George T. Bagby State Park & Lodge — Hotel in Morris

Leaving an honest review as I want others to know what to expect before going. The “lodge” is actually motel-style accommodations with a central lobby/restaurant area that cannot be accessed from the rooms. We planned on eating at the restaurant, but were informed on arrival (~7:00pm on a Friday) that it was closed for the night (despite the website saying otherwise). After visiting our room, we requested a room change. Of the 5 lights in the room, 2 worked. There were also bugs everywhere. At least 30 gnat-like bugs on the vanity and several large bugs across the room. In the second room, 3 of the 5 lights worked and, after killing 3 bugs after entering the room, was mostly bug-free. However, the rooms were just overall dirty. It didn’t look like they’d been cleaned recently at all as evidenced by the mold in the shower and general grime behind the toilet. Side note: the shower is the narrowest shower I’ve ever seen. The sheets were clean though. Nothing has been updated in at least a decade, from the décor to the RCA box TV in the room. The pool was green/brown and obviously unusable, clearly hadn’t been cleaned in months. Finally, we went to the lodge for breakfast and the chandeliers were covered in spider webs and dust. I want to emphasize that the staff was very nice and helped us the best they could. The “lodge” needs a deep clean and overall updating and then it would be a great place to vacation. The park property was gorgeous and very serene for a weekend getaway, conveniently located 30 minutes or so from Providence Canyon. In summary, the “3-star hotel” label on Google is straight up false advertising and the pictures are very misleading. Know what you’re getting...

We stayed at cabin #3 in the beginning of Nov 2014 for a week. The cabins are nice and the view from the porch in the back is awesome. The fishing was poor from the bank or the dock located near the marina, the water was too shallow. The actual park itself is quite lovely and peaceful. We however won't be going back to stay in the cabins. We had a roach problem. Both small and very LARGE ones. They tried to tell us at the lodge desk that they "flew in" and we are "close to the woods". Sorry, this is not the case. The first day we saw two huge ones and in the morning there were two more. We purchased some Home Defense. We also happened to see the bug man spraying one of the cabins. We had him come do ours inside and outside. We also sprayed. We continued seeing them, usually near dead or dead the entire time, I would say we saw 10 to 15 of them inside. We stayed at Richard B. Russell park the previous two years - very similar to George T. Bagby - and we never had a problem at all there with roaches. We also had several small ones in the kitchen and inside the dishwasher. I rate a zero on the cabin experience because of the roaches, but the beauty of the park and the lovely trails and picnic areas...

Beautiful lake and sunset. The trails in the park are not well maintained, and other items are not as advertised. They do not have firewood available at the lodge. They also don’t have spa water or complimentary snacks available at the lodge. The tv in my cabin didn’t work, and I got no help other than advice on how to work the remote. The bikes they claim to have for checking out - there are two and they’re both broken. I still enjoyed my very low key weekend away, but I would not have chosen this location had I known the trails wouldn’t be great and the bikes weren’t actually available. The cabin was good - I appreciated having my own kitchen. It would be especially great for a larger group. The price was high considering not much promised was actually delivered.

Stars for views of the lake, a weekend seeing very few people. Downsides: false advertising, poor customer service, cabin not super clean, value for the price.

If you’re coming for Providence Canyon, Florence Marina State Park is closer and nicer.

Also, I don’t recommend Phenomenal Trail if you’re hiking alone. You can just drive down to the dam and adjacent park - that’s the only good part...