Clarks Hill Training Center

This is a very quiet, out of the way campground. The pad I used, and looking at the others, was not very level. It sloped toward the rear and because it was gravel and not that well maintained, it was very uneven from side to side. The campground itself is in a very nice location on this facility. The office staff is very friendly and helpful. All the sites have a great view of the lake. The site I was in had a water problem that maintenance was looking into on the Monday I was there. It seemed to be a leak just underground at the spigot. Dish worked well, although I had to put it quite a ways from my trailer and close to the lake. Verizon cell worked just as well for phone and internet. There was one trash can in the campground, I did not see the showers. It is a place I would stay at again if I were passing through the area.

We took a big rig out here to collect intel on this "secret campground." To paraphrase a movie line, "it's on a penninsula that can't be found, 'cept by those who already know where it is." It's tucked away in a National Guard bivouac site -- and we had the entire installation to ourselves this weekend. It's fun to be the base commander! :-) This might be the cheapest place near Augusta during the Masters Tournament. It will certainly appeal to vets with small rigs looking for an overnight retreat on the very popular Lake Thurmond. But if you just need a stopover near Augusta, go somewhere else. This CG is roughly 30 miles north of I-20 and doesn't have full-time gate guards. The lack of a dump station & dumpster makes this truly a short-term CG. (You'll find a dumpster at the maintenance building near the gate entrance.) The CG's port-a-potty was clean & stocked and looked almost new. The nearby "standard issue Army" bath house was warm & clean with communal showers for men and private showers for women. If you can put up with that, it will stretch out your holding tanks. Campers are authorized to use the bath house but it might be off-limits during bivouacs. Pads 5393, 5394, and 5395 sit 40' off the waterline and offer the best view. Every pad is built up with gravel and most of them look level along the sides, but they tend to slope from front to rear. Pad 5397 is crumbling at the rear; the others look good. Big rigs should request pads 5390, 5391, 5394, or 5395 and should walk the site to decide which end of the loop you'll enter. If you overshoot the CG for any reason, there's a paved circle just before the boat ramp. Being the only ones here, we heard no sounds of freedom, but the CG does sit right next to the heliport and the "Alpha Company" bivouac zone is just up the street. Civilian speedboats probably won't get close enough to bother the CG. The CG itself has decent cell phone coverage, plus you'll find a pay phone at the "Charlie Company" picnic area. The boat dock was resting on land thanks to the drought, but the boat ramp itself has been lengthened twice. The mess hall is only open during bivouacs and is probably off-limits then. The staffers have that friendly southern hospitality you'd expect. They say they've actually got plans for sewer & electric upfits. This place may not look like much on the surface but the whole installation is kept up well and it's very clean.