Weston Lake — Local services in Columbia

My 5 Star review is for MWR Weston Lake Army Travel Camp @ Fort Jackson

This compact campground, rv park and recreational site is nestled in a well protected lake front area near Fort Jackson Army base. It is bright and picturesque; clean, peaceful, and an all around beautiful place to just relax. The MWR General Manager, (Army Vet.) Mr. Williams and his staff Brandon and Mike are courteous, patient, and professional; pros at ensuring that their guest fully enjoy all of the amenities and attractions this MILITARY ONLY facility has to offer. RV spaces vary in size and are FH for $35 a night, Padded Tent Spaces w-W/E for $10 a night and primitive tent spaces are $5 a night. There are cabins but size and cost are unknown to me at this time.

But wait....there is a dark side........

!!!FRAUD - WASTE - ABUSE ALERT!!!!

As a vet and patron of this campground I find it very unsettling that this place has 3 "Camp Host", "Chris," "Sam" and "Mr. Unknown". True most campgrounds whether private or public have camp host who are allow to stay for free or at a reduced rate in turn for WORK duites. Such as cleaning the restrooms, trash and debris removal, after hours guest interactions, maintenance of the campgrounds, etc, but the difference here is that these 3 people and their families LIVE here PAYMENT FREE (that's $3,150 per space for 90days not paid) and do nothing more than answer a cell phone issued to them. To make matters worse I've been informed that one of them is a civilian mil employee or contractor and "Chris" and one other are active duty Army personnel, all of which are expressly PROHIBITED (per MWR policies) from LIVING on military recreation facilities, campgrounds, and RV parks and are even limited to how long they can stay while in active status. More over, most MWR managed recreational facilities will not allow you to stay longer than at minimum of 30-90 and maximum 180 days per calendar year, but I've been told that "Chris" has been here for at least 3 years.

I find it disgusting that anyone would take advantage of and cheat a system designed to provide a relaxing and affordable place...

I was stationed at Jackson from’07-‘09 and the only thing that has really changed is the dam is being worked on so you can only observe the lake, no swimming, boating, anything on the lake until repairs are completed. The receptionist said they’ve been working on it for maybe 4 years. Hopefully it’ll be completed sooner than later. The grounds could be kept up a little better as could the restrooms/bath houses but I imagine they lost some revenue due to the lake being closed for dam repairs.

There isn’t any concerns getting back here, the biggest rigs will not have any problems. All sites are large concrete pads, FHU. Most sites are spaced very well, some better than others but you won’t be on top of anyone whichever site you’re at. They have a large concrete patio area, nearly the size of the pad itself with a picnic table and fire pit/grill and stand alone grill.

Verizon cell coverage is adequate. I had 2 bars and LTE, sometimes 5G. Not like being in the city but sufficient. No wifi.

There are cabins and tent sites as well. This isn’t a large campground but there were still a few open spaces.

There will be various bugle calls throughout, morning, day and night. You may hear firing range training going on in the distance. You should expect this and it should not be seen as negative, you’re on a military campground.

Current RV site price a night is $35, if you have a National park pass it’s $32.50. Despite the lake being off limits right now I will still come back. Once it’s opened back up I’m sure it will be more busy, right now it’s...

Our stay was extremely underwhelming. The cabin was dirty with sand all over the floors and spiders on every corner or the patio. Even worse, the staff were incredibly rude and disrespectful. We had a car accident and wasn’t able to get a few things out of the cabin on time, we were barely 30 minutes late and they gave us the worst attitude and kept the deposit. Furthermore, we had family gathering in the trailer park, and when the work lady came around to inform us about our wrongly parked car, she yelled at the family and failed to notify us about the other vehicle that was parked incorrectly. Although we had been nothing but kind and understanding, she sent the state trooper which is a waist of our time and disrespectful to his time because she could’ve notified us when she came around at...