Hiwassee-Ocoee River State Park

Hiwassee / Ocoee River State Park was my very first camping experience in Tennessee.  At this point in time I’d gotten used to running around other states where if you came to a state park after their office closed for the day you would go through all sorts of hassles to check in.  But this experience, and I’d later see most of the Tennessee State Parks system, are very chill by comparison to their peers.  I rolled in after hours, there wasn’t a gate to hassle with, I did not have to hunt any special information down, I didn’t have to contact someone for a gate code, none of that nonsense!  This experience started my love for the way Tennessee does things.

Hiwassee / Ocoee River State Park is a river park, adjacent to the mighty Hiwassee, a declared State Scenic River.  People tube, raft and kayak this thing daily.  It has a strong current and rapids, so this isn’t a river to take lightly either.  It is impressive, and the park has a lovely nature trail near parts of the water from the day use and campground areas, as well as a boat launch.

I however came to check the place out on my way elsewhere, because of the campground and the location.  The campground is known as the Gee Creek Campground, a primitive campground.  I like when something calls itself primitive, because it usually means it won’t be crazy full of people.  But this is sort of semi-primitive.  There’s no power in the sites, but there are shared water spigots near them.  There is a fully functional bathhouse in the campground as well.  So really, it is just a campground without all the things the RV crowd likes, but with plenty of amenities to refresh and reset yourself daily.  There are also plenty of trees for shade, and happily this is not one of those places that has been built up with a bunch of cement.  I got to put my tent on dirt and loved it.

The site I had was near the water, and a lot of them are, and my trip was in the fall.  I was not shocked that there were still plenty of mosquitoes given the water nearby.  Aside from a few squirrels there wasn’t much else there to be concerned with wildlife wise.  I suspect however that must not hold true all the time because this campground is on the edge of the Cherokee National Forest.  The forest literally has a boundary next door to the state park!  Which makes this a great place to access the forest from by the way.  So maybe more wildlife wanders in from time to time.  This made the location great for my purposes though because there are a few waterfalls and trails not far from the state park that were on my agenda: Twin Falls & Lowry Falls.  When I did make it to the park office during normal operating hours I even encountered super friendly staff, so I highly recommend this park on all sorts of levels.