Hawthorn Bluff

We visit Hawthorne Bluff quite a bit, at least every two to three weeks, clear through the fall time. It is a hidden gem that we certainly enjoy every time we camp and we have even spent time at Spencer Creek, and Oologah lake is one of the nicest lakes that is not too busy and packed like grand, Tenkiller, or other lakes. We even got caught in a storm that dropped an EF1 tornado right near Hawthorne Bluff a couple of years ago and we still enjoy this lake so much and it is our quick retreat from the world. Thanks to Core of Engineers for keeping the lakes nice and clean and we highly recommend staying her and trying the experience of our wonderful lakes

This is an older style park. Roads are narrow, trees overgrown, difficult to back into many spots and stay on the road, parking pads crumbling, dump station hose leaks allowing very little water to reach end of hose. These are not host problems, they are maintenance problems.

Water was high, fishing docks were inaccessible, ALo-14 camping spot was tough to back into due to trees, the angle nearly perpendicular to the road, and the uphill angle. Shade was great, some bathrooms were closed, beach was closed. I appreciated the black/grey water dump just before leaving the camping area.

The pads need some work on them, leveled out and the grounds cleaned. We had a lot of glass and aluminum around our site.

Had a great time.

While we were at Hawthorne Bluff from August 5 thru August 10th there was no access to the bathhouse. I was notified that there would not be accessible until August 9th. While we were there we saw no one working on the problem. Upon on arrival at the dump station the water hose to use was leaking so badly that we could mot use on our black tank cleanout. This is the 3rd time we have not been able to use the cleanout this season. I hope these problems can be corrected as soon as possible.

There are plenty of places to fill fresh water tanks, however other campers hook their hoses to them instead of following the rules and the rules don’t appear to be enforced. Also, the site we booked was mis- represented on the website-it was not pull thru or long enough.

Our church recently hosted an event here, and we had a wonderful experience. The space had plenty of tables, was easy for our church members to find and park and worked perfectly for group gatherings. We would definitely recommend this location for church events, celebrations, or any group outing. It’s a peaceful spot with plenty of room to enjoy!

Campsite was good. Water spigot was nearly 100’ out, signs for sites could be bigger, not crowded at all Aug 31-Sept 2.

I made a mistake and we parked at the wrong site, the ranger was very rude. The other people moved to a different spot, we offered to pay their fee if we could stay at the camp site and not have to move. But he made us move in the dark. There was no one at the check in at 7:30 when we arrived , that probably could have been avoided.