After our one night stay at the Savannah Visitor’s Center, we moved just a few miles outside of the city to Skidaway Island State Park. Upon arrival we were greeted by more moss draped trees. I don’t think I could ever get sick of this view.
Skidaway is one of those parks where you can’t reserve a specific spot. Upon check in they give you the park map highlighted with available sites and you drive around and choose your spot. This can be good or bad. For us it worked out really well. Since it was our first visit and the online map doesn’t really represent what the campground looks like, it would have been hard to choose ahead of time. Of course, it you already have a favorite site and you show up to find some one else in it…well then you’re out of luck. Luckily most of the sites here are really nice.
All of the sites are pull thrus listed as 50 feet or longer. In some cases that might be a bit of an exaggeration, especially when you factor in the trees. But for the most part the sites are all large with huge sitting areas. About half of the sites are full hook-ups, and the other half offer water and electric only. They also have cable here, but it’s currently not working throughout a good portion of the park. Not something we really care about, especially after having it last week and confirming that there’s still nothing on that we want to watch. Our one complaint is the price. $39 for electric and water, or $45 for full hook-ups, plus a one time $5 parking fee (because camping isn’t parking?) Having never stayed at a Georgia State Park we don’t know if this price structure is typical, or the close proximity to Savannah makes for higher fees. Either way, it appears that plenty of people are willing to pay because we hardly saw any empty spots all week.
After circling around a few times we ended up on the edge of Camping Area 4 in a skinny site with a huge yard surrounded by giant trees.
When we first drove past this site Tim remarked, “that would be a hard site to get into,” and then I of course decided it was the one we had to have. Turns out it wasn’t so difficult, and we loved the feeling of being tucked into the trees. There were some downsides to all these trees though. Mainly the mess! We put out the awning early in the week so we could have a place to step outside the door without getting wet during the daily rain showers. Four days later it, along with the Airstream and truck roof, were covered with pollen and oak tree buds.
We’re starting to fear that our exterior might never be clean again. The pollen combined with the near constant rain showers this week has created a sticky yellow coating that has left our roof more yellow then silver. Good thing we didn’t need our solar panels!
Although it rained every day during our stay, it never rained all day, and we were able to get out for some short walks and bike rides on the trails. The park has three short but scenic trails, and our favorite part was, you guessed it, lots of moss covered trees.
We had the best intentions to do some more exploring outside of the park this week. But between the rain, work obligations, and the fact that two of the three things we wanted to do closed at 4:30 (so not cool), it ended up being the kind of week where we spent the majority of our time at the campground. The one thing we did do was visit nearby Tybee Island. First stop – the lighthouse.
We wanted to visit the museum and climb to the top of this impressive structure, but it closed at 5:30 and they sell the last ticket at 4:30. We arrived about five, and wandered around outside with about 15 other people who probably would have gladly payed the $9/person entry fee had they still been open. Oh well. Next we meandered down to the beach just in time to see a huge container ship make its way up the Savannah River. This end of the beach was COVERED with shells. So many that I felt bad walking around on them. Sorry little shells.
From there we drove down to the southern end of the island and took a longer walk on the beach as the sun set and the clouds rolled in. It was a short visit to Tybee Island, but from what we saw it looked like a cute little beach community that is probably hopping with people during the summer months.
That’s it for Savannah and Georgia. I kind of wish we had been able to explore around a little more, but we’re committed to a schedule that has us moving north fairly quickly. And since we don’t have the luxury of exploring all day everyday, there’s no way we can see and do everything. The good news it that I don’t think Savannah (or Georgia) will be going away anytime soon, so the next time around we’ll have plenty more to discover.
11 comments
Did you check out the Tybee Island campground? We stayed there a few years ago and plan to go again this fall with our 27ft AS. Sites are small but its so nice to stay right on the island and so close to Savannah.
We drove by, but didn’t go in. Since we spent roughly 8 hours a day working from the AS, our priority is usually a large, quiet site over a convenient location. That said, it if the weather had been nicer I would have like to be close to beach.
Another beautiful park, too bad it rained quite a bit. We too are experiencing oak tree blooms and pollen. I spent this morning cleaning our roof…fun! ;-)
Love the Oaks, but hate that pollen!
It looks just wonderful. The shells on the beach were just amazing to me. I would have felt the same way about walking on them. Question for you….is your flag pole one that just goes in the ground or is it attached? I would love to have a flag pole, but we haven’t figured out a good way to attach. Thanks!
The pole is attached to our hitch. It telescopes down to 4-feet when not in use. Here’s a short description Tim wrote about it: http://www.watsonswander.com/flag/
I love Skidaway Island. And the moss draped trees sure make for some beautiful pictures. Safe travels….
Not so excited about those bugs, but I sure love that lighthouse! What a beauty!
Nina
I really wanted to climb to the top and see the light. It was such a gorgeous lighthouse. The bugs seem to be a way of life here in the SE :)
I love that you’re finding all of these great places — you sure are going to make our trip up the East coast next spring easy for us! Thanks for all of the details. We couldn’t care less about cable TV either — in fact, we rarely even find the time to watch a DVD!
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