Hiwassee Outfitters

I have camped and funyaked with HO 6 times over the past 8 years, and it has been an awesome experience overall. Given that there are different elements in the HO value chain, I feel like it’s necessary to break them out:
Campsite — 5 stars
Camp staff — 5 stars
Bathrooms — 1 star
Access to a great rivers — 5 stars
Funyaks — 4 stars
Life jackets — 1 star
My college friends and I have been coming here for years, and it’s a spot that’s hard to match believe it or not. I took a lot of this camping experience for granted until I tried camping last May north of Chicago. When camping around Chicago, there are like a billion rules. You can’t have more than 1 car per campsite. You can’t wash your utensils in the bathroom sinks. You can’t sleep under the stars. You can’t drink. And on and on and on. First of all, why does the campsite care about all of this stuff? You get a plot of land, and if you’re not doing anything illegal or disruptive, then why should they care? I would never wash my utensils in the bathroom as its unlikely they’ll come out cleaner than they went in, but what business is that of the campsite?
HO was a great camping experience. The plots of land are great and there aren’t problems with ants. The staff will quiet you down if you’re being obnoxious, but they are generally unintrusive.
The bathrooms are THE MOST DISGUSTING THING I’VE EVER SEEN. Furthermore, the crowd here really isn’t too big on courtesy flushing. It’s poorly ventilated and there are wasp nests all over the place.
The Hiwassee River is a great river to chill on. It’s relaxing and way better than just paddling around in a lake. You won’t flip your funyak unless you are retarded.
The life jackets are THE MOST DISGUSTING THINGS I’VE EVER SEEN. There are pit stains all over them, they smell horrible, and they are usually still wet from the last person who wore them when you put them on. If you have your own life jackets, bring them and then pretentiously talk on the bus ride about how you’re glad you don’t have to use the HO jackets like the riff-​raff.