The Quick Rundown

Time of Year: Mid-May

Site: 6

Where Would We Stay Next Time: Likely the same loop if we weren’t worried about cell service. Otherwise somewhere in site 85-106 to have better service & still maintain 50A hookup.

Waterfront Site: Yes

Length of Stay: 3 Nights

First Time Visit or Return Trip: First Time Visit

Rig: 36′ Fifth Wheel

Cell Provider – Coverage: Verizon – Virtually None, Text Message Only

TV Antenna Coverage: No Channels Found

Cost ($,$$ or $$$): $ ($30/night total)

3 Pros: 1) Lake Access 2) Convenience to Home 3) Secluded Wooded Site

3 Cons: 1) No Beach Area 2) No Cell Service 3) Loops with Tight Sites

Bathhouse Rating (The Ritz, The Holiday Inn or The Motel 6): The Motel 6

Would we go Back: Yes, Beautiful Lakefront Camping Close to Home. Remember to follow along with us on Instagram (@fifth.wheeling) for past and future adventures!

The Long Rundown

This was our 4th time camping on West Point Lake and our 1st time at R. Shaefer Heard. We love trying out all of the local COE Campgrounds! We snagged a reservation about 4 months in advance for a lakefront site on Recreation.gov. Our site was in Loop A, and I felt it was the nicest loop in the campground. There are tons of trees for shade and plenty of spacing between sites. This may or may not be a negative for you, but Loop A virtually has no cell service for Verizon. This was our shakedown trip with our new fifth wheel, and in hindsight I should have paid attention to reviews about cell coverage. Typically we wouldn’t mind unplugging for a weekend, but we had a couple of minor issues come up with our “new to us” fifth wheel and it would have been great to be able to Google or YouTube our questions. I quickly learned that the users manual is less useful than I thought it’d be.

Overall, the park is great. There is a small playground for the kids and the loops are spaced out nicely so it doesn’t feel crowded at all. Site 6 is right on the water and the lake level was slightly down, so we were able to easily walk right out into the water. I swam with the girls for hours and they could still stand about 30 feet out into the lake. They had a blast and didn’t miss the central beach area we’ve been used to at other campgrounds. Our site was on the eastern shore of the lake, so we had beautiful sunsets. We were also early enough in the year that we had minimal issues with bugs. We’d had major issues with ants and flies at other West Point Lake campgrounds in previous years, but it’s likely because we were camping later in the summer during those trips.

We still remain partial to some of our favorite COE campgrounds on Lake Lanier & Lake Allatoona. However, coming from the south side of Atlanta, it was fantastic to not have to battle city traffic on our first trip. This was our favorite campground on West Point Lake, so we’ll definitely plan another trip. While we loved the sites on Loop A the most, we had much better cell service on the other end of the park so we’ll likely try out one of those next.

Have you ever been to R. Shaefer Heard? Let us know your thoughts!