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U.S. Forest Service · Cherokee National Forest · TN

Houston Valley

Not on the booking systemrecreation.gov lists none of the 1 campsites the agency files here, in any month asked. Whatever these sites are, a reservation isn’t how you get one.

Reservable everywhere but bookable nowhere.Ask the agency →

Get directions
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
Sites
1None on recreation.gov
Photos · US Forest Service
18 ftLongest rig
1,830 ftElevation
383 ftWater · Gum Spring Branch
12.4 miE of Newport, TN
90%Tree cover

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices

In the agency’s own words

Houston Valley Recreation Area (elevation 1,800 feet) is centrally located to both Paint Creek and Weaver Bend. It is located directly off Tennessee (TN) Scenic Highway 107. Keep reading

Recreation

Equestrian trails and hiking trails are located close to the recreation area. An open grass area is available for games.

Facilities

Houston Valley Recreation Area has eight picnic sites and two group picnic areas in addition to the pavilion. A green-space restroom and trash cans are located a short distance from the pavilion. The pavilion itself contains three large picnic tables and is located adjacent to two single tables with grills.

Natural Features

The recreation area is nestled along the edge of a hardwood forest. Fall colors are spectacular along this stretch of TN Scenic Highway 107.

Nearby Attractions

Meadow Creek, a Fire Tower that has recently been renovated as a lookout platform, is a short drive or hike away. Burnette Gap Trailhead is a short distance away. Bubbling Springs Rifle Range is located off TN Scenic Highway 107. Another scenic drive along Brush Creek Road (#209) leads to Weaver Bend and Allen Branch Pond. An accessible .2 mile trail rings Allen Branch Pond and Weaver Bend Road (#209C) parallels the French Broad River. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (423) 638-4109.

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

What the agency tells you

Rule

No alcoholic beverages are allowed.

Source: recreation.gov facility notices, quoted verbatim · Sep 9, 2026

Tents and rigs

Sites
1
Hookups
None
Longest rig
18 ft
Accessible sites
None listed
Pets
Allowed
Shade
Every site
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Stay limit
13 nights
recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Source: recreation.gov facility record · Sep 9, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
River, Creek, Meadow
Hiking
Horseback riding
Lookout Tower
Mountain biking
Picnicking
Scenic drives
Stargazing
Wildlife viewing
Night sky · 33rd darkest of 95 in TN
Bortle 4
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate · Sep 8, 2026

Nothing on the booking system

recreation.gov lists none of the 1 campsites the agency files here. Whatever these sites are, a reservation isn’t how you get one.

No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.

Booking windowOut of seasonOut of season, no booking. The last reservable season the agency published ended October 31, 2019, and it hasn't published the next one.recreation.gov
Max stay13 nightsthe facility record
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Every line of the receipt · 9

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s nothing to add the $8 booking fee to. We won’t total a receipt with a number missing from it.
If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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 · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

1 sites · the site map

All 1 sites

1 of 1 sites located
Type not stated1
Houston Valley
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
Sites: recreation.gov (RIDB), coordinates as published · Aug 23, 2026
Imagery: Esri World Imagery
Sleeps
HOUSTON VALLEYHouston Valleytype not stated18 ft383 ft

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.

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Coordinate35.96333, -82.94444
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Also near herePaint Creek CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 5.7 miRound Mountain CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 8.6 miRocky Bluff CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 8.9 miHarmon Den CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 14 miBig Creek Horse CampGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 17 miOld Forge CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 17 mi
Getting there

From Greeneville, TN take TN 70 south about 10 miles. Turn right onto TN 107 west, travel nine miles. Houston Valley is located on the left. From Newport, TN, travel on US25/70 south, turn left onto TN 107 east and travel five miles to Houston Valley. It will be located on the right.

Directions: Driving directions as the agency wrote them · Sep 9, 2026
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight43°Chance Rain Showers47% rain
Saturday54°Chance Rain Showers then Partly Sunny44% rain
Saturday Night32°Mostly Clear then Widespread Frost
Sunday64°Widespread Frost then Sunny

NWS forecast for Hot Springs, NC

Source: National Weather Service, MRX forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 47°F, day 72°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

100°32°20°

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.

Measured at: HOT SPRINGS, NC (USC00314260), 8 miles away and 485 ft lower
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it · a letter you can send

Who answers for this land

Diana Harshbarger, official portrait

Houston Valley 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score
Who can change it · 3
Reservable on paper, bookable nowhere

The agency’s own record marks Houston Valley reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its campsites. The draft asks why, and what it would take to fix it.

Read the draft, or change the wording
To Diana Harshbarger

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Houston Valley is reservable and not bookable

Dear Diana Harshbarger,

I’m a constituent in Tennessee’s 1st district. Houston Valley, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee is a federal campground the U.S. Forest Service records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 1 campsites, in any month asked.

I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why isn’t Houston Valley on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there?

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 Houston Valley (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) via campanac.com
To Bill Hagerty

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Houston Valley is reservable and not bookable

Dear Bill Hagerty,

I’m a constituent in Tennessee. Houston Valley, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee is a federal campground the U.S. Forest Service records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 1 campsites, in any month asked.

I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why isn’t Houston Valley on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there?

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 Houston Valley (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) via campanac.com
To Marsha Blackburn

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Houston Valley is reservable and not bookable

Dear Marsha Blackburn,

I’m a constituent in Tennessee. Houston Valley, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee is a federal campground the U.S. Forest Service records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 1 campsites, in any month asked.

I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why isn’t Houston Valley on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there?

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 Houston Valley (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
Contacts: Contact forms from @unitedstates/congress-legislators · Sep 9, 2026
The figures in these drafts: Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress (CRS Report RS20643) · Updated December 4, 2025 · “The ship’s final procurement cost was $13,316.5 million (i.e., about $13.3 billion) in then-year dollars.”
The figures in these drafts: Salary Table 2026-GS, Incorporating the 1% General Schedule Increase, Effective January 2026 (U.S. Office of Personnel Management) · Effective January 2026 · “Grade 5, Step 1: $34,799 (annual rate, before locality pay).”
The figures in these drafts: Update to Civilian Position Full Fringe Benefit Cost Factor, Federal Pay Raise Assumptions, and Inflation Factors used in OMB Circular No. A-76 (OMB Memorandum M-08-13) · March 11, 2008 · “the civilian position full fringe benefit cost factor needs to be adjusted downward, from 36.45 percent to 36.25 percent”

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate: the number below is the only way to be sure.
Sites on recreation.gov: recreation.gov’s own month availability payload for this facility, asked for October 2026 and November 2026. It names 0 of the 1 campsites the agency files here, and every one of them carries an answer either way. A campground nobody has read carries no answer at all, never a no. · Oct 14, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.66 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 95 rated federal campgrounds in Tennessee · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Hot Springs, NC, 5.9 mi NW. Straight line.
Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026