Low Gap Campground
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 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:34 UTC
- A night
- $12From, per site
- Sites
- 13All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located within the Chattahoochee National Forest and veiled by the Mark Trail Wilderness. This 13-site developed campground is as close as it gets to a dispersed camping experience with amenities. This clandestine campground is best known for its plethora of opportunities for camping, fishing, hiking, hunting, and simply basking in the light of the natural world. Low Gap Campground is located only a few miles from Georgia's much-loved vacation destination, the alpine village of Helen. A trip to this campground is sure to make memories, be sure to pack a camera and take some home with you. Keep reading
Recreation
The area is host to some of the most scenic views. Or you can take a drive along FS 44 Road (Upper Chattahoochee River Road) and see some waterfalls that are along the roadway and or others a short walk in nearby areas. If hiking is in your plans the National Scenic Appalachian Trail has two main entry points near the area. Other favorite nearby hiking areas are Ravens Cliff Falls, Dukes Creek Falls, and Anna Ruby Falls. All are only a short drive from this campground. If you like wetting fishing lines there is fishing is available in the campground, and along the nearby Chattahoochee River, whose headwaters are in the Mark Trail Wilderness. Be sure you are following the state fishing licensing regulations. Drive into "Alpine" Helen try tubing and swimming on the river, or explore the unique shops and restaurants of Georgia's own Bavarian village.
Facilities
Each site has a picnic table, a fire ring, and a lantern post. There are 3 areas in the campground with bear resistant trash bins. There is one chemical vault toilet located across the bridge at the back of the campground. Drinking water from our fresh well is located at the back of the campground and has a seasonal hand pump to draw out the water.
Natural Features
Low Gap Campground is located in the Chattahoochee Wildlife Management Area of the Chattahoochee National Forest. Named for Low Gap Creek that flows through the campground, this creek is stocked with trout weekly from April to July by the Georgia DNR. This National Forest is rich in history and is said to be a hiker's paradise with its winding trails, scenic mountains, and rolling hills.
Nearby Attractions
The alpine village of Helen, Georgia is located a few miles south of the campground where there are a host of water and non-water activities for all to enjoy. Anna Ruby Falls, Dukes Creek Falls, and Ravens Cliff are all a short distance away for those who love to hike. Other nearby recreation activities include the National Scenic Appalachian Trail (A.T.) and over the gap is Brasstown Bald the highest mountain peak in Georgia rising to 4784 feet above sea level.
Charges & Cancellations
If I book this reservation today, what are my options to change or cancel? Please remember that reservations at these facilities prevent other visitors from using these sites. Planned changes to your stay should be made as far in advance as possible. You can make changes to your reservation ahead of your arrival date in My Reservations. Changes If your new stay dates are completely different from your original stay dates, there is a $10 change fee (per reserved site). There are no additional fees for: Adding or removing nights to your stay. Changing to a different campsite. Balances will adjust based on your new stay's nightly rate. Cancellations You can cancel the reservation any time before the date of your scheduled arrival. You will receive a refund for your stay, minus the following fees: $10 cancellation fee Any reservation fees (only if paid when booking) Any previous change fees Late cancellation penalties may also apply: What is “Late”? For individual campsites, a late cancellation applies starting from midnight 1 calendar day before your scheduled check-in. For cabins and group sites, a late cancellation applies starting from midnight 14 calendar days or fewer before your scheduled check-in. Late Fee In addition to the fees listed above, a late cancellation will also subtract your first night's recreation use fee from any refund owed. As of the expected check-in day, cancellations or changes to your stay are not possible through My Reservations. It is at the facility's discretion to support additional Late Cancellations, No Show, or Early Departure updates – on-site personnel may not be able to assist. These changes carry penalties and may forfeit recreation use fees. For additional details, please visit here
What the agency tells you
All Camping is by Reservation Only. There are no First Come, First Serve sites. Before your trip, you will need to book your reservations by going to www.recreation.gov or calling the call center at (877) 444-6777. They will be happy to assist you in making your reservations over the phone.
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 261.58(a).
