Katy Branch
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 10 of the next 12 nights read 14:34 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Katy Branch, a former Youth Conservation Corp Camp, is a private outdoor pavilion surrounded by beautiful Tennessee woodlands in the Cherokee National Forest. Keep reading
Recreation
Forested land is available for hiking and exploration and an open area is available for group activities.
Facilities
Rental facilities include an open pavilion with fireplace and three large picnic tables. The pavilion is attached to a building that contains two accessible restrooms and a "kitchen" area with stainless steel sink, microwave and refrigerator. A large outdoor charcoal grill and five folding tables and 80 folding chairs are also available with the rental. The pavilion is located about .5 miles on a gravel road, closed to the public.
Natural Features
Katy Branch is located in open woodland. A more heavily forested area and an open area, part of which is used for parking, is adjacent to the pavilion area.
Nearby Attractions
Katy Branch is located about half-way between the towns of Greeneville and Erwin. Though it is not located on the Nolichucky River, the river is only about .5 miles away. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (423) 638-4109.
What the agency tells you
Located behind a locked Forest Service gate.
Key pick-up the last week day before reservation 8:00 am to 4:30 pm at Unaka Ranger District. Key can be returned to the office no later than the day following departure. A drop box is outside the door if not during business hours. Make sure to call the Unaka Ranger District office at 423-638-4109 at least 48 hours in advance of your reservation to schedule key pick up.
Day use can be rented for multiple days. If multi-day reservation, check out time of the last day of your reservation applies. Users only have use of the site on the days reserved.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Check in 10:00 a.m. Check out 11:00 p.m.
All supplies and materials must be removed at time of departure
A two-day minimum rental applies on weekends. Three-day minimum rental on holiday weekends.
Groups of 74 or more must apply for a free special use permit to use the site. For an application, please contact Matthew Gilbert at (423) 735-1500 at least 30 days prior to the use of the site.
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.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 13 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Badminton
- Cultural Activities
- Recreation Programs
- Soccer Fields
- Stargazing
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 14:34 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.
OpenBookedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Wed, Oct 21. read 14:34 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 · 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
recreation.gov availability, read 14:34 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
| Katy Branch | Katy Branch | day use | 82 ft | $75 |
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 Pavilion DAY USECherokee National Forest · 8.6 mi
Horse Creek Recreation AreaCherokee National Forest · 8.6 miOld Forge Recreation AreaCherokee National Forest · 10 mi
Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN)Cherokee National Forest · 10 miOld Forge CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 10 mi
Paint Creek CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 22 miFrom Greeneville travel east to 11E to TN State Road 107. Travel approximately 14.5 miles to the gate at Katy Branch located on the right. (Landmarks will include Clark Creek Road on the right and Jackson Bridge Road on the left.) Unlock the gate and travel about .5 miles to the pavilion.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Embreeville, TN
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
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
Katy Branch 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
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 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
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 Katy Branch, Cherokee Purchase Unit, Tennessee
Dear Diana Harshbarger, I’m a constituent in Tennessee’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Katy Branch, Cherokee Purchase Unit, Tennessee, and couldn’t. Every site at Katy Branch 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Katy Branch keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Katy Branch. 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 Katy Branch (Cherokee Purchase Unit, Tennessee) 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 Katy Branch, Cherokee Purchase Unit, Tennessee
Dear Bill Hagerty, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. I tried to camp at Katy Branch, Cherokee Purchase Unit, Tennessee, and couldn’t. Every site at Katy Branch 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Katy Branch keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Katy Branch. 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 Katy Branch (Cherokee Purchase Unit, Tennessee) 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 Katy Branch, Cherokee Purchase Unit, Tennessee
Dear Marsha Blackburn, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. I tried to camp at Katy Branch, Cherokee Purchase Unit, Tennessee, and couldn’t. Every site at Katy Branch 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Katy Branch keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Katy Branch. 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 Katy Branch (Cherokee Purchase Unit, Tennessee) via campanac.com