Lake Conasauga Campground
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 15:34 UTC
- A night
- $8–$15When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 36In the agency’s record
- Season
- – October 31Closes October 31. No opening date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Lake Conasauga Recreation Area is a remote recreation area located within the Chattahoochee National Forest in northwest Georgia. Getting to Lake Conasauga involves a beautiful forested drive along 15 or more miles of graveled mountain roads through the Cohutta Mountains. Visitors may occasionally see bear, deer, and turkeys on their drive. Wildflowers can be found blooming from February through November in various parts of the mountains. Completed in 1940, Lake Conasauga was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) under the guidance of the U.S. Forest Service. Keep reading
Tucked between Grassy Mountain and Little Bald Mountain, the 17 acre lake sits at an elevation of 3,150 feet, making it the highest elevation lake in the State of Georgia. At this elevation, air temperatures at Lake Conasauga are usually 10-15 degrees cooler than the surrounding valleys, allowing for a comfortable camping experience even in the middle of summer. Outdoor activities at the Lake Conasauga Recreation Area include camping, hiking, boating, fishing, picnicking, and swimming.
Recreation
A swimming and picnic area with a picnic shelter is located across the lake opposite the campground. A swimming dock is provided for visitors to take a swim in the cold natural spring waters of Lake Conasauga. There is no lifeguard on duty, so please swim at your own risk. Hiking trails include the Lake Loop Trail (1 mile loop), the Songbird Trail (2.8 mile loop), and the Tower Trail (4 miles round trip). A small boat launch provides boating access for canoes, kayaks, and small boats (electric motors only). Fishermen may catch bass, bream, and even an occasional catfish. A fishing dock is provided. The Lake Loop Trail provides various locations along the shoreline for fishermen to cast. A Georgia fishing license is required for those 16 and older.
Facilities
The Lake Conasauga Campground is a 30 site campground with two camping loops. The Lower Loop is located within view of the lake. The Upper Loop is a forested loop above the lake. Each campsite has a gravel parking spur, a gravel tent pad, picnic table, lantern post, and a fire ring with a grill. There is a restroom with flush toilets located in both camping loops (no showers, no hot water). Water hydrants are located throughout the campground. There is no electricity at this campground. There is no dump station at this campground. Cell phone service is very limited. A cabin for the campground host is located in the campground. This cabin is a private residence for the host and is not an office or a store. Please respect their space and privacy. Driving on steep, narrow, winding, mountain roads is required to get to this campground. Tents, pop-up campers, and travel trailers under 25 feet are recommended for this campground due to access and campsite size limitations. GPS is not recommended for navigating to this area as satellite service is regularly interrupted by mountains and trees.
Natural Features
Surrounded by forested mountains, Lake Conasauga is a 17 acre man-made lake located near the summit of Grassy Mountain in northwest Georgia. It is the highest elevation lake in Georgia, sitting at an elevation of 3,150 feet. No matter the route taken to get to Lake Conasauga, visitors will pass mountain streams, overlooks, and beautiful scenery. The Songbird Management Area is located within the Lake Conasauga Recreation Area. Centered around a large beaver pond, the Songbird Management Area provides a peaceful interpretive nature hike. Many bird species and wildflowers can be found along the interpretive nature hike in this area. Adjacent to the Lake Conasauga Recreation area is the 45,000 acre Cohutta/Big Frog Wilderness (the largest designated wilderness area east of the Mississippi River.). The Cohutta Wilderness contains 91 miles of arduous backpacking trails.
Nearby Attractions
Barnes Creek Picnic Area: This small picnic area was historically used as a rock quarry by the Civilian Conservation Corps and U.S. Forest Service in the 1930s. The picnic tables sit near the base of a waterfall. A short trail from the parking area leads to an observation deck above the waterfall. Turn left out of the Lake Conasauga Campground and follow Forest Road 68 for 4.5 miles. Turn right and continue following Forest Road 68 for another 2.5 miles. Gennett Poplar: The Gennett Poplar is the second largest tree in the state of Georgia with a circumference of 18 feet. This tree was left by the Conasauga River Lumber Company as a tribute to the size of the trees that once inhabited the Appalachian Mountains. Turn left out of the Lake Conasauga Campground and follow Forest Road 68 for 4.5 miles. Turn right and continue following Forest Road 68 for 3.5 miles and turn left onto Forest Road 90. Follow Forest Road 90 for 2 miles and turn left onto Forest Road 241. Follow Forest Road 241 for 2 miles until it dead ends. Follow the trail upstream for 3/4 mile.