Generators may be used up to a total of 4 hours per day between the hours of 6:00 am and 10:00 pm. The hours between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am are quiet hours. Generators are to be at a low volume to not unreasonably disturb other campers. If they are disturbing other campers you may be asked to turn them off.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
No hunting within any developed campground, developed campsite, developed trail, or other developed recreation site on the Chattahooche-Oconee National Forest.
Click here for more information on the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest.
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 on this subject.
Check out time is 12:01 pm and check in time starts at 2:00 pm
No driving, unloading, or loading of any ATVs, UTV, or Golf Carts allowed on or near all the campgrounds and the Upper Chattahoochee River Road.
Drinking water will not be available at this campground. The well systems that previously served this campground is being decommissioned due to the high cost of maintaining and operating aging infrastructure. – Visitors planning to camp at these locations should bring their own potable water for drinking, cooking and other needs.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 13
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 25 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 13 of 13 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…bridge at the back of the campground. Drinking water from our fresh well is located at the back of the…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, River, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Scenic drives
- Tubing
- Water access
- Wilderness access
- Night sky · 7th darkest of 96 in GA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 15:34 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:34 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 12 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 12 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:34 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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $12 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.
“Changes If your new stay dates are completely different from your original stay dates, there is a $10 change fee (per reserved site). You will receive a refund for your stay, minus the following fees: $10 cancellation fee Any reservation fees (only if paid when booking) Any previous change fees Late cancellation pen…” · this campground’s own no-show terms
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 · 6
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 2
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:34 UTC
- Jackrabbit MountainNational Forests in North Carolina · 15 mi · 4 of 182 site-nights open
- Cherry Hill CampgroundSumter National Forest · 26 mi · 1 of 56 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:34 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
13 sites
All 13 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 13 of the 13 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Low Gap | 1 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $12 |
| Low Gap | 10 | standard nonelectric | $12 | |
| Low Gap | 11 | standard nonelectric | $12 | |
| Low Gap | 12 | standard nonelectric | $12 | |
| Low Gap | 13 | standard nonelectric | $12 | |
| Low Gap | 2 | standard nonelectric | $12 | |
| Low Gap | 3 | standard nonelectric | $12 | |
| Low Gap | 4 | standard nonelectric | $12 | |
| Low Gap | 5 | standard nonelectric | $12 | |
| Low Gap | 6 | standard nonelectric | $12 | |
| Low Gap | 7 | standard nonelectric | $12 | |
| Low Gap | 8 | standard nonelectric | $12 | |
| Low Gap | 9 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Tallulah River CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 0.1 mi
Tate Branch Campground (Clayton, GA)Chattahoochee National Forest · 2.0 miSandy Bottoms CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 2.5 miWildcat Creek Campground #2 UpperChattahoochee National Forest · 8.1 miWildcat Creek Campground #1 LowerChattahoochee National Forest · 8.1 miKimsey Creek Group CampgroundNantahala National Forest · 9.9 miFrom Helen, Georgia go North on Hwy 75 North, turn left on 75 Alt cross the bridge, and make the immediate right turn onto Poplar Stump/Upper Chattahoochee River Road. Continue on this road for approximately 4.5 miles and the campground is straight ahead.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Tate City, GA
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 30°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Low Gap Campground 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 →
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 moneyAndrew S. ClydeU.S. Representative · Georgia’s 9th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJon OssoffU.S. Senator · Georgia
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRaphael G. WarnockU.S. Senator · Georgia
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 Low Gap Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Andrew S. Clyde, I’m a constituent in Georgia’s 9th district. I tried to camp at Low Gap Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 13 sites at Low Gap Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Low Gap Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Low Gap Campground. 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 Low Gap Campground (Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia) 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 Low Gap Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Jon Ossoff, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Low Gap Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 13 sites at Low Gap Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Low Gap Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Low Gap Campground. 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 Low Gap Campground (Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia) 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 Low Gap Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Raphael G. Warnock, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Low Gap Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 13 sites at Low Gap Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Low Gap Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Low Gap Campground. 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 Low Gap Campground (Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia) via campanac.com