Cataloochee Group Camp
1Heads up1 fire 23 mi away
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 10 of the next 10 nights read 16:12 UTC
- Sites
- 3All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cataloochee Group Camp in the remote and historic Cataloochee Valley, is surrounded by some of the most rugged mountains in the park, providing excellent hiking opportunities as well as ideal fishing conditions in the area's many creeks. Because of its relatively secluded location, visitors can enjoy the best that the Smoky Mountains National Park has to offer, without encountering crowds, which are sometimes common in other areas of the park. Keep reading
Recreation
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a hiker's paradise, with a number of trails easily accessible from the Cataloochee Valley. Most notably, the Boogerman Trail, an almost 6-mile loop overlapping with the Caldwell Fork Trail, allows hikers to take in groves of old-growth forest. High-quality backcountry fishing in the cool, remote waters of the countless streams that snake through the valley, provide anglers with choice opportunities to catch wild trout. The park also holds one of the best collections of log buildings in the eastern United States. Over 90 historic structures, including houses, barns, outbuildings, churches, schools and grist mills, have been preserved or rehabilitated in the park. A handful of which can be found nearby the campground, including the Palmer House, which offers a self-guided museum.
Facilities
Cataloochee Group Camp provides a primitive outdoor camping experience with few amenities, but excellent access to trails and fishing streams. The sites are shaded by the lush surrounding forest, but there are no hookups or drinking water available. The three group sites can accommodate up to 25 guests. For groups larger than 25 people, all three sites may be reserved at once.
Natural Features
Cataloochee Group Camp is in an area characterized by picturesque mountain ranges and pristine streams, like the nearby Cataloochee Creek and its many tributaries. Whether blanketed in bright spring wildflowers or vivid fall colors, the scenery at Cataloochee never disappoints. The Smokies have the most biological diversity of any area in the world's temperate zone. The park is a sanctuary for a magnificent array of animal and plant life, all of which is protected for future generations to enjoy. In particular, the Cataloochee area is known for the elk herd, which populates the valley in the spring and fall.
Nearby Attractions
A number of the park's famous historical buildings, including cabins and churches, are located close to the campground. The town of Asheville, NC is approximately 35 miles from the campground and offers plenty of cultural and historic activities as well as restaurants and groceries.
Charges & Cancellations
Customers who cancel a group overnight facility reservation less than 14 days before the arrival date will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee.
What the agency tells you
A valid parking tag is required for any vehicle parking for more than 15 minutes in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Front country campers parked at their designated campsite will not be required to have a parking tag. If they park elsewhere in the park, a parking tag will be required. Please note that parking tags will be required for vehicles in excess of what is allowable for each campsite.
Over the last 10 years, an average of 339 negative human-bear encounters have been reported each year; many more go unreported. Visitors should be aware that high bear activity can occur in any area, and that your safety is not guaranteed. To increase your odds for a safe visit, please follow best practices for living and recreating in bear habitat. Stay alert and be prepared to react appropriately during possible encounters, and always report any unusual bear interactions as soon as possible.
Caution: Bears and other wildlife frequent the area. All food and equipment used to prepare and store food must be kept in a sealed vehicle or camping unit of solid, non-pliable material AT ALL TIMES when not in use. All scented items, as well as all water containers MUST be stored. Dispose of garbage promptly in dumpsters provided. Unattended or improperly stored coolers, food and/or scented items may be impounded by campground staff. Violators are subject to fines.
Everything else this campground posts · 11
Firewood Restriction: Only heat-treated firewood bundled in its original packing and bearing a certification seal from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) or a state department of agriculture may be brought into the park. This rule is strictly enforced. Campers may also collect dead and down wood in the park for campfires.
Firewood Vendors. Heat-treated wood is available from a growing list of private businesses in communities around the park. Please visit firewoodscout.org for a list of av ailable vendors near the park. Concessioners at Cades Cove, Elkmont, and Smokemont will provide heat-treated wood for sale during their operating season. Certified heat-treated firewood is packaged and clearly marked with a state or federal seal.
