Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $26–$50Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 32All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area offers visitors year-round recreation opportunities including camping, picnicking, boating, swimming and hiking, all centered around beautiful Lake Winfield Scott. The area is situated high in a mountain valley within the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, approximately 80 miles from Atlanta, Georgia. The facility offers a rental cabin with electricity and water, as well as sites for tent and RV camping. Keep reading
Recreation
The Lake Winfield Scott Beach includes a designated swimming area, picnic tables, a bathhouse, pavilions (by reservation only), a playground and trash bins. Day-use hiking trails are found within the recreation area, ideal for a short stroll. A 0.4-mile trail parallels the lakeshore. In addition, the 1-mile Jarrard Gap Trail and 2.7-mile Slaughter Creek Trail both begin within the recreation area and connect to the Appalachian Trail. Lake Winfield Scott is open to hand-powered and electric motor boats only. Fishing for catfish, trout, perch, brim and bass is a popular activity. See the Georgia Department of Natural Resources for a complete listing of freshwater fishing regulations for the lake. A boat ramp and accessible fishing dock provide year-round lake access.
Facilities
Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area's cabin is a short walk to the lake, and can accommodate up to 12 people. A sleeping area upstairs is furnished with six twin beds and three double beds, all with mattresses. Visitors must provide their own bed and bath linens. The main floor houses a living room with wood stove (no wood provided), dining room and kitchen, which is equipped with a refrigerator, electric stove, microwave, assorted pots and pans, utensils, plates, glasses, cups and flatware. The bathroom has a flush toilet, shower and an electric heater. Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area's campground consists of 31 campsites configured in two loops for tent or RV camping. Showers, flush and vault toilets, grills, picnic tables and lantern posts are provided. The campground has no dump station. Nearby Vogel State Park has a dump station with a nominal fee. There are water and electric hookups on Site #12, 13, 14 and 15.
Natural Features
The recreation area includes 18-acre Lake Winfield Scott, which forms the headwaters of Cooper Creek. The lake was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. A variety of wildlife makes its home in the surrounding forest, including deer, bear, wild turkey, grouse and songbirds.
Nearby Attractions
Suches, Georgia is five miles southwest of the recreation area and offers a general store and fuel station. Blairsville, Georgia is 16 miles north on U.S. Highway 19/129 and offers the nearest full-service grocery stores and shopping villages.
What the agency tells you
Only electric motor boats allowed on Lake Winfield Scott
Visitor maps for the forest can be obtained by calling the Forest Service office in Blairsville, Georgia at 706-745-6928 or by clicking here
Learn more about the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 32 · 7 tent-only, 1 group, 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 6 electric, 6 water
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 23 of 32
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…cups and flatware. The bathroom has a flush toilet, shower and an electric heater. Lake Winfield Scott… / …tent or RV camping. Showers, flush and vault toilets, grills, picnic tables and lantern posts are…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “The bathroom has a flush toilet, shower and an electric heater.”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 35th darkest of 96 in GA
- Bortle 4
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:37 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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.
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 · 16
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $26–$50 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 16:37 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
34 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 34 mapped sitesAll 34 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 34 of the 34 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. 32 of the 34 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| CABIN | 001 | cabin electric | 580 ft | 218 ftSlaughter Creek | 1,383 ft | $125 | |||
| Day Use Shelter - Large | P02 | day use | 15 amp | yes | 334 ft | 107 ftLake Winfield Scott | 457 ft | $100 | |
| Day Use Shelter - Small | P01 | day use | yes | 334 ft | 141 ftLake Winfield Scott | 125 ft | $50 | ||
| GROUP SITES | G01 | group tent only area nonelectric | 223 ft | 505 ftLance Branch | 2,017 ft | $80 | |||
| North | 022 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 98 ft | 402 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 1,243 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 023 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 210 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 1,469 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 024 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 107 ft | 322 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 1,749 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 025 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 107 ft | 217 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 1,716 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 026 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 90 ft | 146 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 1,839 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 027 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 90 ft | 100 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 1,913 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 028 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 240 ft | 105 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 2,145 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 029 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 149 ft | 79 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 1,654 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 031 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 149 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 1,506 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 032 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 132 ft | 102 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 1,221 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 033 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 102 ft | 176 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 1,093 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 034 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 101 ft | 101 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 1,055 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 035 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 93 ft | 135 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 955 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 036 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 86 ft | 227 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 970 ft | $26–$50 | |
| North | 037 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 86 ft | 176 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 886 ft | $26–$50 | |
| NORTH LOOP | 021 | standard electric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 98 ft | 318 ftEast Seabolt Creek | 1,206 ft | $35 | |
| SOUTH LOOP | 001 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 134 ft | 478 ftSlaughter Creek | 1,827 ft | $26–$50 | ||
| SOUTH LOOP | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 134 ft | 550 ftSlaughter Creek | 1,933 ft | $26 | |||
| SOUTH LOOP | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 80 ft | 303 ftLance Branch | 2,036 ft | $26 | |||
| SOUTH LOOP | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 76 ft | 390 ftLance Branch | 2,173 ft | $26 | |||
| SOUTH LOOP | 005 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 80 ft | 305 ftLance Branch | 2,107 ft | $26–$50 | ||
| SOUTH LOOP | 006 | tent only nonelectric | 76 ft | 350 ftLance Branch | 2,209 ft | $26 | |||
| SOUTH LOOP | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 171 ft | 287 ftLance Branch | 2,400 ft | $26 | |||
| SOUTH LOOP | 008 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 171 ft | 153 ftLance Branch | 2,385 ft | $26–$50 | ||
| SOUTH LOOP | 010 | tent only nonelectric | 82 ft | 121 ftLance Branch | 2,103 ft | $26 | |||
| SOUTH LOOP | 011 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 82 ft | 40 ftLance Branch | 2,079 ft | $26–$50 | ||
| SOUTH LOOP | 012 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 108 ftSlaughter Creek | 1,661 ft | $35 | |
| SOUTH LOOP | 013 | standard electric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 194 ftSlaughter Creek | 1,718 ft | $35 | |
| SOUTH LOOP | 014 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 125 ft | 107 ftSlaughter Creek | 1,559 ft | $35 | |
| SOUTH LOOP | 015 | standard electric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 125 ft | 231 ftSlaughter Creek | 1,660 ft | $35 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 34 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Desoto Falls Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 2.7 miBoggs Creek Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 3.5 miLake Winfield Scott CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 4.7 mi
Low Gap CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 6.2 mi
Dockery Lake Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 6.5 mi
Upper Chattahoochee River CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 7.0 miFrom Blainsville, take U.S. 19/129 south for 10 miles. Turn right (west) on Georgia 180 for 7 miles. Turn right onto Forest Road 37 at Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area entrance.
From Dahlonega, take U.S. 19 north for approximately 20 miles. Turn left (west) on Georgia 180 for 7 miles. Turn left onto Forest Road 37 at Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Helen, 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
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 Winfield Scott Recreation Area 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 →