Walter F. George Reservoir Campgrounds

View from Pine Island campground

Today we checked out all three campgrounds here at Walter F. George lake.  They are all spectacular in different ways.

Pine Island

The big expanse of water I was looking for is visible from both the Pine Island campground and some of the sites in the Old Mill Road campground.

The Pine Island campground has a large swimming beach, while the Old Mill Road campground at the other end of the lake has all kinds of convoluted little inlets and gator warning signs!

Our campground, Marina View, has the least shade of the three.  And several of the big rig pull through sites here have a view of only a canal that connects to the lake. However, a lot of boaters like them because there is also parking for their boats.  And a couple of fishermen simply leave their boats in the water.

The swimming beach at Pine Island campground

We saw tenters also in the Old Mill Road loop.

Today, since Sheba chewed Sunny’s eye drops bottle, I had to have my vet at home call in a prescription to a vet in Blakely, about 25 miles from here.  Sunny can’t do without his medication for even a couple of days without the artery in his eye enlarging and turning his pupil bright red, and the rest of his eyes looking like hamburger.  I was so grateful we were able to get the prescription filled locally without having to pay an expensive vet bill.

Crystal clear water

We also had a visitor today who looked at the Casita and exclaimed, “That is the cutest little camper I’ve ever seen!  Is it new?”  He was pretty surprised when I told him it was a 2005.  I asked him if he would like to see the inside, and he was thrilled.

We passed his campsite later while walking the dogs and he enthusiastically told his neighbors, “These are the people in that cute little camper down there!”

View from Old Mill Road campground

Sheba is also getting a lot of fawning attention from the other campers.  Unfortunately she goes into her hyper emotionally out of control puppy mode when she meets strangers.  She just loves everyone–and can really be pretty obnoxious about wanting to jump all over them.  I am surprised at how much energy it takes to camp with a puppy.  She is so good all day, staying in her pen most of the time.

Wide view from Old Mill Road campground

Every time we take her for a walk, we end it with letting her jump in the lake–leashed – after carefully scanning the area for gators.    So by the time she gets in the trailer at night, she has burned off most of her excess energy.

Then she only does minor things — like pulling paper towels out of the trash and chewing them to pieces.

I will REALLY be glad when she gets a little older and calms down a bit!

Gator habitat at Old Mill Road loop

We are really enjoying our stay here.  We have full hookups for only $12 a night with our senior pass!

Old Mill Road has several gator warning signs

Cypress trees by the boat launch area

Geese

The geese casually paraded within 5 feet of where I was standing

The marina from Old Mill Road campground

R. Shaefer Heard COE Campground

Aliner high on a steep bluff

Aliner high on a steep bank

It is 99 degrees at 5:50 p.m. in town.  I think it must be cooler where we are.  We are in the shade and there is a nice breeze off the lake.

It is scary backing just the truck down the steep driveway to our site.  It was hair-raising backing the Aliner in.  But I got it done, even managing to miss the tree at edge of the drive after several — no, make that MANY– tries!

Aliner at R. Shaefer Heard Army Corps of Engineers campground

Our site

The campground is gorgeous.  There are all kinds of sites.  There are some that have smooth, grassy lawns gently sloping right down to the lake.  We drove by that section earlier and there were kids splashing in the water.

My only complaint about the campground is that something died in the nearby woods, and we get a whiff of it now and then.

We haven’t done any hiking since we got here.  When we are active, the heat really gets to us.  If we take it easy, it’s not bad.  It helps being a Florida native and adapted to hot weather.  But we do take a nice air conditioned siesta in the afternoons.

Sunset over West Point Lake

Sunset over West Point Lake

Last night’s sunset over the lake was gorgeous.  A breathtaking palette of mauves and oranges.

I brought my new mushroom book by Michael Kuo and have been studying it.   It is an excellent guide — a great addition to my library.  I am praying for rain so that mushrooms will sprout up while we are here.  It’s never too hot for me to hunt them!

We may get thunderstorms tomorrow.  In fact, it sprinkled lightly

Another sunset shot

Another shot of that gorgeous sunset!

earlier, and we are getting occasional flashes of lightning and distant thunder now.

It’s a pretty steep path to get from our site down to the water.  But there are trees to hold onto.  It has been too hot for us to want to fish, then deal with cleaning them, but we will probably do that before we leave — especially if it cools down a bit.

We are loving being here.  It is so peaceful, so beautiful, and it feels so safe.  We normally don’t like to return to the same campground as there are so many others to explore.  But this one is special to us.

Rocks at the edge of West Point Lake

Rocks at the edge of the lake in front of our site

And the fact that Ron’s senior pass makes the sites 50% off makes it irresistible!

The Aliner at sunset

Ron relaxing by the Aliner at sunset

Made our reservations!

Got our reservations for the West Point Lake campground made today.

Our campsite to be

Our campsite to be

I went ahead and made reservations even though there are several first-come-first-served sites available.  I wanted to be sure we got a nice waterfront spot.

We plan to be there May 5 – 12.  I can already taste the fish!

This picture is from the Recreation.gov reservation website.

The best part is the regular price was $154 for 7 nights.  We got it for $77 with Ron’s senior pass.

Sure makes getting older a lot more fun!  Actually, it makes frequent camping possible for us.  I am so grateful for it!

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