Andrew's Cove Campground
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights; a database flag says not open read 15:39 UTC
- A night
- $12–$18Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 10All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Andrews Cove Campground is conveniently located 15 minutes outside of Helen, GA and offers 10 picturesque campsites along Andrews Creek. Hike the Andrews Cove Trail or go fishing in the creek, all within walking distance of your campsite. Get away from the crowds in Helen and enjoy a peaceful camping trip in the north Georgia mountains! Keep reading
Recreation
The 1.9 mile Andrews Cove trail starts next to campsites 6 & 7 and is a great place to get away from the crowds in nearby Helen. This trail connects to the Appalachian Trail and there is a limited number of day use parking sites located at the kiosk area. The surrounding area hosts a number of waterfalls and hiking trails or you could take a short drive over to Anna Ruby Falls or many of the nearby state parks.
Facilities
This campground offers 9 single campsites and 1 double campsite. Each campsite includes a fire ring, picnic table, and lantern post. There is a toilet faciilty adjacent to site #3.
Natural Features
Andrews Cove Campground is located in the Chattahoochee National Forest, a place of exploration and wonder. This National Forest is rich in history and is said to be a hiker's paradise with its winding trails, scenic mountains, and rolling hills.
Nearby Attractions
The alpine town of Helen, GA is located approximately 5.5 miles south on HWY 75/17. Helen offers shopping, restaurants, a water park, a roller coaster, fishing, rafting, tubing, and zip lining all in or near the Chattahoochee River. There is host of trails in the area including the Andrews Cove trail, the Appalachian Trail, Anna Ruby Falls, Dukes Creek Falls, and Ravens Cliff Wilderness Trail. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (706) 754-6221.
Charges & Cancellations
Making changes to your reservation: If your new stay dates are completely different from your original stay dates, there is a $10 Change Fee (per reserved site). There is no Change Fee for: Adding or removing nights to your stay. Changing to a different campsite. Balances will adjust based on your new stay's nightly rate. Cancellations: You can cancel the reservation any time before the date of your scheduled arrival. You will receive a refund for your stay, minus the following fees: $10 cancellation fee Reservation fees (only if paid when booking) Any previous Change Fees you have been charged Late cancellation penalties may also apply.
What the agency tells you
All Camping at Andrew's Cove is by Reservation Only. There are NO First Come, First Serve sites.
Generators may only be used up to 4 hours per day between the hours of 6am-10pm. Quiet hours are from 10pm-6am. No more than 2 vehicles and maximum 8 people per site, with the exception of site #9 which allows up to 4 vehicles and maximum 16 people.
No hunting within any developed campground, developed trail, or other developed recreation site on the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Camping or maintaining a campsite in a developed or dispersed area in excess of 14 days within a 30-day time period is prohibited. After the camper(s) has accumulated 14 days within a 30-day time period, the camper(s) must leave the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest before returning for another stay. 36 CFR Section 261.58(a).
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forest! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit Don't move firewood to learn more.
Click Here for more information on the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest
Check-out time is 12:01 pm. Check-in time is 2:00 pm.
Drinking water will not be available at this campground. The well systems that previously served this campground is being decommissioned due to the high cost of maintaining and operating aging infrastructure. – Visitors planning to camp here should bring their own potable water for drinking, cooking and other needs.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 10
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 24 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- PIT TOILETS on 9 of 10 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, River, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Scenic drives
- Water access
- Wilderness access
- Night sky · 22nd darkest of 96 in GA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 15:39 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:42 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 9 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 9 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:39 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 16
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $12–$18 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“Making changes to your reservation: If your new stay dates are completely different from your original stay dates, there is a $10 Change Fee (per reserved site). You will receive a refund for your stay, minus the following fees: - $10 cancellation fee - Reservation fees (only if paid when booking) - Any previous Cha…” · this campground’s own terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 2
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:42 UTC
- Jackrabbit MountainNational Forests in North Carolina · 16 mi · 4 of 182 site-nights open
- Morganton PointChattahoochee-Oconee National Forest · 30 mi · 1 of 80 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:39 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
10 sites
All 10 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 10 of the 10 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Andrew's Cove | 1 | standard nonelectric | $12–$18 | |
| Andrew's Cove | 10 | standard nonelectric | $12–$18 | |
| Andrew's Cove | 2 | standard nonelectric | $12–$18 | |
| Andrew's Cove | 3 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | $12–$18 |
| Andrew's Cove | 4 | standard nonelectric | $12–$18 | |
| Andrew's Cove | 5 | standard nonelectric | $12–$18 | |
| Andrew's Cove | 6 | standard nonelectric | $12–$18 | |
| Andrew's Cove | 7 | standard nonelectric | $12–$18 | |
| Andrew's Cove | 8 | standard nonelectric | $12–$18 | |
| Andrew's Cove | 9 | standard nonelectric | $12–$18 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Upper Chattahoochee River CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 2.6 mi
Low Gap CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 3.2 miWildcat Creek Campground #2 UpperChattahoochee National Forest · 7.3 miWildcat Creek Campground #1 LowerChattahoochee National Forest · 7.6 mi
Lake Winfield Scott Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 9.2 miBoggs Creek Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 11 miFrom Helen, GA, drive north on HWY 75 for approximately 6 miles and turn right into the campground. The campground entrance is located on a sharp left-hand curve.
From Hiawassee, drive south on HWY 75 for approximately 20 miles and turn left into the campground. The campground entrance is located on a sharp right-hand curve.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Helen, GA
Typical weather
Typical October night 46°F, day 70°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Andrew's Cove Campground is in Georgia’s 9th congressional district. Its representative, Andrew Clyde (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyAndrew S. ClydeU.S. Representative · Georgia’s 9th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJon OssoffU.S. Senator · Georgia
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRaphael G. WarnockU.S. Senator · Georgia
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Andrew's Cove Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Andrew S. Clyde, I’m a constituent in Georgia’s 9th district. I tried to camp at Andrew's Cove Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 10 sites at Andrew's Cove Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 9 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Andrew's Cove Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Andrew's Cove Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Andrew's Cove Campground (Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Andrew's Cove Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Jon Ossoff, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Andrew's Cove Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 10 sites at Andrew's Cove Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 9 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Andrew's Cove Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Andrew's Cove Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Andrew's Cove Campground (Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Andrew's Cove Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Raphael G. Warnock, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Andrew's Cove Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 10 sites at Andrew's Cove Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 9 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Andrew's Cove Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Andrew's Cove Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Andrew's Cove Campground (Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia) via campanac.com