What the agency tells you
Access to this campground requires a 15+ mile drive on steep, narrow, winding, bumpy, rough, gravel roads in mountainous terrain. Road conditions change with the weather and at times can be hazardous. Trees occasionally fall and block roadways, especially after rainy or windy weather. Travel Trailers over 25 feet are not recommended. Forest Road 68 is the recommended route for pulling trailers.
Check-Out time: 2:00 pm Check-In time: 3:00 pm It is your responsibility to know your Arrival date and Departure date. Your reservation confirmation will show the Arrival date and the Departure date for your reservation. These dates will be used in case of reservation disputes at this recreation site. It is required to have your confirmation and proof of reservation available upon request of Forest Service Officers and Volunteer Campground Hosts.
Be Bear Aware: Store food and trash properly. Never leave food/trash out on tables or in the open. Store unattended food/trash in bear-resistant containers, in a vehicle in solid non-pliable material, or suspend food/trash at least ten feet off the ground. Remember to use the bear resistant trash receptacles provided at this facility. (36 CFR 261.58cc)
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Bring your own firewood, equipment, and supplies. No store or office at Lake Conasauga. The nearest gas station and store is 15 miles away in Crandall, GA. It is prohibited to cut live vegetation or any standing tree whether dead or alive. Firewood may be collected from the National Forest surrounding Lake Conasuaga for use while camping. Only collect wood that is dead and down. Dead trees play an important role as homes for wildlife and insects. (36 CFR 261.6a)
Cell phone service is extremely limited and unreliable in this area.
Alcoholic beverages are prohibited. (36 CFR 261.58bb)
Five (5) people per site and two (2) vehicles per site. The following are prohibited: Parking or leaving a vehicle outside a parking space assigned to one's own campsite. (36 CFR 261.58h) Possessing, parking, or leaving more than two (2) motorized vehicles per campsite for the purpose of camping. (36 CFR 261.58i) Using a campsite in a developed camping area by other than immediate family, or by a group of more than five (5) persons. (36 CFR 261.58f)
Quiet hours are from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Generators are allowed during daylight hours, but may not be used in a manner or at a time which unreasonably disturbs other forest visitors. (36 CFR 261.10i)
Fireworks and other pyrotechnics are prohibited. (36 CFR 261.52f)
14-Day Forest Stay Limit: Camping or maintaining a campsite in developed and dispersed areas in excess of 14 days within any 30-day time period. After the camper(s) has accumulated 14 days within any 30-day time period, the camper(s) must leave that area/campground and move from Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest land before returning for another stay. (36 CFR Section 261.58a)
Pets must be leashed at all times (36 CFR 261.16J) and are prohibited in the swimming area (36 CFR 261.16k).
For the safety of campers, vounteers, and employees: Disposing of Human Waste in Campground Trash Cans is Prohibited. (36 CFR 261.11d) Functioning restrooms with flush toilets are located at the campground for use.
