Chilhowee Group Camp
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 29 of the next 30 nights read 16:53 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located in the Chilhowee Recreation Area, Chilhowee Group Camp offers camping for up to 75 individuals. Nearby McKamy Lake offers a swim area with a sandy beach and fishing from the bank. On the drive up to the campground, stop at one of the many observation overlooks to enjoy the beautiful mountains. Wildlife is abundant in this area, so have your camera ready and tread lightly. Keep reading
Recreation
Within the recreation area are approximately 25 miles of hiking and biking trails including the Chilhowee Trails System. Chilhowee Group camp is an excellent location for wildlife viewing and accessing a nearby scenic waterfall. Fishing is available on the seven-acre McKamy Lake. Boats are allowed, but gasoline motors are not.
Facilities
The group camp includes a large open area with picnic tables and a grill as well as an RV site with electric hook up. Camp sites are scattered through the trees surrounding the RV site. Within the group site itself, a waterless vault toilet is available year-round. During the warmer months, (typically April-October), a bathhouse with flushing toilets and showers is available nearby. Both the beach and many trails are located within a short walking distance of the site. Drinking water is available near the entrance to the group site.
Natural Features
The campground is located near the top of Chilhowee Mountain at an elevation of 2,000 feet. It is in a mixed hardwood and pine forest and the lake is a short walk from the group camp.
Nearby Attractions
In addition to the immediate local activities, world class whitewater rafting opportunities are nearby on the Ocoee and Hiwassee Rivers.
Charges & Cancellations
Goup areas must be cancelled more than 14 days from reservation date to get refund. The $8.00 service fee will still be charged for the reservation
What the agency tells you
Campfires are permitted in designated fire rings only.
Do not leave fires unattended. They will be extinguished.
Discharging firearms and fireworks is prohibited.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Pets must be on a leash and are not allowed on the beach.
No lifeguards on duty; swim at your own risk.
Alcoholic beverages are prohibited.
GPS coordinates will bring you up Benton Springs Rd. This route is not recommended. We recommend using Forest Service Road 77 to reach the recreation area.
The nearest restaurants and/or stores for purchasing supplies are about 14 miles from the campground.
Campground hosts are on site.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…the group site itself, a waterless vault toilet is available year-round. During the warmer months,… / …April-October), a bathhouse with flushing toilets and showers is available nearby. Both the beach and…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…a short walking distance of the site. Drinking water is available near the entrance to the group site.…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 13 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Beach
- Accessible Swimming
- Amphitheater
- Biking
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Mountain biking
- Rafting
- River Trips
- Scenic drives
- Water access
- Whitewater rafting
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:53 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:44 UTC. See them
OpenBookedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:53 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
“The $8.00 service fee will still be charged for the reservation” · 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 16:44 UTC
- Cottonwood Patch CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 12 mi · 1 of 8 site-nights open
- Morganton PointChattahoochee-Oconee National Forest · 28 mi · 2 of 82 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:53 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 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.
| CHILHOWEE GROUP CAMP | Chilhowee Group Camp | group tent only area nonelectric | 1,031 ftMcCamy Lake | $50 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Chilhowee CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 0.0 miChilhowee Recreation AreaCherokee National Forest · 0.1 mi
Parksville Lake RV CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 3.2 miLost Corral Horse CampCherokee National Forest · 6.8 miLost Creek CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 8.0 mi
Thunder Rock Campground8.8 miFrom Highway 64/411 intersection, travel east 7 miles, turn onto Forest Road 77, drive 7.5 miles to campground/recreation area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Benton, TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 25°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
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Chilhowee Group Camp is in Tennessee’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Chuck Fleischmann (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 moneyCharles J. "Chuck" FleischmannU.S. Representative · Tennessee’s 3rd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationBill HagertyU.S. Senator · Tennessee
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMarsha BlackburnU.S. Senator · Tennessee
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 Chilhowee Group Camp, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee
Dear Charles J. "Chuck" Fleischmann, I’m a constituent in Tennessee’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Chilhowee Group Camp, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Chilhowee Group Camp are 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Chilhowee Group Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Chilhowee Group Camp. 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 Chilhowee Group Camp (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) 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 Chilhowee Group Camp, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee
Dear Bill Hagerty, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. I tried to camp at Chilhowee Group Camp, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Chilhowee Group Camp are 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Chilhowee Group Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Chilhowee Group Camp. 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 Chilhowee Group Camp (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) 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 Chilhowee Group Camp, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee
Dear Marsha Blackburn, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. I tried to camp at Chilhowee Group Camp, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Chilhowee Group Camp are 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Chilhowee Group Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Chilhowee Group Camp. 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 Chilhowee Group Camp (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) via campanac.com