7 Notes on Visiting Georgia Veterans State Park

My family and I are on a project to visit every state park in Georgia. For each one, we’ve either stayed in a cabin, camped, or spent some significant time exploring.

Georgia Veterans State Park kept getting pushed to the back of the list. Ever since the pandemic, the park has had to tear down or rebuild a lot of its accommodations – including the lodge. So there wasn’t much reason to plan a trip around it.*

*also, it’s one of the Parks managed by Coral Hospitality…which is a huge negative for us.

But we’re getting down to our final few parks. So on our way back from Florida, we stopped in for a little while to put eyes on it.

The short version? Georgia Veterans checks all the boxes of a state park…but it doesn’t feel like a Georgia state park. It’s one of the wildcards.*

*part of this is that it is partly managed by Coral instead of the GA DNR but I’ll focus on the park in general.

It’s Truly a Veterans Park

State parks usually aren’t themed. This one absolutely is.

Georgia Veterans State Park was built to honor all Georgia veterans of the United States Armed Forces – from the Revolutionary War all the way through the War on Terror. The theme runs through everything. There are flags and monuments scattered throughout the park, and all the park’s gear and branding is oriented toward veterans.

The Museum

The park has a small museum with artifacts from every war the United States has ever fought.

I find veterans museums interesting because of their detail. You can really get into the nitty-gritty of the human experience of war – the gear, the letters, the small everyday objects that someone carried with them.

However…every time I visit one, I come out more of a militant non-violence believer than I went in. The closer you look at the details, the harder it is to see war as anything other than an enormous human cost. So I always leave with a lot of conflicted feelings – deep respect for the people who did their job, and did it well (especially in World War II) and deep skepticism about the thing they were asked to do.

But it is what it is. Visited it. Checked it off.

The Equipment Display

One of the park’s main attractions is an outdoor collection of old military equipment from World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. It’s an assorted medley of aircraft, tanks, and artillery with interpretive signs.

It could definitely use some maintenance and love. But it’s interesting, and worth a walk-through. It’s interesting to see how much technology is driven by machines of war…and how the machines we build are always built for the previous war.

A Manicured Park, Not a Wild One

Georgia Veterans is a lawn-mowed park. It looks a lot more like a giant city park than one of Georgia’s wilder State parks like Fort Mountain or Cloudland Canyon.

But it is big. It’s big enough that the park has a helipad that doubles as a radio-controlled airplane field.

And they put the land to good use. There’s a pretty huge disc golf course, plenty of hiking trails, and fishing ponds. It’s all well-kept and lovely. It’s just not a wild, natural experience.

The Corporate Retreat Question

As we walked around, we saw a lot of what they’re building.

The old lodge – operated by a private concessionaire, Coral Hospitality – has been torn down. In its place, they’re building lodge-style duplex cabins.

I don’t know what the master plan is for Georgia Veterans State Park. But what’s going up doesn’t strike me as a family hiking & RV campground kind of state park. It looks much more like a corporate retreat.

That’s not unprecedented. Indian Springs has been redeveloped with event space and more of a corporate retreat focus. It seems like Georgia Veterans is getting similar renovations to hit that same market.

It’s not really the appeal for my family and me. But it was good to see it firsthand and take note. Georgia Veterans is on its way to being the corporate retreat state park.

The Existing Cabins

The park does have cabins overlooking the water in a quiet, tucked-away corner. They’re scenic.

They aren’t in terrible condition – but they’re dated. They don’t look like they’ve had the renovations that cabins at George T. Bagby, Hard Labor Creek, or Cloudland Canyon have gotten.

What I Liked

The theme is sincere. It’s truly a veterans park, not a state park with a plaque slapped on it. The museum and the equipment display are worth the stop.

Easy access. It’s very close to I-75, which makes it an easy break on a Florida road trip.

Public land on Lake Blackshear. I appreciate any public land on the water. It’s a scenic spot, and a good thing for the region to have.

Lots to do. Disc golf, trails, fishing ponds, and an RC airfield make good use of a big piece of land.

What I Didn’t Like

It doesn’t feel like a Georgia state park. It’s manicured and tidy rather than wild and natural.

The direction of the redevelopment. The new construction seems aimed at corporate retreats more than families and campers.

Maintenance. The equipment display and the existing cabins could both use some love.

Who Should Visit

If you’re a veteran, a military history buff, a disc golfer, or an RC pilot – or you just need a good stop off I-75 – Georgia Veterans State Park is worth a few hours.

But I don’t think I’d recommend it to a family looking for an outdoorsy, nature-focused state park experience. And I don’t think we’ll be back.

It checks all the boxes. It just doesn’t feel like the rest of them. It’s definitely one of Georgia’s wildcard state parks.

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