Horse Creek Pavilion DAY USE
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Horse Creek Pavilion is located eight miles from Greeneville, Tennessee. It is nestled into a hardwood cove beside its namesake, Horse Creek. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed the pavilion during the 1930s. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, water-play and fishing are popular activities. Scarlet Oak Trail (#181) is a .2 mile leg-stretcher through the forest bordering the recreation area. A more primitive hiking experience is available on three trails located in the nearby Sampson Mountain Wilderness. A small campground and more picnic sites are located in Horse Creek Recreation Area.
Facilities
The picnic pavilion has three tables and a paved parking area nearby. A large grill and water source is located at the pavilion. Additional tables are located nearby, as are trash containers and a pit toilet. The walkways and many of the sites are accessible; however the restroom has limited accessibility.
Natural Features
Horse Creek Pavilion is located close to Horse Creek and adjacent to Sampson Mountain Wilderness. It is located at the base of the Bald Mountains at an elevation of 1,720 feet. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (423) 638-4109.
Nearby Attractions
Horse Creek is located near historic Greeneville, Tennessee, home of Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the U.S. Tusculum College is located nearby. Founded in 1794, it is the oldest College in Tennessee. The Andrew Johnson Homestead and several museums are located in Greeneville/Tusculum. Hotels, restaurants, grocery stores and gas stations are nearby.
What the agency tells you
No alcoholic beverages are allowed in the area.
Please call (423) 735-1500 to apply for a special use permit if your group size will be 75 people or more.
There is no water at the site after November 3rd.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Be Bear Wise: Never leave food out on tables or in the open. Store unattended food in bear-resistant containers, in a vehicle in solid non-pliable material, or suspend food at least ten feet off the ground. Remember to use the bear resistant trash receptacles provided at this facility.
THIS IS A DAY USE AREA ONLY. NO OVERNIGHT USE IS ALLOWED.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…nearby, as are trash containers and a pit toilet. The walkways and many of the sites are accessible;…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 13 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Backpacking
- Birding
- Fish Viewing Site
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Water access
- Wilderness access
Nothing here to sleep in
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.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
| HORSE CREEK PAVILION | HORSE CREEK PAVILION | day use | 76 ft | $30 |
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.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Horse Creek Recreation AreaCherokee National Forest · 0.1 miOld Forge Recreation AreaCherokee National Forest · 1.8 miOld Forge CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 1.9 mi
Katy BranchCherokee Purchase Unit · 8.6 mi
Paint Creek CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 14 mi
Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN)Cherokee National Forest · 17 miFrom Greeneville, take TN 107 north for six miles. Turn right at Horse Creek Road and follow the signs for about two miles to the recreation area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Tusculum, TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 44°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 26°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
Horse Creek Pavilion DAY USE is in Tennessee’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Diana Harshbarger (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
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- The member who votes the moneyDiana HarshbargerU.S. Representative · Tennessee’s 1st 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Horse Creek Pavilion DAY USE has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Diana Harshbarger, I’m a constituent in Tennessee’s 1st district. Horse Creek Pavilion DAY USE, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Horse Creek Pavilion DAY USE (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Horse Creek Pavilion DAY USE has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Bill Hagerty, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. Horse Creek Pavilion DAY USE, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Horse Creek Pavilion DAY USE (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Horse Creek Pavilion DAY USE has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Marsha Blackburn, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. Horse Creek Pavilion DAY USE, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Horse Creek Pavilion DAY USE (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) via campanac.com