Lake Thurmond Corps of Engineers Park - Augusta, Georgia

J. Strom Thurmond, a politician, served for 48 years as a Senator from South Carolina and ran for the U.S. Presidency in 1948. The dam and lake are named in his honor, but the lake is also known as Clarks Hill Lake since half of the lake is in South Carolina and half in Georgia. There are about 30 campgrounds surrounding the lake, which is actually a reservoir built in 1946-1954. There was some controversy relative to the naming of the lake. Originally it was named Clark Hill Lake after a Civil War hero from Georgia. However, in 1987 Congress renamed the lake after the long term Senator from South Carolina. This really angered the folks on the Georgia side of the lake. In response, the lakes name was changed to include both and it officially became know as the J. Strom Thurmond Dam and Lake at Clarks Hill. To this day, however, Georgia still refers to it as Clark's Lake. When politicians get involved, it seems the fun never stops.....

There is a new and beautiful visitor's center adjacent to the dam itself, with excellent fishing just below the dam.

Getting to the lake, dam and all the campgrounds is done by following another beautiful highway, U.S. 221. The lake is about 12 miles upstream from Augusta. It was created by the dam across the Savannah River.

We have found many of the campgrounds created by the Army Corps of Engineers have spacious sites that will accommodate any size rig. Most of the interior roads have also been widened in order to allow the larger coaches access. This is ONE site at this campground. You enter here and exit on the road on the right. The coach sits sideways overlooking the water.

Jasmine was making sure there were no squirrels wandering around our site before we set up.

This is another example of the spacious sites available at this campground. You can see the electrical pedestal on the right with the picnic table, fire pit, lantern pole and BBQ where Debi is standing. Unfortunately, like most COE parks, there's only water and electric. No sewer, but there are two dump stations at the campground.

While you cannot see the campsite itself in this picture, (follow the access road down and you can see the BBQ stand) this is the access road to the campsite. Each one has it's own access road into and out of each site. Lots of privacy and awesome lake views.

One of several fishing piers within the park. You can see a fishing boat in the background. There are several campsites overlooking this pier, and some sites situated so you can actually fish directly from your site.

Here we are after choosing our site. Notice the spaciousness. We liked this site because of the privacy and the layout. At the back of the site is the walkway directly to the beach. Each site has a fire pit, a BBQ, a built in serving table and a picnic table.

Also on site, is a marina and a swim beach. There are many picnic tables surrounding the swim beach so you can enjoy lunch while spending the day on the sandy beach.

With the America the Beautiful card, a weekly stay was a reasonable, $13/day!