Sweetwater Creek Campground

Sweetwater State Park is a great spot for a camping trip for sure. The lake is beautiful there, they have a nice bathroom, the campsites even have electric and running water you can use! The one thing I wish I would have known before going out there for the night was that the campsites where you pitch your tent are extremely hard ground and gravel. You’ll absolutely want to bring extra cushion for under your sleeping bag. Don’t be a fool like me, and wake up in pain haha.

I stayed here for four nights. Lovely campsite and nice people. I didn’t make it before the office closed on my check-in day, and the rangers texted the code for the gate to my phone so I could still get in. Getting in requires a code to open the road gate, which provides a sense of security and safety. While you do need to walk to the tent sites, it’s a fairly short walk. Do be prepared to carry your things, but it was surprisingly enjoyable not having the car right next to the tent. There are only five tent sites, and they aren’t too close together. It really did feel like you were camping out in the woods. The tent sites have water and electricity, a picnic table, fire pit, grill, and a pole that I believe is to hang up food or a trash bag. The ground is very hard and rocky, which makes staking down the tents difficult, even with a mallet and even with the soil wet from rain. The rocks are very sharp and I did cut my knee on one through the tent floor, so I would heavily recommend bringing a sleeping pad or something else to lie on. There are a lot of ants all over the tent sites, ranging from small sugar ants, to large black ants. Check your tents for any holes and patch them before setting up here and avoid bringing food in the tent with you if you don’t want them in the tent with you. During one night, a very large tree branch, big enough to classify as a log, fell from a nearby tree directly in the path leading to the tent. Just a few feet over and it would’ve landed on me while I slept. I’m unsure if this was a one-off thing, or if there’s a tree by tent site #5 that is threatening to fall, but it unnerved me enough I figured I’d just caution people about it. There are picnic tables, a playground, and beautiful view of a lake behind the yurt village. The walk to the bathroom is a little bit far, but not bad. There are mosquitos and bugs inside, but no more than is typical of a park bathroom. It is fairly clean inside. The shower’s heat takes a good long while to heat up, and the water pressure is lackluster, but it’s functional and nice for when you’re too hot. While there were one or two things that bothered me a bit with this campground, overall I really enjoyed my stay here, and will be returning if I’m in the area again.

Everyone I interacted with at the information center, the bait shop were very helpful. I ended up reserving one of the campsites over the weekend and they had an option to deliver firewood to your site when you check in. The bathrooms were clean and the trails looked safe. I'll highly recommend this place if you want a quick escape.

Recently stayed in a yurt here, after enjoying the ones up at Cloudland Canyon. I was quite disappointed, unfortunately. The yurts are well constructed, but uncomfortable for summer camping. There is no AC, and while the website says the high ceilings and ceiling fan "keep the yurt cool", the fan was pitiful and it was often cooler outside than inside. Even a small unit would have helped, we were roasting in there, even after sundown. The other issue is the lack of cleanliness. I don't expect a spotless yurt, I don't expect no bugs or no dirt, but I do expect that someone is coming through to tidy. There were MONTHS old cobwebs everywhere inside the yurt, I'm talking about the huge, thick, dusty kind that only form if you don't clean for a LONG time. Ceiling, walls, all over the furniture. We had to sweep it out when we arrived as there was a substantial amount of dust, dirt, and gravel all over the floor. There was also a strange red stain that I'm not sure if it was blood. Very weird. Our firepit was full of garbage when we arrived and I feel like we deserve some kind of discount bc we were not alerted that the grill for our yurt was completely broken. Not just a little, and not recently. Just completely rotted and unusable. The bathrooms were fine, but far below the cleanliness par. Again, I expect to see spiders and moths and millipedes, I do not expect entire colonies of spiders to be living directly next to the toilet paper dispensers. The toilets themselves were clean, at least, but the amount of other filth was surprising. The decks were nice, the playground is nice, the views are fantastic, but overall I would not come back here. I spent my trip sticky and hot and uncomfortable and generally displeased with the state of the yurt. If you want this but good, visit Cloudland instead.

This is a great place to meet up for a picnic or to grill with friends and family. They also have a great camping area as well. I will definitely be returning.