Continuing our travels in Georgia, we decided to try out FDR State Park. It’s between Columbus and Atlanta, which made it a nice short trip from our previous location at River Bend Road county park.

About FDR State Park

FDR State Park has 115 RV and tent sites. And when they say tent sites, that really means tent sites. Many of the sites at the park have unlevel ground to deal with so they countered that with making a square space for tents that was reasonably level. But those areas are surrounded by 4×4 timbers that are not really meant for rvs. So make sure to look well at the site-specific picture to make sure your setup will fit in there. You can get the full map on the FD Roosevelt State Park website or click here!

The sites in the 100 and 200 section near the lake are quite pretty and would have been nice for a few days, but be aware that those are also the first sites to get reserved so it’s a bit more crowded in there even on weekdays.

We ended up getting a campsite in the 300s area (site 307) that was far from the lake but had a lot more open sites during the week.

One other thing to mention – we were right next to the bathrooms and the light they installed there was BRIGHT. I mean super bright. We actually had to use our reflectix window coverings on that side of the rig to get a decent night sleep. So unfortunately, this is not a great place for stargazing. But you’ll be able to get to the bathroom easily no matter what!

IF you’re visiting with friends who don’t own RVs or tents, FDR looks like they have some really nice cabins right on the bluff. We saw several of them while hiking the Long Leaf Trail. Some of them had porches that really looked amazing!

Hiking near FDR State Park

Hiking was the main reason we chose to come to this state park. Right now it’s February so it’s a bit chilly most of the time to bring out our inflatable kayaks. So our focus more recently has been going on hikes to enjoy some outdoor exercise.

This park has quite a few trails but not all are easily accessible from the park. That caused us some challenges since we didn’t take our camper off the truck during our stay. So a lot of the trails to the east of the campground were just not going to happen on this trip.

That being said, there were still a lot of trails. We took 3 major hikes in the area and all will get your heart pumping a bit with the elevation changes. And that’s what we were primarily looking for. Here’s our thoughts on the trails:

Long Leaf Loop Trail

Our first hike was essentially the Long Leaf Loop trail plus some minor extra steps to get to it from our campground. This was quite a bit of elevation changes for us unfit folks here, but still quite doable. You are hiking on the side of a mountain basically and there are lots of boulders to see and cross, which was kind of cool.

We forgot to turn on the app when we started but you get the point… 🙂

The one thing we had to get over, though, was that there was no magical location on the trail that you were aiming for – this was simply a consistent hike through the woods. Even in the winter you didn’t have great vista views unless you were behind the FDR Park office.

Pine Mountain & Chestnut Oak Trail

While perusing the maps, we saw that we could hike to a local Country store and restaurant, so that seemed pretty cool. We haven’t been going out for meals in quite some time, so a change of pace sounded good.

Not surprisingly, this was a pretty rocky path as well. At the tip near the country store is the actual FDR park sign, which is a great photo moment.

The country store itself was pretty cute. The food was ok and the break from ham sandwiches on the hike was a nice change (although we ended up eating that ham sandwich for dinner, ha!). If you’re not into hiking, you can take the drive here, and there’s ample parking. Bonus is that they do have some nice scenic views from the parking lot as well!

Mountain Creek Nature Trail

If you can only do one trail at FDR state park, this would be the one to do. It’s not too long but it really does give you the flavor of the area – you walk near a creek, climb some hills, see a lot of the different trees and plants in the area.

Earl

We currently do not travel with animals but we love to live vicariously through other’s pets. On this trip, however, we were able to interact with the local squirrel, who we called Earl. Earl had obviously been fed by other campers – to the point where we thought he was going to jump on Gary’s shoulder for some sunflower seeds! He certainly gave us some amusing moments but ultimately went somewhere else for food.

On next week’s video, we’ll walk through the last hike here at FDR State Park. Stay tuned!

Camping Locations

If you’re interested in seeing all of the places we’ve stayed in 2022, I’m keeping a (mostly) updated list on Google Maps by Month. Enjoy!