Swan Cabin Group Camp
1Heads up1 fire 34 mi away
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 9 of the next 17 nights read 16:46 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Please be advised: due to health and safety concerns, occupancy within Swan Cabin will no longer be permitted. However, group camping outside the cabin in adjacent grassy field is allowed. Nestled in a remote area of Nantahala National Forest, this primitive log cabin was built in 1931 by Frank Swan in a different location, then later it was moved to its current location near the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness. The cabin and the surrounding meadows are named for the Swan Family, who came to the area from Pennsylvania in the late 19th century. Keep reading
Swan Cabin Group Campsite offers a peaceful, quiet retreat where visitors can relax and enjoy birdsong and views of the surrounding wilderness. This group campsite is available from April 15 through October 31. ATTENTION: Swan Cabin Group Camp is considered remote, and is located at a high elevation where climatic conditions can be extreme and can change very quickly. Forest Service Roads 81 and 81 F that provide access to Swan Cabin Group Camp are gravel roads. During certain times of the year, these roads may be muddy or covered with snow. During ideal conditions, Swan Cabin Group Camp may be accessed with two wheel-drive vehicles. During muddy or snow covered conditions, four wheel-drive and higher clearance vehicles are required. Please be aware that staying at Swan Cabin Group Camp requires proper preparation, thorough review of predictive weather reports, and the ability to be self-sufficient during unplanned weather events, which can happen at any time of the year. Refunds will not be issued for inclement weather conditions or the inability to access the group camp due to inclement weather conditions.
Recreation
There are several nice hikes in the area, including the 3-mile Swan Meadows and the 7-mile Stratton Bald Trails. There is an easy 5-minute hike from the group camp to a waterfall. Nearby boat ramps are available on Santeetlah Lake.
Facilities
Tents may be pitched in the surrounding meadows for group camping. A pit toilet is located adjacent to the group camp, and a nearby spring may provide a water source, although it should be boiled or treated. There is no electricity or running water at the group site. A picnic table, grill and fire ring are available for use. Visitors may wish to bring their own drinking water, as well as supplies and equipment for food preparation. All equipment must be carried in from the parking area, located approximately 100 feet from the group camp. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring many of their own amenities. Hunting is also a popular activity enjoyed by visitors to the area from September through December. Hunters and their dogs may frequent the nearby trails during that time.
Natural Features
The Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness is particularly known for its old-growth forest of oak, poplar and hemlock within the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. This is one of the largest old-growth forests east of the Mississippi. Sun-loving wildflowers are abundant in the spring, and rhododendron, azalea and mountain laurel bloom in the late spring and early summer. The 2 major watersheds in this wilderness are Slickrock Creek and Little Santeetlah Creek. The mouth of Slickrock Creek has the lowest elevation in the wilderness at 1,086 feet. Swan Cabin Group Camp is situated near the highest elevation in the wilderness: 5,341-foot Stratton Bald in the Unicoi Mountain Range.
Nearby Attractions
Swan Cabin Group Camp is an ideal base for exploring the pristine Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is only a short drive away and makes an excellent day trip.
What the agency tells you
Please do not bring your own lock and chain to lock the road gate. There is private land directly adjacent to Swan Cabin Group Camp and access must remain available for private landowners to access their property. You may push the gate closed, but do not lock the gate.
Forest Service Roads 81 and 81 F that provide access to Swan Cabin Group Camp are gravel roads. During certain times of the year, these roads may be muddy or covered with snow. During ideal conditions, Swan Cabin Group Camp may be accessed with two wheel-drive vehicles. During muddy or snow covered conditions, four wheel-drive and higher clearance vehicles are recommended. Refunds will not be issued for inclement weather conditions or the inability to access the cabin due to inclement weather conditions.
Running water is not available at the group camp
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Cell phone service may be unreliable in this area
Guest must bring trash bags and pack out all garbage
Check in time is 2:00 PM and checkout time is 12 PM.
Guests should take precautions during hunting season; check with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Agency for dates
Click here for more information about National Forests in North Carolina
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.
All equipment must be carried in from the parking area, located approximately 100 feet from the group camp.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…surrounding meadows for group camping. A pit toilet is located adjacent to the group camp, and a nearby…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Visitors may wish to bring their own drinking water, as well as supplies and equipment for food preparation.”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Backpacking
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 14th darkest of 84 in NC
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:46 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:45 UTC. See them
OpenBookedClosed
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 · 12
What you actually pay
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 · 2
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:45 UTC
- Cades Cove CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 21 mi · 1 of 320 site-nights open
- Jackrabbit MountainNational Forests in North Carolina · 27 mi · 13 of 182 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:46 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| SWCA | C01 | group tent only area nonelectric | 30 ft | 1,427 ftWolf Laurel Branch | $25 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Rattler Ford Group CampgroundNantahala National Forest · 4.9 mi
Donley CabinCherokee National Forest · 5.8 mi
Indian BoundaryCherokee National Forest · 6.6 miSpivey Cove CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 7.3 miFrom Robbinsville, North Carolina, take Highway 129 north. After about 2 miles turn left onto 143 West (Massey Branch Road). Pass the Ranger Office and continue to the stop sign (2.2 miles). At the stop sign, turn right, continuing on 143 West for approximately 6.9 miles. Turn right on NC 1134 toward Joyce Kilmer. Continue only about 50 feet. Turn left onto Forest Service Road 81. Continue on this gravel road approximately 8 miles. Turn right onto Forest Service Road 81F and continue for 2.7 miles. Swan Cabin Group Camp is located on the left, off of Forest Service Road 81F.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lake Santeetlah, NC
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 22°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
Swan Cabin Group Camp is in North Carolina’s 11th congressional district. Its representative, Chuck Edwards (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 moneyChuck EdwardsU.S. Representative · North Carolina’s 11th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTed BuddU.S. Senator · North Carolina
- Your senator, on the same appropriationThom TillisU.S. Senator · North Carolina
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 Swan Cabin Group Camp, North Carolina
Dear Chuck Edwards, I’m a constituent in North Carolina’s 11th district. I tried to camp at Swan Cabin Group Camp, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Swan Cabin Group Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Swan Cabin Group Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Swan Cabin Group Camp. 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 Swan Cabin Group Camp (North Carolina) 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 Swan Cabin Group Camp, North Carolina
Dear Ted Budd, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Swan Cabin Group Camp, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Swan Cabin Group Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Swan Cabin Group Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Swan Cabin Group Camp. 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 Swan Cabin Group Camp (North Carolina) 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 Swan Cabin Group Camp, North Carolina
Dear Thom Tillis, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Swan Cabin Group Camp, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Swan Cabin Group Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Swan Cabin Group Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Swan Cabin Group Camp. 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 Swan Cabin Group Camp (North Carolina) via campanac.com