McIntosh Reserve Park

We pulled into McIntosh Reserve rather hurriedly, as we had plans to visit the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta that day. The price was right, and as gorgeous as the camping spots were we very much wish we had been able to stay longer.
We had the place to ourselves, right next to the riverbank. There is a cool cabin up the hill to poke around in and it looks like a great place for family gatherings. Tons of space, even if there had been other campers there. We did make the mistake of turning off of the highway too early as there are two roads of the same name- Mcintosh Circle and E McIntosh Circle. E. Mcintosh took us down a residential street with a tight back-and-turn to get out again. Sometimes you can rely on GPS, sometimes you can't!
We would absolutely stay here again, and for several days!

Three stars are not reflective of a camping experience. Read on to better understand. This is informational only.

Called to make reservation from site listed. Spoke to rep. Campsites are first come first serve only - no reservations. All sites are primitive with no hookups and no dump station. Was advised that some sites might fit an RV, so if you have a larger rig you may wish to scout this location first.

Star rating is only to fill in necessary information. If you are primitive camping this place could be fantastic. We were unable to verify or make a proper assessment as we require hookups and reservation. Please take that into consideration.

Three stars are not reflective of a camping experience. Read on to better understand. This is informational only.

Called to make reservation from site listed. Spoke to rep. Campsites are first come first serve only - no reservations. All sites are primitive with no hookups and no dump station. Was advised that some sites might fit an RV, so if you have a larger rig you may wish to scout this location first.

Star rating is only to fill in necessary information. If you are primitive camping this place could be fantastic. We were unable to verify or make a proper assessment as we require hookups and reservation. Please take that into consideration.

If you’re seeking a wooded camping experience at a meticulously cared for 400+ acre reserve, river access and miles of beautiful hiking and horse back riding trails, McIntosh Reserve will not disappoint. The pictures say it all, but I’ll add a few personal thoughts about our week-long camping experience there.

We arrived after hours, so we had to find our way to the camping area ourselves (signage isn’t great). Go past the entrance/ranger station, continue down the road past the log cabin recreation, down the hill and you’ll see a “main camping area” sign in the right leading down a dirt road. Follow that down and to the right which leads to an open field area. Drive down about a quarter of a mile and you’ll start to see numbers nailed to trees on the left and cement picnic tables in the woods by the river. This is the camping area. Pull in there wherever you want right into the trees (or you can park in the grass).

Cell signal is SPOTTY throughout the park... most of the time it’s 1 bar of 4G (AT&T and Verizon) occasionally and randomly switching over to LTE. The spot that seems to be the most consistent for reception is at the pavilion overlooking the river and council bluff (top of the hill as you enter the camping area from the paved road). There signal was consistently 2 bars of LTE (AT&T and Verizon) with download speeds in the neighborhood of 12-30mbps (iPhone X and AT&T Nighthawk tested here). Down at the campsites, not much signal to speak of, but with a MIMO antenna attached to our Verizon hotpot we were able to get enough bandwidth to stream Hulu (with occasional buffering). Actually talking on the phones wasn’t really doable with such weak signal.

There are a handful of garbage cans throughout the main camping area, 1 for every 2 sites or so. This is dry camping, and there is no dump station in the reserve, but there is a water spigot on the left side of the road just as you pull off the paved road into the main camping area (about 10 feet off the road in the woods).

There are other areas to camp in the reserve (mostly tent spot), but the location by the river is the most scenic.

I was surprised how well kept the park grounds were. Acres and acres of manicured lawns; hundreds of trees carefully trimmed and weed-whipped around... they must have an army to keep this placing looking the way they do, yet we saw almost no one the entire time we were there.

I can echo the previous reviewers comment about feeling like you have the whole place to yourself. We came on a Sunday and left in a Friday and most of the time was spent without any other campers around. None. Could have been the time of year, but I get the feeling this park is often this way.

Oh, and there are turtles... hundreds of turtles! Out in the river, they’ll be sunbathing in the rocks. You’ll see them if you take the river walk path from the camping area heading up river.

Would have given it 5 stars if the cell signal was a little more reliable (for those working on the road). One of favorite spots in the South for sure.

We spent 2 days and 1 night camped near the river overlook pavilion. We arrived early and left late. It was the Tuesday after the memorial day weekend. There were only 2 campsites occupied in the whole camping area. The other campers were down by the river about a 1/4 mile away over a hill. So it was like we had the 500 acre park to ourselves. The head ranger and staff are very nice and told us except for a few holiday weekends they are never over 1/2 full. There is only one shower for men and one for women in the whole park. It was clean and there are several toilets in the same building. There is no power or water hookups. There are random places around the park to get water but no hookups. You can use generators during generator hours. There is a small water park with water spraying in the air from different nozzles but you are not allowed to swim in the river which was muddy and high when we were there. We had a lot of fun riding bikes and walking. The old 2 story cabin was nice to visit. The river overlook is nice also.