Access to Cataloochee is via a narrow, winding, mountain road. A 3-mile stretch of gravel road contains many narrow, blind curves. Though many campsites will accommodate large rigs, motorhomes over 32' and trailers over 25' in length are not recommended due to the access road.
A reservation is required to use a group camp.
There are no showers or electric, water or sewer hook-ups in the park. Some group sites are accessible.
Quiet hours are in effect from 10 PM to 6 AM. Generator use is prohibited in group camps.
Fires are allowed in fire rings only!
A minimum of 7 people is required for group site use. Maximum site capacity varies from 15 to 30 people. The park stay limit is 14 consecutive days.
A Tennessee or North Carolina fishing license is required to fish in the park. Special regulations apply in the park.
Pets are permitted but cannot be left unattended. All pets must be kept on a leash at all times. Pets are not allowed on trails.
For additional park information call 865-436-1200 or visit www.nps.gov/grsm
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 3 · 3 tent-only, 3 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Backpacking
- Historic site
- Wildlife viewing
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 7.1 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 16:12 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
7 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 17:03 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 3 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 2 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:12 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
“Customers who cancel a group overnight facility reservation less than 14 days before the arrival date will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee.” · 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 · 7
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first; the nearest 5 of 7. read 17:03 UTC
- Big Creek Campground (Great Smoky Mountains National Park)Great Smoky Mountains National Park · 7.2 mi · 1 of 24 site-nights open
- Harmon Den CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 9.2 mi · 16 of 44 site-nights open
- Cosby CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 11 mi · 1 of 124 site-nights open
- SunburstPisgah National Forest · 21 mi · 2 of 18 site-nights open
- Deep Creek Campground (NC)Great Smoky Mountains National Park · 24 mi · 1 of 180 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:12 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
3 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 3 mapped sitesAll 3 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 3 of the 3 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 3 of the 3 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cataloochee CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 1.5 mi
Cataloochee Horse CampGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 2.8 mi
Big Creek Campground (Great Smoky Mountains National Park)Great Smoky Mountains National Park · 7.2 mi
Big Creek Group CampGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 7.3 mi
Big Creek Horse CampGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 7.4 mi
Round Bottom Horse CampGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 8.1 miExit I-40 at exit 20, 25 miles west of Asheville, NC (87 miles east of Knoxville, TN). Turn right onto Cove Creek road 1/10 mile from I-40. Follow Cove Creek Road to the Park boundary. The road goes from pavement to gravel to pavement. Upon reaching the pavement the second time, turn left. Go 2.5 miles and turn right onto a dirt road after crossing a bridge. Go 1 mile to group camp gate..
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Maggie Valley, NC
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 67°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 24°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
Cataloochee Group Camp is in North Carolina’s 11th congressional district. Its representative, Chuck Edwards (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 moneyChuck EdwardsU.S. Representative · North Carolina’s 11th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTed BuddU.S. Senator · North Carolina
- Your senator, on the same appropriationThom TillisU.S. Senator · North Carolina
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 Cataloochee Group Camp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina
Dear Chuck Edwards, I’m a constituent in North Carolina’s 11th district. I tried to camp at Cataloochee Group Camp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 3 sites at Cataloochee Group Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cataloochee Group Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cataloochee Group Camp. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park 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 Cataloochee Group Camp (Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina) 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 Cataloochee Group Camp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina
Dear Ted Budd, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Cataloochee Group Camp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 3 sites at Cataloochee Group Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cataloochee Group Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cataloochee Group Camp. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park 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 Cataloochee Group Camp (Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina) 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 Cataloochee Group Camp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina
Dear Thom Tillis, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Cataloochee Group Camp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 3 sites at Cataloochee Group Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cataloochee Group Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cataloochee Group Camp. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park 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 Cataloochee Group Camp (Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina) via campanac.com