Big Oaks
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 13 of the next 15 nights read 16:02 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Big Oaks Recreation Area is a 12 acre gently sloping site with good grass cover and scattered pine and hardwood trees throughout.. . . The area experiences high levels of intense public use during peak recreation season and serves to host numerous large special events annually, e.g. Hartwell Dam Run, Pre-Fourth Fireworks, etc. The site presently offers day use and boat launching facilities to include a large picnic shelter (with water and electric service), 26 picnic sites, a two lane boat ramp, 1 courtesy dock, 1 comfort station, 1 playground, and associated paved roads and parking areas throughout. The area is also the access point to the paved walking trail located atop the Georgia earthen embankment of Hartwell Dam. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating and water sports top the list of popular activities. A two-lane boat ramp with a courtesy dock is provided for easy lake access.
Facilities
The site presently offers day use and boat launching facilities to include a large picnic shelter (with water and electric service), 26 picnic sites, a two lane boat ramp, 1 courtesy dock, 1 comfort station, 1 playground, and associated paved roads and parking areas throughout.
Natural Features
Hartwell Lake is a man-made lake bordering Georgia and South Carolina on the Savannah, Tugaloo and Seneca Rivers. The dam and lake area boasts 8 campgrounds and 11 day-use facilities that are operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Hartwell Project was originally authorized for hydropower, flood control, and navigation. Later, recreation, water quality, water supply, and fish and wildlife management were added. Surrounding vegetation allows for plenty of shade, and the 962 miles of shoreline provide numerous swimming beaches, picnic areas and boat ramps.
Nearby Attractions
A 2.75 mile (rountrip) paved, walking, and bicycling path is located at the entrance to Big Oaks.
Charges & Cancellations
A $10 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation more than 14 days in advance of the arrival. If you cancel a resrvation within 14 days of your scheduled arrival date, you will forfeit the reservation fee.
What the agency tells you
Day-use only. No Camping allowed.
$7 per vehicle fee for boat launching
Area Open Year round.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Shelter is available from April 1 to September 30 for reservation's. Reservations can be made up to 365 days in advance.
Pets are allowed but must be kept on a leash (6 feet or less) or otherwise physically restrained.
NO AMPLIFIED SOUND SYSTEMS.
Facilities
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Picnicking
- Swimming
- Water access
Full this Saturdayread 16:02 UTC
The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in. How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 15:59 UTC. See them
OpenBookedClosedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:02 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 · 12
What you actually pay
“A $10 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation more than 14 days in advance of the arrival.” · 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 15:59 UTC
- SpringfieldHartwell Lake · 7.3 mi · 2 of 148 site-nights open
- Oconee PointHartwell Lake · 18 mi · 2 of 132 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:02 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
| BOAK | 01 | day use | 293 ft | $150 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Watsadler0.6 mi
Elrod Ferry2.1 mi
Crescent3.0 mi
Springfield7.3 mi
Singing Pines10 miMilltown Campground11 miFrom Hartwell, GA, take Highway 29 North towards Anderson, SC for about 5 miles. Big Oaks is located on the left next to the Hartwell Visitor Center and Manager's Office. 5823 DAM ROAD HARTWELL, GA 30643
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Hartwell, GA
Typical weather
Typical October night 52°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 33°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Big Oaks is in Georgia’s 10th congressional district. Its representative, Mike Collins (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 moneyMike CollinsU.S. Representative · Georgia’s 10th 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 Big Oaks, Georgia
Dear Mike Collins, I’m a constituent in Georgia’s 10th district. I tried to camp at Big Oaks, Georgia, and couldn’t. Every site at Big Oaks is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Big Oaks keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Big Oaks. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Big Oaks (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 Big Oaks, Georgia
Dear Jon Ossoff, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Big Oaks, Georgia, and couldn’t. Every site at Big Oaks is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Big Oaks keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Big Oaks. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Big Oaks (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 Big Oaks, Georgia
Dear Raphael G. Warnock, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Big Oaks, Georgia, and couldn’t. Every site at Big Oaks is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Big Oaks keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Big Oaks. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Big Oaks (Georgia) via campanac.com