Desoto Falls Recreation Area
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- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:37 UTC
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 23All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Desoto Falls Recreation Area is a U.S. Forest Service Campground located approximately 2 hours North of Atlanta in the North Georgia mountains of the Chattahoochee National Forest. Desoto Falls offers visitors year-round recreation opportunities including camping, fishing, picnicking, and beautiful hikes to our nearby waterfalls. The campground is situated along Frogtown Creek with at an elevation of 2,080 feet above sea level, under a dense forest of deciduous and evergreen trees. 23 campsites are neatly arranged in two loops(upper and lower), with each loop having creek sites. Keep reading
The climate here is fairly mild and generally offers all four seasons, so it is a wonderful place to relax and experience each of these throughout the year. North Georgia is a playground for wildlife watchers. An abundance of Deer, Turkey, Bear and, small furbearers can be seen as well as bird watching. If you need to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, come to Desoto Falls.
Recreation
The primary attractions to this area are the two waterfalls along Frogtown Creek, which lead from the wooden bridge across from the Host Site. This hike is relatively short, kid-friendly distance and moderate elevation change make it one of North Georgia’s most popular waterfall hikes. .25 hike to lower falls and .75 to the upper falls. The trail hikes through several large exposed rock outcrops, beautiful rhododendron, and under the shade of several enormous old-growth pine trees with their wide trunks reaching high into the forest canopy above. The waterfall’s newly built observation deck makes a great spot for a mid-hike rest or picnic, and a great place to soak up the waterfall’s beauty. Note: slippery rocks and fast moving water can be extremely dangerous! Please don’t climb, stand on, swim near, or jump from any waterfall.
Facilities
April 1st through October 31st, the campground has drinking water, warm showers, and flush toilets. The bathhouse has warm water outdoor showers connected to a flush facility, and is located on the lower loop. Hydrants are centrally located throughout the entire campground for your convenience. Centrally located in the upper loop is a vault toilet, which is a short walk from most campsites. NOTE: There are no hookups or a dumpstation avaliable in the campground. From November 1st - March 31st, fees are reduced because no water is available. A dumpster is located near site #3 for all bagged trash to be disposed of. Amenities include a picnic area, picnic tables, fire rings, vault toilets, lantern posts, drinking water, flush toilets, water hydrants, water front sites, and garbage service.
Natural Features
Desoto Falls is part of the Chattahoochee National Forest and is located in a 650-acre (2.6 km2) area designated as the Desoto Falls Scenic Area. This area of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia make up part of the Appalachian Mountain range stretching all the way to Canada. The hardwood coves, rushing waterfalls, creeks, and steep canyons are crisscrossed with abundant trails for hiking and fishing. During the Month of October, North Georgia’s trees put on a vibrant show. Summer's dark greens change to brilliant reds, oranges and yellows which makes the camping atmosphere amazing. Thousands make the yearly trek into the mountains near Desoto Falls for a front row seat.
Nearby Attractions
Just 1.5 miles north on 19/129 is Neels Gap and the Appalachian Trail. Drive just a short piece down to Byron Herbert Reece parking area on the left, and the Appalachian Trail can be easily accessed there. Nearby water falls to visit are are Helton Creek Falls, Dukes Creeks Falls, and Raven Cliffs Falls. Just a short drive and located within the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests, the Brasstown Bald Recreation Area & Visitor Center is a great place to visit. It is the highest point in Georgia, rising 4,784 feet above sea level with a 360 degree view of four states. Towns within a short drive to visit are Blairsville, Helen, and Dahlonega, GA
What the agency tells you
During non-peak season (November 1 - April 1), all water is turned off to the entire campground.
Be bear aware; keep all food in containers or locked inside a vehicle as much as possible. Remove all food from the area after eating and during nighttime hours. Dispose of garbage promptly in our bear proof garbage dumpster.
Limit of two vehicles per campsite except the double site (site #14), which is a maximum of 4 vehicles.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Quiet hours are from 10pm until 6am. No generators, music or other loud noises during this time. Be respectful to other campground visitors.
Campfires are permitted in grills only.
Pets must be on a leash at all times.
Discharging of firearms and fireworks is prohibited.
Do not leave fires unattended; they must be fully-extinguished and cold to the touch before check-out.
Note: cell phone service may not work in some areas due to tower location and terrain.
No day use or picnicking in the campground. Please use the day-use area or the picnic area if you do not have a reservation.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 23 · 2 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…has drinking water, warm showers, and flush toilets. The bathhouse has warm water outdoor showers… / …Centrally located in the upper loop is a vault toilet, which is a short walk from most campsites. NOTE:…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Facilities April 1st through October 31st, the campground has drinking water, warm showers, and flush toilets.”
- Playground
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
Full this Saturdayread 16:37 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 21 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 16 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 16:37 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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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.
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 · 5
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 · 22 mi · 4 of 182 site-nights open
- Morganton PointChattahoochee-Oconee National Forest · 22 mi · 1 of 80 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:37 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
23 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 23 mapped sitesAll 23 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. 23 of the 23 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.
| Lower Loop | 1 | standard nonelectric | 189 ft | 102 ft | $20 |
| Lower Loop | 2 | standard nonelectric | 166 ft | 61 ft | $20 |
| Lower Loop | 3 | standard nonelectric | 84 ft | 214 ft | $20 |
| Lower Loop | 4 | standard nonelectric | 84 ft | 298 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 10 | tent only nonelectric | 19 ft | 245 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 11 | tent only nonelectric | 19 ft | 261 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 12 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 300 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 13 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 266 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 14 | group standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 106 ft | $40 |
| Upper Loop | 15 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 81 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 16 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 77 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 17 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 144 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 18 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 76 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 19 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 166 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 20 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 109 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 21 | standard nonelectric | 84 ft | 115 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 22 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 93 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 23 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 108 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 5 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 264 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 6 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 270 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 7 | standard nonelectric | 82 ft | 209 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 8 | standard nonelectric | 108 ft | 139 ft | $20 |
| Upper Loop | 9 | standard nonelectric | 144 ft | 194 ft | $20 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lake Winfield Scott Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 2.7 miLake Winfield Scott CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 3.9 mi
Dockery Lake Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 4.0 miDockery Lake Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 4.7 mi
Low Gap CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 8.1 miFrom Blairsville, GA take U.S. Highway 19/129 South for 17.0 miles and the campground entrance is on your right. From Dahlonega, GA take Highway 19 North for 18 miles and the entrance in on your left. From Cleveland, GA, take 19/129 North for 16 miles and the entrance to the campground is on your left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Yonah, GA
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 70°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Desoto Falls Recreation Area is in Georgia’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Rich McCormick (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 moneyRichard McCormickU.S. Representative · Georgia’s 7th 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 Desoto Falls Recreation Area, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Richard McCormick, I’m a constituent in Georgia’s 7th district. I tried to camp at Desoto Falls Recreation Area, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 23 sites at Desoto Falls Recreation Area are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 21 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. Desoto Falls Recreation Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Desoto Falls Recreation Area. 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 Desoto Falls Recreation Area (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 Desoto Falls Recreation Area, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Jon Ossoff, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Desoto Falls Recreation Area, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 23 sites at Desoto Falls Recreation Area are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 21 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. Desoto Falls Recreation Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Desoto Falls Recreation Area. 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 Desoto Falls Recreation Area (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 Desoto Falls Recreation Area, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Raphael G. Warnock, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Desoto Falls Recreation Area, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 23 sites at Desoto Falls Recreation Area are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 21 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. Desoto Falls Recreation Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Desoto Falls Recreation Area. 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 Desoto Falls Recreation Area (Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia) via campanac.com