from the entry gate. This campground is five miles off the main road. The nearest store is six miles away. When we come here we usually never leave the campground. Sites 1-29 are waterfront with the exception to the inside loop sites.