Overview
McKinney Campground is a beautiful campground located on Lake Allatoona, a half hour Northwest of Atlanta near Acworth and Cartersville. Most of the sites are on the water which makes boating and swimming (with feet protection) convenient. There is a beach, but surprisingly no playground. There is much to do at McKinney, even without a playground. If you have a boat, you will especially enjoy the ability to park it conveniently near your campsite (in many sites). If you enjoy rockhounding, you should also be entertained at McKinney.


Adventure Journal
Entry Date: September 2010
On this visit to Lake Allatoona, we stayed in site #88 right on the water. All sites are nice, but this and the surrounding sites are especially convenient to the water.

It was Harvest at the Homestead weekend, an event occurring at Red Top Mountain State Park that brought us to Lake Allatoona this time. We chose McKinney as the place to stay because of the incredible lakefront sites, and because Red top Mountain is accessible by boat. It's always more fun to go in a boat! We spent a good part of the day at Red Top Mountain, but when we got back, we enjoyed a beautiful evening at the campsite, and doing a little fishing and rockhounding.

Rockhounding at McKinney - Lake Allatoona is fed by the Etowah River which winds its way down from Dahlonega, the site of the first Gold Rush in the US. Placer gold (gold that has washed down creek beds from deposits in the mountains) can still be found in the creeks that feed the Etowah. Gold is typically found in quartz, and quartz abounds at McKinney. Now I'm not saying there's gold in the quartz at McKinney, but there are lots other colors. Rocks that don't look like much on the ground often polish-up beautifully. We found some rose quartz that I believe will look great polished. We also found some rock with  pale blue crystals I couldn't identify (yet). I will polish them and post the pictures.

There is much layered rock here as well. Layers often mean fossils, although I found none. There are fossils in the quartz, but they are difficult to identify.

With regards to the gold, that will be a future trip. Across the peninsula from McKinney is another Corps of Engineers campground called "Payne". It sits across a cove from Kellogg Creek, a place known for gold. we'll camp at Payne sometime soon so we can ride to the mouth of Kellogg Creek in the boat and pan the day away. Just a note about panning at Allatoona - before you pull out the tools, read the rules.
                         
The Richardson Tribe

For more pictures and prior entries, scroll down.



Entry Date: July 2010
McKinney Campground is near Red Top Mountain State Park, so we were interested as soon as we heard about it. We love Red Top Mountain State Park, and we really like their campground, but RV sites are not lakefront (that we could find). Another nice feature of McKinney is the ability to reserve specific sites. It sure makes you rest easier knowing that you have a site, and even better if you know which one.

We borrowed Paw Paws fishing boat and a couple of kayaks so we would have plenty to do. Our site was on the lake, but pretty high up on a hill. Not a good place to park a boat. We met some friendly campers just downhill, and, like most all campers would, they said they did not mind us accessing the lake there (we will stay in that site in the future). 
                         
The Richardson Tribe

Up
Amicalola Falls State Park
Beaches of South Walton.
Berry College
Big Kahunas
Biltmore House
Blairsville, Georgia
Callaway Gardens
Cataloochee Ski Area
Cave Spring
Cedar Creek Park
Charlestown State Park
Chattahoochee Bend State Park
Chattanooga Zoo
Chehaw Park
Cherry Hill Park
Chester Frost Park
Chieftains Museum
Choccolocco Mountain Off Road Park
Cloudland Canyon
Cloudmont Ski and Golf
Consolidated Gold Mine
Cohutta Wilderness
Cumberland Island
Dauset Trails
Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort
Desoto State Park
Doll Mountain Campground
Dollywood
Dunnaway Gap
Enota Mountain Retreat
Etowah Indian Mounds
Fall Creek Falls State Park
Florala State Park
Franklin D Roosevelt State Park
Fort Mountain State Park
Georgia Mountain Fairground
Georgia Veterans State Park
Gold n Gem Grubbin'
Helen Georgia
Hillcrest Orchards
James H Floyd State park
James Island Park
Jellystone Park- Cave City, KY
John Tanner Park
Lake Allatoona
Lake Sidney Lanier
Lake Winnepesaukah
Little River Canyon Center
Live Oak Landing
Lula Lake Land Trust
Mammoth Cave National Park
McIntosh Reserve
McKinney Campground
Moto Mountain Powersports
New Echota - Cherokee Capitol
Noccalula Falls Park details and pictures
Old Stone Fort Archaeology State Park
Pine Moutain RV
Red Top Mountain State Park
Ridge Ferry Park
Rocky Mountain Recreation Area
Rock Town - Pigeon Mountain
Rome GA
Salt Springs Recreation Area
Silver Springs
Stone Mountain Park
Tanglewood Farm
Tannehill State Park
Tellus Science Museum
The Southern Museum
Topsail Hill Preserve
Townsend KOA
Townsend Tennessee
Twinbrook Resort
Up The Creek RV Camp - Park Details - Pictures
US Space and Rocket Center - Details and Pictures
Vogel State Park
Wild Animal Safari
World of Coke
Zoo Atlanta - Details and Pictures

Features

Rating (1-10)

Description

Official website 9 The Army Corps of Engineers has a very nice website, but as usual, pictures are in short supply. Making reservations is a great experience because the website provides campsite specific details and an interactive campground map.
Campground - Reserve

8

150 Tent, Trailer, RV Campsites (**$22) - No full hookups. Beautiful campground. Count on seeing deer, they're protected here. One of our favorite campgrounds!
Geocaching

*

Geocaching is available, but we didn't have a chance.
Boating

8

We have grown to love Allatoona, but it can get crowded at times. The water seems very clean and marinas abound.
Fishing

8

Allatoona has been here for over 50 years, so the fish population has had plenty of time to establish. Fishing is good.
Rockhounding

8

 Lake Allatoona is fed by the Etowah River which flows down from North Georgia's gold-bearing mountains. You can pan up river in some of the streams feeding the river. We also found lots of quartz of varying shades and some unidentified rocks (will post pictures).
Local Attractions

9

Red Top Mountain State Park (accessible by boat on Lake Allatoona), Tellus Northwest Georgia Science Museum, Booth Western Art Museum. What is notable is that each of these local attractions is in our top picks. This is a great place to stay!
*Note: We rate only the amenities we have personally reviewed.
**Accommodation pricing is based on 2010 Army Corps of Engineers website pricing.

No financial consideration or favor has been received for listing in PB&J Adventures' website. We are in no way affiliated with this facility or any other facility we review. Any paid advertising seen on this site was arranged after the destination was reviewed. You can trust the reviews to be unbiased.

September 2010



Rockhounding at McKinney




Bartow County (where McKinney is located) is one of the most diverse and rich mineral sites in the state of Georgia. To pay homage to that fact, there was once a modest little facility in Cartersville, Georgia called the Weinman Mineral Museum. It was kind of small and old, but it was very well run with some very nice displays. The Richardson Tribe visited several times. Then someone did something to that little museum. They made it grand! First, they built a massive structure around the little museum, then they filled it with total awesomeness. Now it has a  fossil gallery, a transportation gallery, an observatory, a theater, a planetarium, a hands-on physical science gallery, and a a  a fossil dig and gem grubbing for kids, and yes, they still have the mineral gallery, but now larger and better than ever. The museum is now called the Tellus Science museum. If you are visiting the area, or just passing through, you owe it to yourself to visit.


July 2010