Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN)
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 12 of the next 12 nights; a database flag says not open read 16:53 UTC
- A night
- $20–$40Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 3432 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rock Creek Recreation Area is named for the small creek that runs alongside this recreation site. The facilities, creek-fed concrete pond and bathhouse were originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 1930s. It is located just outside the town of Erwin, TN at an elevation of 2,300 feet - a welcome respite from the summer heat. Be Bear Wise: Food storage compliance is strictly enforced. Store all food and trash in hard-sided containers and vehicles while not in use. Never have attractants in your tent. Violations of the food storage order are ticketable offenses and subject to fines. Food and trash left unattended will be impounded by campground staff. Keep reading
Recreation
Hike on one (or all) of the trails adjacent to Rock Creek Recreation Area. Visitors can enjoy cooling off in the creek-fed concrete pond. Younger children can enjoy the playground located in the day use area of the recreation area. Campground programs are offered every Friday night in July at the amphitheater.
Facilities
There are 27 fully accessible single and five double campsites in Rock Creek Recreation Area; all with electric hook-ups. In addition, there are five walk-in tent sites without electric hookups, which are available first-come, first served only. Three bathhouses are located within the recreation area; one in Loop A, one in Loop C, and one located by the concrete pond - it is a Civilian Conservation Corps-era bathhouse adapted for modern use. Each bathhouse has flush toilets and shower facilities. A dump station is located on site. An on-site host is located in the campground.
Natural Features
Campsites are nestled in a cove hardwood forest. Adjacent to the campground is Unaka Mountain Wilderness area, a rugged and undeveloped area.
Nearby Attractions
The Appalachian Trail crosses TN 395 at Indian Grave Gap, 3.1 miles east of Rock Creek. Mountain Balds, Beauty Spot and Unaka Mountain Overlook are located nearby along Forest Service Road #230. Whitewater rafting on the Nolichucky River is provided by private companies located in Erwin, TN.
What the agency tells you
It is your responsibility to read, know, understand, and follow all specific rules and regulations which are also posted at the campground.
Be Bear Wise: Food storage compliance is strictly enforced. Store all food and trash in hard-sided containers and vehicles while not in use. Never have attractants in your tent. Violations of the food storage order are ticketable offenses and subject to fines. Food and trash left unattended will be impounded by campground staff. A copy of the Food Storage Order
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.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
The following items are expressly prohibited: o Firearms and fireworks o Alcohol and illegal drugs o Public nudity
Gates to the campground are closed from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Guests of campers must leave before 10:00 p.m.
Use designated fire rings for all fires. Do not build additional fire rings. No burning plastic or other non-wood materials except local wood in fire pits and charcoal in grills.
All vehicles must be parked within the driveway or designated parking area of the site and no part of the vehicle may extend onto the road or into the woods.
All users' equipment must be contained within the site. Sites must be kept neat and orderly.
All animals must be crated or on a leash not longer than 6 feet.
Water spigots are shared between sites.
Check-out time is 12:00PM. Check-in time is 2:00PM. If you arrive earlier, you may have to wait for a campsite.
Single Site: Max of 5 people per site, including infants and children. Max of 2 tents and 1 canopy. Double Site: Max of 10 people per site, including infants and children. Max of 4 tents and 2 canopies.
Sites 6, 10, 17, 20, and 21 are double sites and do not qualify for interagency pass discounts (Access, Military, Senior, Golden Age).
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 34 · 1 group
- Hookups
- 31 electric, 1 water
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Paved pads
- 2 of 34
- Accessible sites
- 30
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…for modern use. Each bathhouse has flush toilets and shower facilities. A dump station is located on…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Each bathhouse has flush toilets and shower facilities.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 1 of 34 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 13 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Canoeing
- Emergency Services
- Evening Programs
- Fish Hatchery
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Lookout Tower
- Mountain biking
- Museum
- Picnicking
- Playground Park Specialized Sport Site
- Night sky · 67th darkest of 95 in TN
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:53 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 30 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 17 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:53 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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$40 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 16:53 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
34 sites
All 34 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. 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.
| A Loop | 01 | type not stated | 30 amp | |||
| A Loop | 010 | standard electric | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 | |
| A Loop | 02 | type not stated | 30 amp | yes | ||
| A Loop | 03 | standard electric | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 | |
| A Loop | 04 | standard electric | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 | |
| A Loop | 05 | standard electric | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 | |
| A Loop | 06 | standard electric | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 | |
| A Loop | 07 | standard electric | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 | |
| A Loop | 08 | standard electric | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 | |
| A Loop | 09 | standard electric | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 | |
| B Loop | 011 | standard electric | 48 ft | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| B Loop | 012 | standard electric | 38 ft | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| B Loop | 013 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| B Loop | 014 | standard electric | 48 ft | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| B Loop | 015 | standard electric | 38 ft | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| B Loop | 016 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| B Loop | 017 | standard electric | 32 ft | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| B Loop | 018 | standard electric | 26 ft | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| B Loop | 019 | standard electric | 42 ft | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| B Loop | 020 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| B Loop | 021 | standard electric | 42 ft | 30 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| C Loop | 022 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| C Loop | 023 | standard electric | 44 ft | 50 amp | $20–$40 | |
| C Loop | 024 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| C Loop | 025 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | $20–$40 | |
| C Loop | 026 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| C Loop | 027 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| C Loop | 028 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| C Loop | 029 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| C Loop | 030 | standard electric | 44 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| C Loop | 031 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| C Loop | 032 | standard electric | 44 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| C Loop | 033 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20–$40 |
| Group | 1 | group standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $50 |
25 of 34 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Katy BranchCherokee Purchase Unit · 10 mi
Dennis Cove CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 16 miDennis Cove Recreation AreaCherokee National Forest · 16 mi
Horse Creek Recreation AreaCherokee National Forest · 17 mi
Horse Creek Pavilion DAY USECherokee National Forest · 17 mi
Cardens Bluff CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 18 miFrom I-26 take exit 34 to Main Street (TN107) in Erwin, take TN 395 east for 3.5 miles to Rock Creek Recreation Area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Erwin, 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
Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN) 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 Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN), Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee
Dear Diana Harshbarger, I’m a constituent in Tennessee’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN), Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 32 of the 34 campsites the agency files at Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN), and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 30 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. Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN). 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 Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN) (Cherokee National Forest, 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 Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN), Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee
Dear Bill Hagerty, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. I tried to camp at Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN), Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 32 of the 34 campsites the agency files at Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN), and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 30 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. Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN). 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 Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN) (Cherokee National Forest, 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 Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN), Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee
Dear Marsha Blackburn, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. I tried to camp at Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN), Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 32 of the 34 campsites the agency files at Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN), and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 30 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. Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN). 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 Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN) (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) via campanac.com