Magnus to Mass., with Jamestown Jaunt, Day 3

 Friday August 9

It was a pretty long and tedious drive to Melton Hill Dam Campground, a TVA campground on the Clinch river, just outside the city limits of Knoxville. Which is dammed, of course. The campground is above the dam and fronts onto the lake, but it’s within walking distance of the dam and the tailwater. 

The drive on I-40 was the usual heavy traffic. Going through Nashville always sucks—it’s bumpy and you have to make at least four turns to stay on I-40. First south on I-65/40, then to the left, then…I don’t remember.  It’s well marked, but still confusing.

But on to the campground. I cannot rave about it loudly enough…for tent campers or smallish RVs. I had site 34 reserved and it would have been very challenging for us. Only just long enough for the Magnus Motorhome (there was Jeep parking nearby) and very unlevel front-to-back. Also it was up in the woods with no view. But the very nice lady at the gate reassigned us to site 56  because someone had left early and vacated it. This site was large, level, and had a lovely lake view.

The tent camping down between us and the lake had an even lovelier view. It would have been a fantastic spot to tent camp at. There’s plenty of parking up on the road and then a very short carry (15 feet or so) down to the picnic benches. The lake is very pretty and seems decently clean—all blue and flowing. I would swim there if I were so inclined but I probably won’t.

Not a lot of birds, mostly goldfinches and chipping sparrows. One osprey on patrol.

It was hot—high in the low 90s—but not so hot as to be unbearable. In the shade it was really very pleasant.

We drove up to the dam overlook and went for a little walk on the trail there. Nothing fancy, just a nice trail for the dog. Then I took Molly for her normal long walk, and discovered there’s no good place to walk the dog except down in the camping area and up along the road. I could walk her up the hill and through the rest of the camping sites, but that would suck with all the other dogs (probably). The campground host already had to run us out of the day use area—it’s clearly prohibited to pets according to the sign but I didn’t realize I was in the day use area, and I was being careful to stay away from the swimming beach which is always a pet-free zone. I thought I was in the tent camping area, but even if I had realized it, the idea of making a day use area prohibited to dogs threw me for a loop. Really?  But come to think of it, they usually are.

But he was very nice about it. Especially since he’d already observed me picking up a bag of poop up by the road. He would have went on chatting for hours if I hadn’t had to eventually pull away and get on with supper.

 

REVIEW: Melton Hill Dam Campground site 56

HEADLINE: Could have been a disaster but wasn’t

It’s great! For smallish RVs or tents…or for a 35-footer like ours if you can get one of the large sites.

The place is absolutely beautiful. Not far off the interstate (but plenty far enough!); very friendly and helpful hosts; easy to navigate to and drive into. I’m told that one guy’s GPS insisted on taking him to the wrong side of the lake, but google maps did fine for us.

The only problem is that most of the sites are on a hill, up in the woods and they’re very short and very, very unlevel.  We had reserved site 34 which would have been a serious challenge to back our 35’ Class A into.  But the lady at the gate moved us to one of the two large, level sites near the water. Site 56 was plenty big enough for our RV and tow vehicle; site 57 is big enough for a large fifth wheel but you’d have to unhook after parking.  Both have a view of the lake across the road and over the tent sites.

Up the hill I saw some other fairly large RVs and fifth wheels, so I guess some of those sites were big enough. I can’t say which. But the road going up there is very narrow with a lot of tree overhang. And the sites are awfully close together.

There are some really lovely tent—right on the water’s edge and spread out nicely.

50-amp electricity worked fine, the water hookup okay. There’s a dump station on the way out, just past the entrance. 

I didn’t see any trails other than a little one up the hill by the dam overlook. There’s a roped off swimming area with bathrooms and picnic tables nearby. Looks lovely on this hot mid-August day.

My only issue is that there was no good place to walk the dog—dogs are not allowed in the day use area, and the road leading to the dam and on to the fishing area would have been okay except that there was a lot of traffic on it. And most of that traffic was exceeding the speed limit and hauling boats. But I shouldn’t have been surprised—we were there on a Friday/Saturday night in August. In the off season, it would be better.