Fish Dam Creek Park
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 16:57 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Fish Dam Creek Shelter is located directly adjacent to W Kerr Scott's Dam. This shelter features horseshoe pits, and has a panoramic view of the reservoir. Keep reading
Recreation
The 1,475-acre reservoir offers excellent boating, canoeing, kayaking and swimming opportunities. Anglers will find channel catfish, large and smallmouth bass, bluegill, threadfin shad, spotted bass, striped bass, and hybrid striped bass. Miles of multi-use trails, that allow hiking and mountain biking, surround the lake, including the Dark Mountain Trail which can be accessed from the shelter. The Warrior Creek and Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail feature an additional 25 miles of trails.
Facilities
The Fish Dam Creek shelter offers eight, 8-foot picnic tables and one, 10-foot ADA-accessible picnic table. A water spigot and charcoal grill are close by. The electrial outlets currently do not work due to an underground problem. Along with scenic views, you can enjoy other park amenities which include horseshoe pits, grill, vault toilets, hiking trails and five mini-shelters (first come-first serve). (The power to this shelter is currently off)
Natural Features
The gentle Yadkin River flows through its scenic namesake valley in the foothills of the eastern Blue Ridge Mountains. Forests of mixed hardwoods, including sycamore, poplar, oak and hickory, cover the region. Wildlife is abundant in the valley. White-tailed deer, black bear, eastern cottontails and more can be found among the hills. Birds in the area include wild turkey, woodpeckers, Carolina chickadees, red-eyed vireo, ovenbirds, mallards and wood ducks.
Nearby Attractions
W. Kerr Scott Lake has 3 main trail systems. Dark Mountain, OVT, and Warrior Creek trail systems. The Visitor Assistance Center is located at 499 Reservoir Road. W. Kerr Scott Lake is 10 minutes from Wilkesboro, NC.
Charges & Cancellations
All reservations, changes, and cancellations must be made by the guest using Recreation.gov, by calling 877-444-6777, or using the Recreation.gov moblie app. All refund request will need to be submitted via recreation.gov.
What the agency tells you
All reservations, changes, and cancellations must be made by the guest using Recreation.gov, by calling 877-444-6777, or using the Recreation.gov moblie app. Shelter reservation signs will be posted by a ranger prior to your arrival. If shelter is not reserved for that day, then the shelter is usable by first come first serve. The playground has been removed due to damage. The swing set is still in place. It is not inclusive to the shelter reservation holder. Parking is limited. Notify the ranger station if more parking spaces will be required. Do not park on grass at the flagpole area. Place all trash in trash cans. Do not leave trash beside the trash cans.
Alcoholic beverages are prohibited at W. Kerr Scott Lake.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…which include horseshoe pits, grill, vault toilets, hiking trails and five mini-shelters (first…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 1 of 1 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:57 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.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 16:29 UTC. See them
OpenBookedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:57 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
“All reservations, changes, and cancellations must be made by the guest using Recreation.gov, by calling 877-444-6777, or using the Recreation.gov moblie app. All refund request will need to be submitted via recreation.gov.” · 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 · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:29 UTC
- Doughton Park CampgroundBlue Ridge Parkway · 21 mi · 1 of 60 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:57 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
| Fish Dam Creek Park | Fish Dam Creek Park | day use | yes | 619 ftYadkin River |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
W. Kerr Scott Visitor Assistance Center Conference Room0.4 mi
Bandits Roost1.7 mi
Fort Hamby Park2.6 mi
Warrior Creek4.2 mi
Basin Cove Backcountry CampingBlue Ridge Parkway · 18 mi
Doughton Park CampgroundBlue Ridge Parkway · 21 miFrom Charlotte, North Carolina , take I-77 North (approximately 60 miles) before merging onto Highway 421 North towards Wilkesboro/Boone. Continue to Exit 286B (approximately 20 miles), turn left onto Highway 268 and continue for approximately 3.5 miles. Turn right onto Reservoir Road. Continue on Reservoir Road across the dam and the shelter will be on the right.
From Winston-Salem, North Carolina , take Highway 421 North (approximately 55 miles) to Exit 286B, turn left onto Highway 268 and continue for approximately 3.5 miles. Turn right onto right onto Reservoir Road. Continue on Reservoir Road across the dam and the shelter will be on the right.
From Wilkesboro, North Carolina , head west on Main Street/Hwy 268/Hwy 18 (approximately 4 miles) and turn right on Reservoir Road. Continue on Reservoir Road across the dam and the shelter will be on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Wilkesboro, NC
Typical weather
Typical October night 46°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 27°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Fish Dam Creek Park is in North Carolina’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Virginia Foxx (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 moneyVirginia FoxxU.S. Representative · North Carolina’s 5th 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 Fish Dam Creek Park, North Carolina
Dear Virginia Foxx, I’m a constituent in North Carolina’s 5th district. I tried to camp at Fish Dam Creek Park, North Carolina, and couldn’t. Every site at Fish Dam Creek Park 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Fish Dam Creek Park keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Fish Dam Creek Park. 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 Fish Dam Creek 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 Fish Dam Creek Park, North Carolina
Dear Ted Budd, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Fish Dam Creek Park, North Carolina, and couldn’t. Every site at Fish Dam Creek Park 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Fish Dam Creek Park keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Fish Dam Creek Park. 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 Fish Dam Creek 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 Fish Dam Creek Park, North Carolina
Dear Thom Tillis, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Fish Dam Creek Park, North Carolina, and couldn’t. Every site at Fish Dam Creek Park 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Fish Dam Creek Park keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Fish Dam Creek Park. 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 Fish Dam Creek Park (North Carolina) via campanac.com