Possessing or operation a motorboat powered by an internal combustion engine is prohibited. (36 CFR 261.58n)
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 36
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…and a fire ring with a grill. There is a restroom with flush toilets located in both camping loops (no showers, no hot…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…loops (no showers, no hot water). Water hydrants are located throughout the campground. There is no…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Backpacking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Kayaking
- Mountain biking
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Paddling
- Picnicking
- Scenic drives
- Stargazing
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- Spotty
Nothing to book until it reopensread 15:34 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Lake Conasauga Campground closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Hickey Gap CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 2.6 mi · walk-up
- Jacks River Fields CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 7.4 mi · 8 sites
- Cottonwood Patch CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 8.3 mi · 8 sites
- The Pocket Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 31 mi
recreation.gov availability, read 15:34 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
36 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 29 mapped sitesAll 36 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 30 of the 36 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 29 of the 36 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Lower | 13 | standard nonelectric | 98 ft | 360 ft | 89 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 14 | standard nonelectric | 98 ft | 335 ft | 116 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 15 | standard nonelectric | 127 ft | 215 ft | 130 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 16 | standard nonelectric | 155 ft | 121 ft | 277 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 17 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 178 ft | 127 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 18 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 187 ft | 211 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 19 | standard nonelectric | 95 ft | 90 ft | 221 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 20 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 147 ft | 303 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 21 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 85 ft | 310 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 22 | standard nonelectric | 111 ft | 52 ft | 411 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 23 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 141 ft | 300 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 24 | standard nonelectric | 96 ft | 138 ft | 361 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 25 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 204 ft | 240 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 26 | standard nonelectric | 96 ft | 161 ft | 329 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 27 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 244 ft | 169 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 28 | standard nonelectric | yes | 77 ft | 264 ft | 93 ft | $8–$15 |
| Lower | 29 | standard nonelectric | 140 ft | 297 ft | 215 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Lower | 30 | type not stated | 398 ft | 165 ft | |||
| Overflow | Overflow 1 | type not stated | |||||
| Overflow | Overflow 2 | type not stated | |||||
| Overflow | Overflow 3 | type not stated | |||||
| Overflow | Overflow 4 | type not stated | |||||
| Overflow | Overflow 5 | type not stated | |||||
| Overflow | Overflow 6 | type not stated | |||||
| Upper | 1 | standard nonelectric | 138 ft | 567 ft | 316 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Upper | 10 | standard nonelectric | 110 ft | 387 ftMill Creek | 434 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Upper | 11 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 336 ft | 319 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Upper | 12 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 384 ft | 328 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Upper | 2 | standard nonelectric | 138 ft | 704 ft | 453 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Upper | 3 | standard nonelectric | 71 ft | 650 ft | 486 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Upper | 4 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 609 ft | 414 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Upper | 5 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 588 ft | 418 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Upper | 6 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 472 ftMill Creek | 593 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Upper | 7 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 460 ftMill Creek | 533 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Upper | 8 | standard nonelectric | 115 ft | 303 ftMill Creek | 704 ft | $8–$15 | |
| Upper | 9 | standard nonelectric | 85 ft | 387 ftMill Creek | 592 ft | $8–$15 |
25 of 36 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lake Conasauga Overflow CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 0.6 miHickey Gap CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 2.6 mi
Jacks River Fields CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 7.4 mi
Cottonwood Patch CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 8.3 miTumbling Creek CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 15 miWoodring Branch Primitive Campground16 miFrom Atlanta: take I-75 N to I-575. I-575 turns into Hwy 515 and continue to Ellijay. From Ellijay, take GA Hwy 52 west for 5 miles to Gates Chapel Road on the right. Turn right and travel about 7 miles to end of pavement. Continue on dirt/gravel road (Forest Service Road #90) about 2 miles to stop sign. Turn right onto Forest Service Road #68. Continue 3-4 miles to T-intersection. Turn left to continue on Forest Service Road #68. Continue about 4-5 miles to entrance to Lake Conasauga Campground.
From Chattanooga: take I-75 S to Exit #336 (Dalton/Rocky Face). Go right off exit ramp onto N. Dalton Bypass. Continue on N. Dalton Bypass about 5.5 miles to intersection with GA Hwy 76. Turn left on GA Hwy 76. Continue about 7 miles to Chatsworth and intersection with US Hwy 411. Turn left on US Hwy 411. See From Chatsworth directions for continuation.
From Chatsworth: take US Hwy 411 N. 3 miles to Eton. Turn right on Old CCC Camp Road. After about 5 miles the pavement ends and you will be on a dirt/gravel road (Forest Service Road #18). Continue on for about 3-4 miles to fork. Take left fork, Forest Service Road #68. Continue on Forest Service Road #68 for about 5-6 miles to T-intersection. Turn left to continue on Forest Service Road #68. Continue about 4-5 miles to entrance to Lake Conasauga Campground.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Eton, GA
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Lake Conasauga Campground is in Georgia’s 14th congressional district. Whoever holds it votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. See how its representative votes on public lands →
Our roster still carries Marjorie Greene for this district and the current federal record doesn’t list them as sitting, so we’re not naming a representative here until the two agree.
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…There is no dump station at this campground. Cell phone service is very limited. A cabin for the campground host is located in the…”