Bolar Mountain Recreation Area

Lake beautiful. Safety none. No service, no emergency phone, hostess had no phone, only radio. And there is only ONE Ranger assigned to this whole area. No limit on dogs, so several dogs all barking and no signs for doggy pick up, dogs allowed running loose on the beach.
Beautiful lake. Sure hope monies allotted to this National Park is used for the PARK and more help is allotted to this area. There is no marina or rental boats as advertised. Guess it was vandalized and now closed.
Hope the improvements are approved and completed. The hosts were friendly and doing a great job on the bathroom facilities but need help with reinforcement of rules.

Did a lot of kayaking around the island, it was fun taking the grand kids exploring the island. The hike on campground 3 was slightly strenuous but the view at the top was worth it.

Bring in your supplies, there’s no local store open at this time. There’s absolutely no cell service, for me that was perfect. Was able to completely disconnect. My hole family went,15 of us. We kayaked, swam and hiked.

Campground 3 needs repairs to doors and two some of the showers that won’t shut off and pour out hot water. Campground hosts were going between sights and clearing up underbrush which makes it too visible from site to site. No privacy without some sort of underbrush growing.

If someone is visiting my campsite, It really is a shame they have to pay to come. I had # of guests to cover them staying with us. The beach area should be free since there are no bathrooms open and no water.

My overall review is definitely 4 Stars. With the Marina shutdown, it does put on damper on boating and options for Ice. We have been coming to Bolar for several years. There seems to be an issue with keeping good Camp Hosts. I will say the Temp Camp Host in Loop 2 this year was amazing. Very nice and communicated well. My biggest complaint is the Reservation System. Only being able to book 1 day at a time is ridiculous. It makes it very hard to plan any time off due to the fact that you many book one day and the next could be booked by someone else.

Just paradise

Campsites need paved. Better bathing facilities. Need to sell ice have gas. Open marina

I am curious if others have experienced mysterious cases of food poisoning this year?

My friends and I both came down with severe cases on separate trips within two weeks of each other. We have reason to believe that our illness may be related to consuming the ice we purchased at Mountain Grove General Store. I do not intend to harm the livelihood of this business but given the remote nature of this campground and the severity of illness we experienced, I felt it was something that folks should take into consideration when purchasing ice here. Please note: only those of us who consumed the ice got sick.

First trip to Lake Moomaw, we had a wonderful time. It was a last minute trip and the campground was full, so we had to move each day. Great place and the lake is beautiful!
The campground hosts were fantastic, always working, and extremely helpful assisting us with available cancellation spots so we could extend our stay. Five stars for them!
Have to hold back one star for overall rating, as the dumpsters were overflowing in all three campgrounds. We were camping in a small travel trailer, so it wasn’t a huge deal for us and our puppy, but I imagine it might have been concerning for some of the tent campers with small children and dogs with sites in close proximity to dumpsters. Understand that they are suffering budget constraints, unfortunate because the lake makes this campground a great destination.
There were more than a handful of sites booked and no show, but fortunately for us we were able to move, and even lucked out with one night waterfront.
We will definitely return!