Payne Campground-Allatoona Lake
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $24–$68Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 5756 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Payne Campground sits on the banks of Allatoona Lake, providing visitors with a variety of water activities in the green rolling hills of Georgia. Keep reading
Recreation
Allatoona Lake is one of the most frequently visited Corps of Engineers lakes in the nation. Nearly 7 million visitors each year enjoy picnicking, swimming, camping, hunting, fishing, boating and observing wildlife along the 270 miles of shoreline. The lake is annually stocked with bass, crappie, bream, gar and catfish, making it a popular destination for anglers. Fishing jetties are available at numerous shoreline fishing locations, and a dock is provided at the campground.
Facilities
Payne Campground provides 57 spacious reservable campsites, conveniently located near the dock and swimming beach. Fire rings, picnic areas, drinking water, flush toilets and showers are all provided, creating a comfortable camping experience for visitors.
Natural Features
Located only 35 miles from Atlanta, Allatoona Lake is situated on the Etowah River, a tributary of the Coosa River. The serene lake and peaceful surroundings offer visitors respite from the rush of city living. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (678) 721-6700.
Nearby Attractions
The city of Acworth and Woodstock are nearby, offering restaurants, shopping, and historic downtown areas. Historic sites like the Etowah Indian Mounds and Booth Western Art Museum are a close drive to the city of Cartersville. The Visitor Center at Allatoona Lake Project Management Office features video exhibits and displays about the area’s history, ranging from the time of early Native Americans, to the Civil War and to present times. The Visitor Center overlooks the dam and offers many hiking trails. Red Top Mountain State Park has more than 15 miles of trails and offers interpretive programs. Eight marinas are located on Allatoona Lake that offer boat rentals and restaurants. Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield is located in Kennesaw and White Water Park is in Marietta. Zoo Atlanta and Georgia Aquarium are located in Atlanta.
Charges & Cancellations
Change and Cancellation Policies and Fees Overnight and Day Use Facilities: To ensure fairness, reservation arrival or departure dates may not be changed beyond the booking window until 18 days after booking the reservation. Camping / Day Use: A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation (including campsites, cabins, lookouts, group facilities, etc.). The $10.00 service fee will be deducted from the refund amount. You can cancel or change reservations through Recreation.gov or by calling 1-877-444-6777. Late Cancellations Overnight and Day Use Facilities: Late cancellations are those cancelled between 12:01 a.m. (Eastern) on the day before arrival and check out time on the day after arrival. Individual Campsites: If a customer cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival they will be charged a $10.00 service fee and will also forfeit the first night's use fee (not to exceed the total paid for the original reservation). Cancellations for a single night's reservation will forfeit the entire use fee but no cancellation fee will apply. Cancellations for a single night's use will not be assessed a service fee. Group Facility: If a customer cancels a group overnight facility reservation within 14 days of the scheduled arrival date they will be charged the $10.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's use fee. Cancellations for a single night's use will not be assessed a service fee. Group Day Use Area: If a customer cancels a group day use facility reservation within 14 days of the scheduled arrival date, they will forfeit the total day use fee with no service fee charge. No-Shows Camping / Day Use: A camping no-show customer is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Reserved campsites and group overnight facilities will be held until check-out time on the day following your scheduled arrival. Group day-use facilities will be held until check-in time on your scheduled arrival date. If a customer does not arrive at the campground or group facility by check-out time the day after arrival or does not cancel the reservation by the times listed under "Late Cancellations" above, the customer may be assessed a $20.00 service fee and forfeit use fees. Refunds Customers must request refunds no later than 14 days after the scheduled departure date. Recreation.gov will not grant refund requests after 14 days of departure. Reservation Fee: For some facilities, tours or permits an additional reservation fee is charged. For some overnight and day-use facilities, an additional non-refundable reservation fee may apply. The non-refundable reservation fee for tours and tickets is $1.00. The non-refundable reservation fee for permits varies by location. • Refunds for Bankcard Purchases: Refunds for bank card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank card. • Refunds for Check or Cash Purchases: Refunds for Recreation.gov payments made by check or money order, and cash payments at selected campgrounds will be issued a check refund. A refund will be processed within 30 days of receipt and approval. Please Note: Refund requests made during or after departure can only be processed when approved by the facility management staff based upon local policy. • Refunds for Emergency Closures: In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team will attempt to notify users and offer alternate dates (as appropriate). If this is not possible, reservations will be cancelled and all fees paid will be refunded. Reservation fees for free tickets are non-refundable in the event of an emergency closure.
What the agency tells you
Maximum of three pets are permitted per campsite
Maximum of eight people per campsite
Maximum of three vehicles per campsite
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Camping limit is 14 consecutive days or 14 non-consecutive days in any 30-day period at all Corps of Engineers operated campgrounds on the Allatoona Lake Project.
Off-road vehicles, golf carts and ATVs are not permitted
Entrance gate is closed from 10:30 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Primary Occupant must be 18 years of age or older.
