Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA)
1Heads up1 fire 50 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 2219 on recreation.gov
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Extending the same primitive feel as its neighboring West Fork Campground and the Chattooga River, Sarah's Creek 22-site developed campground offers a tranquil escape, a place to relax, and perhaps a chance to throw in a line to catch a few fish. Keep reading
Recreation
Sarah's Creek Campground is in another unique area in the Chattahoochee National Forest. You can enjoy walking along the number of creeks or the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River. 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. If a hike is what you desire, take a short drive along the Warwoman Road and find yourself at many trailheads all depending on what type and how long you want your hiking adventure to be. Along with the beautiful Wild and Scenic River at the back door, the area has many hiking trails nearby. Bartram Trail, Chattooga River Trail, 3-Forks Trail, and Holcomb Creek Trail are all in the area, along with a host of waterfalls, and views abound. The state-managed Warwoman Wildlife Management Area is just a few miles to the west and to the northwest of this campground is Rabun Bald the second-highest peak in the State of Georgia at 4696' above sea level. Darnell Creek Horse Trail is located west of the campground with the Warwoman Wildlife Management area for horse and mountain bike riding.
Facilities
Each of the 22 campsites hosts a picnic table, fire ring, and a lantern post. There are two vault toilets in the campground, the first one close to the entrance to the campground and the second located across a water crossing near site #17. There are bear-resistant trash bins in various areas of the campground. Please do not overfill bins.
Natural Features
Sarah's Creek 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.
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
All camping at Sarah's Creek Campground is by reservation only, make reservations online at recreation.gov or by calling 877-444-6777
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 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.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
No driving, unloading, or loading of any ATVs, UTV, or Golf Carts allowed on or near all the campgrounds or riding them on the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Roads or trails that are not designated for those activities. This includes on Forest Service roads in WMA's.
No hunting within any developed campground, developed campsite, developed trail, or other developed recreation site 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.
Click here for more information 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
- 22
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 19 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horse Camping
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Scenic drives
- Night sky · 13th darkest of 96 in GA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 15:52 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
5 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:55 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 19 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 19 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:52 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.
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, $10 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 · 5
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:55 UTC
- Cherry Hill CampgroundSumter National Forest · 10 mi · 1 of 56 site-nights open
- Tallulah River CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 16 mi · 1 of 32 site-nights open
- Tate Branch Campground (Clayton, GA)Chattahoochee National Forest · 16 mi · 1 of 36 site-nights open
- Lake Rabun Beach Recreation AreaChattahoochee National Forest · 17 mi · 2 of 78 site-nights open
- Jackrabbit MountainNational Forests in North Carolina · 30 mi · 13 of 182 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:52 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
22 sites
All 22 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. 19 of the 22 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Sarah's Creek | 1 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $10 |
| Sarah's Creek | 10 | type not stated | ||
| Sarah's Creek | 11 | type not stated | ||
| Sarah's Creek | 12 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 13 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 14 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 15 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 16 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 17 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 18 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 19 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 2 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 20 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 21 | type not stated | ||
| Sarah's Creek | 22 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 3 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 4 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 5 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 6 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 7 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 8 | standard nonelectric | $10 | |
| Sarah's Creek | 9 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Willis Knob Horse CampChattahoochee National Forest · 3.1 mi
West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA)Chattahoochee National Forest · 3.7 miLong Bottom FordSumter National Forest · 4.9 mi
Whetstone Horse CampSumter National Forest · 4.9 miGrapevineSumter National Forest · 8.7 miBurrells FordSumter National Forest · 8.8 miFrom Clayton, go east on Warwoman Raod for 11.6 miles. Turn left on Forest Service Road 156 aka Sarah's Creek Road. Sarah's Creek Campground is approximately 2.2 miles ahead. The campground is broken up into 3 sections on that road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sky Valley, 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
Sarah's Creek 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 Sarah's Creek 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 Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 19 of the 22 campsites the agency files at Sarah's Creek 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 19 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. Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sarah's Creek 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 Sarah's Creek 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 Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Jon Ossoff, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 19 of the 22 campsites the agency files at Sarah's Creek 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 19 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. Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sarah's Creek 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 Sarah's Creek 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 Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Raphael G. Warnock, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 19 of the 22 campsites the agency files at Sarah's Creek 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 19 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. Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sarah's Creek 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 Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA) (Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia) via campanac.com