Review: Eagles Nest Campground, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
Eagles Nest Campground
Pros
- Price
- Location
- Friendly Staff
- View
Cons
- Worn
- Internet
- My Sewer location
- Crowded
Remember the price
For every criticism we may have of this place, we continually reminded ourselves of the price we were paying, and it improved our experience ten-fold. We booked with our Passport America discount, so it was around $20 per night. I can forgive a lot for $20 per night, and I have stayed in much worse for more money, so I’d recommend this place IF you are using a discount, like PA.
If not, then you may want to look around in Pigeon Forge a bit more.
The Eagle’s Nest looked like it’s seen its share of birds
Worn out. That’s the best way I can describe it. It looks well used. Some may say “rustic,” but that’s pushing it. When you remember the price, then “rustic” may be an OK description. The bathrooms, the pool, the sites – pretty much everywhere you look it seemed like a dire struggle to keep thing in tact and looking decent.
Amenities – they checked the list
They had a good set of amenities:
- Pool (a little small, and usually busy)
- Toddler play set
- Dog park
- Arcade
- Bathrooms
- Laundry
So I give them a thumbs up for putting a good list together. However, like I said, they all looked a little worn out. But… $20 per night. That’s a solid list for the price.
Bathrooms
The old litmus test I use – the state of the bathrooms. They try. There’s paint in there to cover up most issues, but its like putting makeup on a gash in your arm instead of repairing the gash. They do clean it every day, which is necessary with the amount of mud that was tracked everywhere, and instead of getting a new eye for the hook on the bathroom stalls to go into, they just drilled a small hole. It doesn’t keep the stall shut.
But… $20 per night? I guess I’ll just hold the stall door shut if I’m that worried. Sometimes the little things add up, though.
Internet. Don’t bother.
I’ll get all the negatives out right away. There was a wifi you could connect to. That was the limit. I could do nothing else. Checking my email was a test of patience I failed quickly. There was an Xfinity wifi hotspot close by, so I bought into it for the time I was there and it was magical. Be prepared to use that or your phones, but not the wifi at the park.
Even for $20 a night, this was a hard justification, but only if you need it.
The worst of it, then I’ll move to positives, I swear.
Besides sharing a water line with your neighbor (therefore sharing your water pressure) our particular site had the sewer dump UPHILL from our site. I’m not a master in physics, but I do know that if the hole is higher than my tanks, there’s no point. I gave it a shot because it looked close, but there was no way. So we couldn’t dump our dumpage.
The next best solution was use their dump station, but it was too awkward to get to without blocking a major access road to other sites, and getting a big-rig to maneuver to. So we just drug our waste to the next RV camp.
$20 per night was looking a little pricy.
The more places I stay, the better this one gets
Everything is a little run down, but so what? I’m not paying premium prices. In KOAs we’ve been to, we’ve paid twice the price for half of the stuff available and just as worn, if not more so.
Here are the things we loved:
- The view. That green, smoky hill we stared at every day was beautiful.
- The staff. Super friendly!
- The people. Southern hospitality is the best.
- The site was fairly level and accessible
- The community had some fun things
- The location was off the beaten path from the fun little town of Pigeon Forge, but not too far off, so it’s pretty quick to get to Dollywood and the Smoky Mountain National Park!
- An ice cream truck came through!!!