Digital Copies of campground maps are available online. Please print ahead of time if you would like physical copy.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 57 · 11 tent-only
- Hookups
- 45 electric, 46 water, 2 sewer
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…rings, picnic areas, drinking water, flush toilets and showers are all provided, creating a…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…beach. Fire rings, picnic areas, drinking water, flush toilets and showers are all provided,…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 96th darkest of 96 in GA
- Bortle 6
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 56 of the 57 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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 · 18
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $24–$68 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.
“Camping / Day Use: A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation (including campsites, cabins, lookouts, group facilities, etc.). The $10.00 service fee will be deducted from the refund amount.” · 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
57 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 56 mapped sitesAll 57 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. 56 of the 57 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| PAYNE | 01 | standard electric | 23 ft | 50 amp | 86 ft | 345 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 02 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 254 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 03/04 | standard electric | 34 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 210 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 05 | standard electric | 28 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 180 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 06 | standard electric | 29 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 231 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 07 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 160 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 08 | standard electric | 31 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 105 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 09 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 80 ft | 171 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 10 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 73 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 11 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 109 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 12 | standard electric | 25 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 197 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 13 | standard electric | 20 ft | 50 amp | 76 ft | 246 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 14 | standard electric | 21 ft | 50 amp | 86 ft | 304 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 15/16 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 42 ft | 274 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 17 | standard electric | 39 ft | 50 amp | 42 ft | 290 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 18 | standard electric | 34 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 321 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 19 | standard electric | 33 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 436 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 20 | standard electric | 31 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 393 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 21 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 329 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 22 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 282 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 23 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 152 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 24/25 | standard electric | 25 ft | 50 amp | 93 ft | 52 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 26 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 134 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 27 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 201 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 28 | standard electric | 31 ft | 50 amp | 51 ft | 245 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 29 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 51 ft | 197 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 30 | standard electric | 33 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 138 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 31 | standard electric | 31 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 163 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 32 | standard electric | 25 ft | 50 amp | 80 ft | 86 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 33 | standard electric | 31 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 52 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 34 | standard electric | 44 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 61 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 35 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 24 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 36 | standard electric | 43 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 58 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 37 | standard electric | 41 ft | 50 amp | 89 ft | 210 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 38 | standard electric | 57 ft | 50 amp | 89 ft | 198 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 39 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 99 ft | 163 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 40 | standard electric | 46 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 135 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 41 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 119 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 42 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 96 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 43 | standard electric | 31 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 69 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 44 | tent only nonelectric | 41 ft | 82 ft | 158 ftAllatoona Lake | $24 | ||
| PAYNE | 45 | tent only nonelectric | 37 ft | 82 ft | 139 ftAllatoona Lake | $24 | ||
| PAYNE | 46 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 71 ft | 87 ftAllatoona Lake | $24 | ||
| PAYNE | 47 | tent only nonelectric | 70 ft | 74 ft | 48 ftAllatoona Lake | $24 | ||
| PAYNE | 48 | tent only nonelectric | 39 ft | 71 ft | 17 ftAllatoona Lake | $24 | ||
| PAYNE | 49 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 86 ft | 32 ftAllatoona Lake | $24 | ||
| PAYNE | 50 | tent only nonelectric | 34 ft | 88 ft | 50 ftAllatoona Lake | $24 | ||
| PAYNE | 51 | tent only nonelectric | 28 ft | 88 ft | 78 ftAllatoona Lake | $24 | ||
| PAYNE | 52 | tent only nonelectric | 32 ft | 59 ft | 90 ftAllatoona Lake | $24 | ||
| PAYNE | 53 | tent only nonelectric | 27 ft | 56 ft | 104 ftAllatoona Lake | $24 | ||
| PAYNE | 54 | tent only nonelectric | 60 ft | 56 ft | 152 ftAllatoona Lake | $24 | ||
| PAYNE | 55 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 111 ft | 283 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 56 | standard electric | 29 ft | 50 amp | 106 ft | 311 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 57 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 106 ft | 333 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 | |
| PAYNE | 58 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | yes | 108 ft | 360 ftAllatoona Lake | $30–$68 |
| PAYNE | 59 | rv electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 528 ft | 795 ftAllatoona Lake | $34 | |
| PAYNE | 60 | type not stated | 44 ft | 50 amp | 764 ftAllatoona Lake |
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.
25 of 57 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Victoria Campground3.1 mi
Sweetwater Campground5.1 mi
Bald Ridge Creek29 mi
Sawnee29 mi
Doll Mountain Campground34 mi
Woodring Campground (GA)35 mi- Physical address: 2495 Kellogg Creek Road, Acworth, GA 30102
- From I-75 take exit 277 and go east on Highway 92. After a mile, turn left onto Hunt Road, which will turn into Kellogg Creek Road. Campground entrance is on the right after two miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Woodstock, GA
Typical weather
Typical October night 49°F, day 73°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.
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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Payne Campground-Allatoona Lake is in Georgia’s 11th congressional district. Its representative, Barry Loudermilk (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →