Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground
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 16:43 UTC
- A night
- $8From, per site
- Sites
- 6All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
This small campground is located along the banks of the Toccoa River just south of Blue Ridge, GA. This recreation area is the take-out for the 13.8 mile Toccoa River Canoe Trail. The recreation area offers camping, fishing and a canoe take-out. Same day Reservations are accepted. Quiet hours 10pm to 6 am. Sandy Bottoms provides a rustic experience for the outdoor enthusiast to camp, swim, fish or just to sit back and enjoy the scenery. Keep reading
Recreation
The Chattahoochee National Forest offers a variety of recreational opportunities that are not far from Sandy Bottoms. If you enjoy hiking, The Benton MacKaye trail is crosses the river at Shallowford Bridge, just ten minutes away. This trail also crosses the Toccoa River on a 260 foot long suspension bridge, accessible from highway 60. Fishing in Rock Creek and Mill Creek for stocked and wild trout is popular. The Chattahoochee National Fish Hatchery is also located on Rock Creek approximately twenty minutes away. The facility offers an informational visitor kiosk, outdoor raceway viewing, picnicking, and an Environmental Education Center. Popular hiking trails within a 30 minute drive - The Appalachian Trail, Benton Mackaye Trail, Aska Trails, and Cooper Creek Trails. If Sandy Bottoms is booked, check out our other Forest Service Campgrounds that are less than thirty minutes drive away. Cooper Creek Campground, Deep Hope Recreation Area, and Frank Gross Campgrounds offer reservable camping, as well as fishing, hiking, kayaking, and picnicking. Hope to see you soon!
Facilities
There is one vault toilet that is reasonbly close to the group sites. No running water, no hookups, no electriticy, and no dumpstation available.
Natural Features
Toccoa River - Sandy Bottoms Campground is nestled on the banks of Toccoa River in the Aska Area of the Chattahoochee National Forest. Once you turn down Old Dial Road, the scenic drive to this campground offers surrounding views of the National Forest. The Toccoa River is visible for most of the drive, so it gives fisherman an opportunity to locate a good spot to fish as you travel to the campground. Experiencing all four seasons here in North Georgia makes camping a pleasant experience for everybody. During the months of October, North Georgia's trees put on a vibrant show. Summer's dark greens change to brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows which makes the camping atmosphere amazing. Thousands of visitors make the trip annually and we hope you will as well.
Nearby Attractions
Toccoa River - Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area is about twenty minutes south of Blue Ridge, Georgia on GA Highway 60. Just north of this campground is Aska Trails, offering 13 miles of hiking and mountain biking. If you turn down Rock Creek Road (FSR 69) you can find the Chattahoochee National Fish Hatchery, Frank Gross Recreation Area, and access to the Ed Jenkins National Recreation Area. Drive just a drive down the highway is Woody Gap Recreation Area, Chestatee Overlook, or Dockery Lake Recreation Area. Nearby water falls to visit are are Helton Creek Falls, Dukes Creeks Falls, Long Creek Falls, Fall Branch Falls, and Raven Cliffs Falls. Just a short drive and located within the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests, the Brasstown Bald Recreation Area & Visitor Center is a great place to visit. It is the highest point in Georgia, rising 4,784 feet above sea level with a 360 degree view of four states. Towns within a short drive to visit are Blairsville, Helen, and Dahlonega, GA.
What the agency tells you
Check-out at 2:00 PM ; Check-In at 3:00 PM. This campground is self-service and visitors are invited to occupy campsites with a qualified reservation.
Note: cell phone service may not work in some areas due to tower location and terrain.
Quiet hours are from 10pm until 6am. No generators, music or other loud noises during this time. Be respectful to other campground visitors.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Pack-it-In Pack-it-out. Although limited trash service is available at this recreation area, please take as much with you as you can.
Limit of two vehicles per campsite
Pets must be on a leash at all times.
Campfires are permitted in grills only. Do not leave fires unattended; they must be fully-extinguished and cold to the touch before check-out.
Discharging of firearms and fireworks is prohibited.
There is no drinking water, electrical hook-ups, or dump-station service at this site.
Be bear aware; keep all food in containers or locked inside a vehicle as much as possible. Remove all food from the area after eating and during nighttime hours.
Overnight visitors are not required to pay day-use fees and are permitted to use the associated facilities.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 6 · 4 tent-only, 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 6
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 6 of 6 campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…is reasonbly close to the group sites. No running water, no hookups, no electriticy, and no dumpstation…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Accessible Swimming
- Biking
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Kayaking
- Paddle Boating
- Paddling
- Swimming
- Tubing
- Water access
- Night sky · 29th darkest of 96 in GA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:43 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 4 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 4 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:43 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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $8 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 16:43 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
6 sites
All 6 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. 6 of the 6 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 | 01 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | $8 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 02 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | $8 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 03 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | $8 |
| Sandy Bottoms | 04 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | $8 |
| Sandy Bottoms | Group Site 1 | group standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $16 |
| Sandy Bottoms | Group Site 2 | group standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $16 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA)Chattahoochee 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 miFrom Blue Ridge, GA go south on Aska Road 8.5 miles. Turn left, go across Shallowford Bridge and turn right on Shallowford Bridge Road. Go 1.3 miles to Old Dial Road. Turn right on Old Dial Road, go 0.6 miles to recreation area.
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
Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground 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 Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Andrew S. Clyde, I’m a constituent in Georgia’s 9th district. I tried to camp at Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 4 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. Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground. 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 Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground (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 Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Jon Ossoff, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 4 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. Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground. 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 Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground (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 Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Raphael G. Warnock, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 4 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. Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground. 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 Toccoa River Sandy Bottoms Campground (Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia) via campanac.com