River Forks Park & Campground

We camped most recently in February 2017, and had a really lovely experience. The weather was unseasonably warm, and the campground was practically empty. We like sites 20 or 21, and scouted sites 33, 34, or 35 for our next stay. All are pull through, and are high on the hill overlooking the lake. 33-35 should get really nice sunset views.

River Forks offers water and electric hookup, with a dump station on the way out. The camping area is well-removed from the day-use area, though not so far removed that campers couldn't easily use the day use area as well for swimming or boating. There are also docks around the campground area for boating campers.

The views are my favorite part of River Forks. I doubt there's a site that doesn't have a good lake view, and the entire park is nicely shaded. Our site had a grill and a fire ring. Not sure if all sites do, though.

We did not use the bath house, but it was centrally located and looked easily accessible.

River Forks is "local" for us, so we will certainly be back. The location is great with relation to restaurants and shopping in Gainesville, and there's a WalMart Market about a mile away.

We stayed here early November. Arrived on a Thursday and it was nearly empty. We were greeted by friendly staff. There are 2 coded entrance gates to get to the RV sites (tent sites available also).

The park is clean. Terrain is hilly, which allows for different level sites. There is a variety of pull throughs and back ins, amenities and views. 47 sites, about 13 are 30 amp, the rest are 50. Most have a fire ring and grill. No sites have sewer but there is a dump site at the entrance of the park. They all have pads and great views

There are 4 playgrounds. We don't use the restrooms but checked one out. Not great but not gross. The women's showers seemed to be in better shape than the men's.

We stayed at site 34, which was fairly private, quiet (except for the boats) and with a beautiful view down to the water. We had 30 amp. On our site the water and power were in the passenger side, which was odd but we made do. Only a few sites had that.

A few days we.just took our chairs down to the edge ( a few feet above water) and sat there all day watching the boats.

One note, if you want to get your mail forwarded to you this campground does not allow that.

Such a nice city park! Clean and well-maintained. Convenient to Gainesville for supplies, it's an easy trip to Atlanta and the northern 'burbs. Many of the sites are close together but many more are spacious. Check the park map... it's quite accurate.
We particularly enjoyed our (nearly) private beach behind #17, which was vacant when we were there. The dogs were in heaven and we played in the water as well. Our site was level and it seems most are. Another site that was particularly attractive to us was #16. It has a deck that could be easily enclosed for kids or pets and a few steps to a floating dock. Depending on the water level in the lake, many sites are beachy... meaning you can walk down to very easy water access.
It appears that many (or most?) of the guests here are local. Most were families and many had boats or other watercraft. It was quiet at night; the gates are locked after hours. You're given the codes at check-in.
Always on the lookout for my running route, I found I was able to easily put together 3.5 miles with only a bit on the city street outside the park.
We'll be back to this convenient hangout on the lake!

A big storm went through a few days before our stay but the staff was hard at work cleaning up. We didn’t see a bad site and ours was great. Some sites would be tight for big rigs. Very clean bathrooms.

Of all the places we’ve stayed this is so far our favorite. It does have its downsides, the roads are super narrow and the dump station is in kind of a weird spot but overall, the lake access makes this amazing. We stayed at site 30 and basically had our own private beach for swimming and fishing. The breeze from the lake was fantastic. Highly recommend this spot for families!

I only wish we could have stayed longer but the sites are full all through the weekend so I suggest booking far in advance. Plenty of places to fish, areas to swim, including a large beach area, a couple of really nice playgrounds. The spaces are far enough apart. Bathhouses are clean, although the showers are made to conserve water so you have to hold the string down with one hand while you wash with the other, that’s a little annoying but I understand why. Deer are so friendly. Most sites are great although ours was difficult to get into because it was slanted on a hill. Other than that, great site! Will return!

Every site at this campground had beautiful lake views! We stayed at site 35 which didn’t have immediate neighbors, but also didn’t have sewer (but many sites did, so worth checking before you book). Agree with other commenters to book in advance (especially for a weekend stay)—we were only able to stay M-Th even in November!

This is a very nice campground with water access. A few things to consider. We stayed on site 41 on the water but the beach is public and it gets crowded with a lot of loud people, some folks jus walk through your camp site. The site was eroded and the concrete pad was cracked and unleveled. You cannot set a tent on the every sites is not allowed. I hope Hall County could give some TLC to this beautiful campground and keep the beach for campers only.

I was a little disappointed with how close the tent sites are, but we had a good time at this location. They have a fishing pier and a decent size beach. But the tent sites do not have good views of the lake, so you have to walk quite a distance to enjoy the water. If you have an RV, this location has sites on the water, which would be much better.

This was our 4th campground on the east side of Lake Lanier and our least favorite of the 4. Perhaps the others really spoiled us because this is still a perfectly great campground with lake views from most of the sites.

Our site itself was a little janky with a piece of plywood covering a steep drop off/hole in the side of our site and a trash bag and caution tape over a broken grill. It was also quite unlevel and a tricky angle to back in to despite it being paved.

The water and “beach” quality up here was not as nice as it was in the campground we stayed at further south. Although we still had no issues launching our SUP and paddling around to explore, just less inviting to jump in for a swim.

One perk for weekenders out there is that the check out time on Sundays is 3 pm (instead of the usual 11am the other days of the week).

No problems using AT&T for all our internet needs.

There were a ton of deer so be careful driving through the park!