Chau Ram County Park — Attraction in Walhalla

I will never go back to this park. I entered and pulled down the hill to the lower parking area initially to just let my disabled wife and two youngest children out because they had a sign up saying the lot was full, but then seeing an open parking spot, I pulled in. I was then approached by a female “park ranger” who very rudely said I couldn’t park there because they were saving the spot for someone having a birthday party at a shelter. There were multiple parking spaces open. When I pointed this out, she again very rudely said I had to move as they were all being saved. I protested at this and asked since when did reserving a shelter also mean that you have reserved parking? Her reply was since now and began walking away. I told my wife and children to get back in the car because we were leaving. While doing this my wife said, “ but we just paid to get a few minutes ago “. I told her we would just get a refund. Unbeknownst to us she had not only heard us , but had radioed up to the entry gate and told them NOT to refund our money. And I was point blank told this by the gate attendant! I was livid! He smugly told me that I could file a complaint with the area superintendent and I immediately fired back that I would do just that, took a brochure he pushed at me, got back in my vehicle and started to drive away. My wife then pointed out that we couldn’t file a complaint against some when we didn’t know their name, so I turned around and pulled back up to the gate asking for the rude rangers name. He refused to provide me with any other information past repeatedly saying I could file a complaint. During this time multiple vehicles had pulled up behind me. I was asked to pull over so they could enter and I complied. I was then approached by a man claiming to be the head ranger who then proceeds to tell me that I had pulled past all of them standing around in the parking lot and went into the area to which they had a sign up saying the lot was full. I told this young man that I had originally only pulled down to let my disabled wife and two young children get out and was going to pull back up and park elsewhere but then saw an open parking space and pulled in. Which anyone would have done. He then told me that I didn’t ASK so that’s why I was approached. I then laughed and counter with “ now I’m being told that I should ask to park in a county public park”? I immediately asked for his name and the name of the rude female ranger. He identified himself as Michael but not only refused to identify her but started trying to tell me that I had driven out very fast. When I denied this he then began saying that they don’t refund money but I could go to another park with the pass. At this point my wife exists the vehicle and also beings asking this “park ranger” to show us ANY documentation stating that rangers reserve parking for individuals renting out the shelters as we have rented them multiple times and have always been told that parking was first come first serve. He began backpedaling and again tried to soothe us by saying we could go to one of the other parks with the pass we had purchased. I was done at this point. I told the man that would definitely file a complaint which I will do first Monday morning and told my wife to get back in our vehicle. The moral of this story is this people, the female ranger acted completely unprofessional by being as rude as she did without properly assessing the situation or inquiring in any way as to WHY I had pulled down to this area. She further aggravated things by radioing other staff and telling them not to refund our money. Then her boss not only backs a horrible call on her part but also refused to identify a public employee who had clearly violated our rights. Not good. As I said, I WILL be filing a complaint with their superintendent but I also plan on going to the next county council meeting and voicing concerns about what happened as the basic requirements Oconee County has for their park personnel is a G.E.D. or High...

My wife and I took our oldest granddaughter on a trip to Lake Hartwell to visit with my sister and other family. We planned the trip on short notice but were blessed to find a spot at the Chau Ram County Park. Upon our arrival one of the Rangers asked if I'd like to go scout the site first, to see if it was satisfactory and accessible in our 43' motorhome. He quickly took me in his golf cart to a beautiful spot that was easy for us to back-in. He and another Ranger then came to the site when we got there with the rig and helped serve as spotters for us as I backed into the space. Their service was awesome!

Later during our stay we took advantage of the beautiful trails by a major creek there in the park. A suspension bridge spanned the creek and there were lots of wading and swimming holes for kids and adults, some small rapids that were perfect for tubing and a beautiful waterfall upstream.

The bath house was probably the cleanest of any campground I've seen. The park itself was very clean, the camp sites were spacious and with adequate distance between them. Some had a gravel base and others had an asphalt base. All had a metal fire pit and grill. There was firewood available to buy by the bucket load. The road through the park was paved but very narrow.

We stayed in spot #20 and thought it was perfect. We did have some trouble with the 50amp breaker repeatedly tripping one evening when all of our air conditioners were running. We also probably had almost all of the lights on as we had a house full of guests at the time. (I forgot to mention the breaker issue to the Rangers).

The ONLY complaint I had about the park was the condition of the tree limbs in the drive areas within the park, especially once you entered at the guardhouse. As soon as we drove past the guardhouse, I had to made a hard left to avoid low hanging branches that would have raked across the sensitive equipment on top of the coach. As we went further into the park I found myself on a narrow road that had limbs brushing (scratching) against the sides of the coach and again raking across the top.

The good news is, I shared my concerns with the park superintendent, he was apologetic and assured me that he would work on fixing the issue.

We plan on visiting my sister again in the near future and we look forward to returning to Chau Ram County Park with even more grand kids and family to enjoy that...

Park employees are consistently ignorant of the 15 mph speed limit on the entrance road, thus contributing to the hazard already present by visitors who speed regularly. Speed bumps and/or traffic police are in order but the county remains ignorant to the issue. Regarding your weak reply below, the residents on Chau Ram Park Road have long been aware of this hazard and have had enough of Chau Ram Park's ignorance of this matter. The proof is in the pudding and the park continues to prove that its only concern is collecting fees at the entrance. If setting the example was a priority, your employees would be driving 15 mph or less on the road and you would have speed bumps installed and you would hire people to monitor the speeding traffic EVERY DAY. Yes, your utility vehicles have indeed set the example by driving up and down this road at a speed of up to 50 mph. Speaking of proof, when this becomes a legal matter, there will be no shortage of video footage supporting our claim. This matter has been brought to the park officials on a number of occasions and the result has always been your ignorance of the issue. The only thing you have done is contributed more to the problem by keeping the park open in the winter, thus increasing the traffic flow on this road to a larger extent. The county's greed for collecting such fees has far surpassed any concern for safety. Your facade continues since publicly inviting a phone call merely displays your ignorance of all previous phone calls that have been made regarding this concern. If your staff regularly "talks" about safety, that is exactly what you have accomplished - talk and...