Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA)
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 15:39 UTC
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 1312 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
All campsites are available by reservation only, reservations may be made at recreation.gov Whether you plan your trip during the rebirth of Spring or later in the year during the display of the prominent North Georgia Fall colors, this 13-site developed campground is sure to heighten the innate beauty of the season. Graced with various species of hardwoods and resting on the shore of Tallulah River, Sandy Bottoms provides a rustic experience for the outdoor enthusiast to camp, swim, fish, or just enjoy the scenery. Keep reading
Recreation
Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground is in a unique area. You can enjoy walking along the Tallulah River. Fishing is a popular sport in the Tallulah River. If a hike is what you desire, take a short drive along the Tallulah River Road through Tate City to the end of the road, which not only has some great views but at the end of the road is Beech Creek Trail and Buck Creek Trail both are found in the Southern Nantahala Wilderness Area. Looking for an easier hike, you can go the other direction on Tallulah River Road for approximately 5 miles to bridge #1 where you will find a small parking area for the Coleman River Trail a 1.1 in and out trail that runs along a portion of the Coleman River that flows with the Tallulah River.
Facilities
The campground offers 13 campsites with picnic tables, fire rings, and a lantern post at each site. There is a new vault toilet and trash bins located at the center of the campground. Drinking water is available by hand pump during the entire season the campground is open.
Natural Features
Natural Features: Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground is located in the Chattahoochee National Forest, a place of exploration and wonder. 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. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (706) 754-6221.
Nearby Attractions
Visitors to the campground can enjoy scenic drives when going to visit nearby Rabun Bald the second-highest peak in Georgia at 4696 ft above sea level. Continue your exploring and you can find many waterfalls to see and trails to hike. One of the longest trails in the area is the National Recreational Bartram Trail. If some water activities are on your mind the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River has fishing, whitewater rafting, canoe, and kayak possibilities with outfitter and guide services available if you enjoy your time on the river. Tallulah Gorge State Park and historic Lakemont are also a close drive. Lake Rabun and Lake Burton are great places to put a boat in the water and enjoy those memories you are ready to make. Within an hour's drive, you can spend some time visiting the city of Helen a beautiful alpine village in White County if you find yourself there be sure and stop by Anna Ruby Falls, Dukes Creek Falls, or Ravens Cliff Wilderness for more hiking fun. While in the neighborhood a short drive around will find you at Brasstown Bald the highest peak in Georgia rising to 4784 ft above sea level.
What the agency tells you
Beginning May 1st, 2025 Sandy Bottoms campground will require reservations be made via recreation.gov for all campsites at this facility
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).
No driving, unloading, or loading of any ATVs, UTV, or Golf Carts allowed on or near all the campgrounds and the Tallulah River Road outside of the private properties in Tate City.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Generators may be used up to 4 total hours per day between the hours of 6:00 am and 10:00 pm. The hours of 10:00 pm and 6:00 am are the required quiet hours, no generators, music, or other noises that are disturbing other campers are to be used. If at any time generators are not operated at a volume so as to not disturb other campers they may be asked to turn them off.
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 in some states is illegal. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Click here for more information on the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest.
No hunting within any developed campground, developed campsite, developed trail, or other developed recreation site on the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest.
Check out time is 12:01 pm and check in time starts at 2:00 pm
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 13
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed at 12 of 13 sites
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 10 of 13 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE VAULT TOILETS on 13 of 13 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (HAND PUMP) on 13 of 13 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Creek
- Backpacking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Scenic drives
- Swimming
- Water access
- Wilderness access
- Night sky · 29th darkest of 96 in GA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 15:39 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 16:42 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 12 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 10 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:39 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:42 UTC
- Morganton PointChattahoochee-Oconee National Forest · 6.1 mi · 1 of 80 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:39 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 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. 12 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.
| Sandy Bottoms | 1 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $15 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 10 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $15 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 11 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $15 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 12 | type not stated | 35 ft | |
| Sandy Bottoms | 13 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $15 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 2 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $15 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 3 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $15 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 4 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $15 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 5 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $15 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 6 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $15 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 7 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $15 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 8 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $15 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 9 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $15 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 0.0 mi
Morganton Point6.1 mi
Deep Hole Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 6.5 mi
Frank Gross CampgroundNoontootly National Game Refuge · 7.8 miFrank Gross Recreation AreaNoontootly National Game Refuge · 7.8 mi
Cooper Creek Campground (GA)Chattahoochee National Forest · 9.5 miTake U.S. 76 west from Clayton, Georgia for 8 miles; turn right (north) on Persimmon Road for 4.2 miles; turn left (northwest) on Tallulah River Road (Forest Service Road 70) for 4.6 miles to arrive at Sandy Bottoms Campground.
The agency publishes this point for 2 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Morganton, 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 · 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
Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA) 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 Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Andrew S. Clyde, I’m a constituent in Georgia’s 9th district. I tried to camp at Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 12 of the 13 campsites the agency files at Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA), 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 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA). 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 Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA) (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 Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Jon Ossoff, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 12 of the 13 campsites the agency files at Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA), 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 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA). 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 Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA) (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 Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Raphael G. Warnock, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 12 of the 13 campsites the agency files at Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA), 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 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA). 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 Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA) (Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia) via campanac.com