Frank Gross Campground
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 14:18 UTC
- A night
- $8From, per site
- Sites
- 8All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Frank Gross is a U.S. Forest Service Campground located approximately 2 hours north of Atlanta in the North Georgia Mountains of the Chattahoochee National Forest. Frank Gross Campground offers visitors year-round recreation opportunities such as camping, fishing, picnicking, and hiking. Trout fishing is popular here in North Georgia so having a campsite such as Frank Gross adjacent to the Rock Creek is an amazing opportunity for avid fisherman. Eight campsites are neatly arranged for privacy and only walking distance to Rock Creek. Campsites 2 & 5 are directly next to the River. Keep reading
The climate here is fairly mild and generally offers all four seasons, so it's a wonderful place to relax and experience each of these throughout the year. North Georgia is a playground for wildlife watchers. We have an abundance of Deer, Turkey, Bear, and small Furbearers. If you need to get away from civilization and everyday life, please visit Frank Gross Campground. You'll be glad you did.
Recreation
We have plenty of recreational opportunities that are not far from Frank Gross. If you enjoy hiking, The Benton MacKaye trail is north of Frank Gross; this trail crosses the Toccoa River on a suspension bridge that is 260 feet long. Fishing in Rock Creek and Mill Creek for stocked and wild trout is popular. The Chattahoocee National Fish Hatchery is also located on Rock Creek approximately 1/4 mile downstream from Frank Gross. The facility offers an informational visitor kiosk, outdoor raceway viewing, picniking, and an Environmental Education Center. Hiking Trails within a 30 minute drive - The Appalachian Trail is approximately 4 miles south at the intersection of FS Road 42 and FS Road 69. The Benton MacKaye Trail crosses FS Road 333 approximately 4 miles north. If Frank Gross is booked, check out our other Forest Service Campgrounds that are just a 15 min drive away. Cooper Creek Campground and Deep Hope Recreation Area. These campgrounds offer a great experience of Fishing, Hiking, Kayaking, and Picknicking. Hope to see you soon!
Facilities
Frank Gross Campground has one double vault toilet within the campground with sites 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 being the closest to the restroom. There is no water, hook-ups, elecricity, or dump station at this campground.
Natural Features
Frank Gross Campground is nestled on the banks of Rock Creek in the Ed Jenkins National Recreation Area inside the Chattahoochee National Forest. Once you turn down Rock Creek Road, the 5 mile drive to Frank Gross Campground is breathtaking. Rock Creek is visible for most of the drive so it gives fisherman an opportunity to locate a good spot to fish as you travel to the campground. Just a few minutes past the campground is Rock Creek Lake, a small reservoir that offers boating and fishing opportunities. Experiencing all four seasons here in North Georgia makes camping a pleasant experience for everybody. During the months 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 of visitors make the trip annually and we hope you will as well.
Nearby Attractions
If Frank Gross Campground is booked please check out Deep Hole Campground which is 15 minutes North. This campground has nine sites and is also a great place to catch fish along the Toccoa River. This campground can also be booked on recreation.gov or calling the reservation line. Deep Hole Recreation Area is about twenty minutes south of Blue Ridge, Georgia on GA Highway 60. If you turn down Rock Creek Road (FSR 69) you can find the Chattahoochee National Fish Hatchery, Cooper Creek Recreation Area, and access to the Ed Jenkins National Recreation Area. Just a short drive down the highway are Woody Gap Recreation Area, Chestatee Overlook, or Dockery Lake Recreation Area. Nearby water falls to visit are are Helton Creek Falls, Dukes Creeks Falls, Long Creek Falls, Fall Branch Falls, and Raven Cliffs Falls. Just a short drive and located 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, 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, Blue Ridge, and Dahlonega, GA. If you don't want to drive into town, visit the Cooper Creek Store which is about 5 miles south of the campground as they'll have all your camping supplies.
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.
Quiet hours are from 10pm until 6am. No generators, music or other loud noises during this time. Be respectful to other campground visitors.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
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
Campfires are permitted in grills only. Do not leave fires unattended; they must be fully-extinguished and cold to the touch before check-out.
Discharging of firearms and fireworks is prohibited.
There is no drinking water, electrical hook-ups, or dump-station service at this site.
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
- 8
- Hookups
- None
- Paved pads
- 2 of 8
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Frank Gross Campground has one double vault toilet within the campground with sites 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fish Hatchery
- Fish Viewing Site
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Scenic drives
- Water access
Full this Saturdayread 14:18 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 8 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 6 are free on Thu, Oct 22. read 14:18 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
recreation.gov availability, read 14:18 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
8 sites
All 8 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. 8 of the 8 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Frank Gross | 1 | standard nonelectric | $8 |
| Frank Gross | 2 Creek Site | standard nonelectric | $8 |
| Frank Gross | 3 | standard nonelectric | $8 |
| Frank Gross | 4 | standard nonelectric | $8 |
| Frank Gross | 5 Creek Site | standard nonelectric | $8 |
| Frank Gross | 6 | standard nonelectric | $8 |
| Frank Gross | 7 | standard nonelectric | $8 |
| Frank Gross | 8 | standard nonelectric | $8 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Deep Hole Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 2.7 mi
Cooper Creek Campground (GA)Chattahoochee National Forest · 5.9 miCooper Creek Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 6.3 mi
Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA)Chattahoochee National Forest · 7.8 mi
Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 7.8 miDirections From Blue Ridge, GA - Take US 515 north for 4 miles to GA Hwy. 60; turn right and go 2 miles to Morganton. In Morganton, turn right on GA 60 south for 14.5 miles. Turn right on Rock Creek Rd. (Chattahoochee National Fish Hatchery Road) for 5.2 miles to campground.
From Dahlonega, GA - Take GA Hwy. 60 north for 26 miles; turn left on Forest Service Road 69 for 5.2 miles to campground.
From Blairsville, GA - Take Skeenah Gap Rd and travel 7.8 miles South. Turn left onto HWY 60-South and travel 3.4 miles. Rock Creek Rd will be on your right. Travel 5.2 miles to the Campground.
The agency publishes this point for 2 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
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
Frank Gross Campground is in Georgia’s 9th congressional district. Its representative, Andrew Clyde (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 moneyAndrew S. ClydeU.S. Representative · Georgia’s 9th 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 Frank Gross Campground, Noontootly National Game Refuge, Georgia
Dear Andrew S. Clyde, I’m a constituent in Georgia’s 9th district. I tried to camp at Frank Gross Campground, Noontootly National Game Refuge, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 8 sites at Frank Gross Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 8 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. Frank Gross Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Frank Gross Campground. 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 Frank Gross Campground (Noontootly National Game Refuge, 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 Frank Gross Campground, Noontootly National Game Refuge, Georgia
Dear Jon Ossoff, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Frank Gross Campground, Noontootly National Game Refuge, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 8 sites at Frank Gross Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 8 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. Frank Gross Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Frank Gross Campground. 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 Frank Gross Campground (Noontootly National Game Refuge, 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 Frank Gross Campground, Noontootly National Game Refuge, Georgia
Dear Raphael G. Warnock, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Frank Gross Campground, Noontootly National Game Refuge, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 8 sites at Frank Gross Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 8 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. Frank Gross Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Frank Gross Campground. 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 Frank Gross Campground (Noontootly National Game Refuge, Georgia) via campanac.com