Dockery Lake Recreation Area
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 read 15:33 UTC
- A night
- $8From, per site
- Sites
- 11All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Dockery Lake 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. Dockery Lake is nestled deep within the mountains 12 miles north of Dahlonega, GA. Dockery Lake Recreation Area offers camping, picnicking and fishing for all ages. Dockery Lake Campground is small and located right along the banks of Dockery Lake. The campground is situated under a dense forest of deciduous and evergreen trees which brings plenty of shade in the summer time. Keep reading
11 campsites are neatly arranged within close proximity to the Lake and the Day Use area (no fee). 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 Dockery Lake Recreation Area.
Recreation
Day Hiking: Lakeshore Trail - 0.5 mile easy loop around lake. Dockery Lake Trail( LEADS FROM DAY USE AREA) - 3.5 miles leads to the Appalachian Trail in Miller Gap. Other trails within a 30 minute drive: The Appalachian Trail cross Hwy 60 at Woody Gap, The Benton MacKaye Trail crosses Hwy. 60 in two places, approximately 12 miles north. Dockery Lake - Carry Down Electric Motors Only Facilities There are no water or electric hook-ups or dump station available in the campground. 1 flush facility in the campground and 1 vault toilet in the day use area. Standard Amenities (i.e. grill, picnic tables, lantern post, etc) Flush facilty and drinking water is only available from 4/1 through 10/31.
Natural Features
Dockery Lake campground and day-use area is constructed next to a small pond. The area, operated by the U.S. Forest Service of the Blue Ridge Ranger Disctict in the Chattahoochee National Forest, is nestled among the Cedar Ridge range of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Situated on a small tributary to Waters Creek, Dockery Lake is a 6-acre (24,000 m2) man-made lake stocked with trout. 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 Dockery Lake for a front row seat.
Nearby Attractions
Dockery Lake Recreation Area is about thirty minutes north of Dahlonega, Georgia off GA Highway 60. Just a short drive down the highway is Woody Gap Recreation Area, Chestatee Overlook, or Deep Hole Recreation Area. About fifteen minutes away is Dicks Creek Recreation Area. Nearby water falls to visit are are Dicks Creek Falls, Helton Creek Falls, Dukes Creeks Falls, Long Creek Falls, Fall Branch Falls, and Raven Cliffs Falls. If you turn down Rock Creek Road (FSR 69) you can find the Chattahoochee National Fish Hatchery, Frank Gross Recreation Area, and access to the Ed Jenkins National Recreation Area. Also nearby, within the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, the Brasstown Bald Recreation Area & Visitor Center is a great place to visit. It is the highest point in Georgia, and rises to 4,784 feet above sea level with a 360 degree view of four states. Towns within a short drive are Blairsville, Helen, Blue Ridge, and Dahlonega, GA.
What the agency tells you
Check-out at 2:00 PM ; Check-In at 3:00 PM. This campground is self-service and visitors are invited to occupy campsites with a qualified reservation.
Note: cell phone service may not work in some areas due to tower location and terrain., but there is generally cell coverage at the turn-off to the campground at highway 60.
Drinking Water is available seasonally (April 1 - November 1), but the campground is winterized in the off-season (November 1 - April 1).
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Quiet hours are from 10pm until 6am. No generators, music or other loud noises during this time. Be respectful to other campground visitors.
Pack-it-In Pack-it-out. Although limited trash service is available at this recreation area, please take as much with you as you can.
Limit of two vehicles per campsite
Pets must be on a leash at all times.
Campfires are permitted in grills only. Do not leave fires unattended; they must be fully-extinguished and cold to the touch before check-out.
Day-Use is not permitted in unreserved campsites. Day-use visitors are not required to pay a fee, and can use the facilities available in the day-use area.
There are no drinking water hook-ups, electrical hook-ups, or dump-station service at this site.
Fishing in Dockery Lake is permitted, but a Trout Stamp is required under GA DNR regulations.
Boating is permitted at Dockery Lake. Electric motors only, no internal combustion motors. Canoes, kayaks and paddleboards are acceptable.
Swimming is prohibited in Dockery Lake.
Discharging of firearms and fireworks is prohibited.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 11
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS (SEASONAL) on 11 of 11 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 11 of 11 campsite records, WATER (SEASONAL) on 10 of 11 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Water access
Full this Saturdayread 15:33 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 11 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 8 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:33 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $8 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
- Morganton PointChattahoochee-Oconee National Forest · 21 mi · 1 of 80 site-nights open
- Jackrabbit MountainNational Forests in North Carolina · 26 mi · 4 of 182 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:33 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
11 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 11 mapped sitesAll 11 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 11 of the 11 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. 11 of the 11 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Dockery Lake | 1 | standard nonelectric | 193 ft | 304 ft | 582 ft | $8 |
| Dockery Lake | Site 10 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 209 ft | 110 ft | $8 |
| Dockery Lake | Site 11 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 137 ft | 115 ft | $8 |
| Dockery Lake | Site 2 | standard nonelectric | 122 ft | 264 ft | 419 ft | $8 |
| Dockery Lake | Site 3(lake site) | standard nonelectric | 122 ft | 147 ft | 392 ft | $8 |
| Dockery Lake | Site 4 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 223 ft | 296 ft | $8 |
| Dockery Lake | Site 5(lake site) | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 150 ft | 270 ft | $8 |
| Dockery Lake | Site 6 | standard nonelectric | 124 ft | 240 ft | 183 ft | $8 |
| Dockery Lake | Site 7(lake site) | standard nonelectric | 135 ft | 114 ft | 133 ft | $8 |
| Dockery Lake | Site 8 | standard nonelectric | 112 ft | 208 ft | 33 ft | $8 |
| Dockery Lake | Site 9(lake site) | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 129 ft | 81 ft | $8 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Desoto Falls Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 4.0 miLake Winfield Scott CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 4.1 miBoggs Creek Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 4.8 mi
Lake Winfield Scott Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 6.5 miCooper Creek Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 8.1 miDirections From Blairsville, GA take U.S. 19/129 south for 10.0 miles, turn right on GA Hwy 180. Go approximately 11.0 miles. Turn left on GA Highway 60, go 4.0 miles to Forest Service Road 654 on the left. Turn left, go 1.0 mile to campground.
From Dahlonega, GA take GA Highway 60 north approximately 13 miles to Forest Service Road 654 on the right. Turn right, go 1.0 mile to campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Dahlonega, 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
Dockery Lake 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 Dockery Lake Recreation Area, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Richard McCormick, I’m a constituent in Georgia’s 7th district. I tried to camp at Dockery Lake Recreation Area, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 11 sites at Dockery Lake Recreation Area are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 11 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. Dockery Lake Recreation Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Dockery Lake 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 Dockery Lake 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 Dockery Lake Recreation Area, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Jon Ossoff, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Dockery Lake Recreation Area, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 11 sites at Dockery Lake Recreation Area are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 11 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. Dockery Lake Recreation Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Dockery Lake 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 Dockery Lake 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 Dockery Lake Recreation Area, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Raphael G. Warnock, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Dockery Lake Recreation Area, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 11 sites at Dockery Lake Recreation Area are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 11 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. Dockery Lake Recreation Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Dockery Lake 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 Dockery Lake Recreation Area (Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia) via campanac.com