West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA)
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- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 5All of them booked ahead
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
All Campsites at West Fork Campground are reservation only, you must reserve through recreation.gov or by calling 877-444-6777 Visitors to this 5-site campground marvel over the picturesque bird's eye view of the world renowned Chattooga Wild and Scenic River. Situated along the west fork of the river, this area offers isolation and adventure all in one. Visitors often comment they feel as though they've been swept back in time and are looking out onto the great frontier of the past when enjoying the area's treasure scenic views. Come explore and enjoy such adventures as camping, fishing, hiking, and canoeing! Keep reading
Recreation
Enjoy your day on the west fork of the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River. Many opportunities are to be found around this beauiful longest free flowing river in the Southern States. Fishing is one of the favorites, you can spend your day on kayak or canoe, take a hike, or if you are not sure about going on the river without additional knowledge and skills you might even want to join one of the outfitter and guides companies that are permitted with the Forest Service to operate on the river. For more information on the companies approved on the river pleae Click here Facilities There are picnic tables, fire rings, and lantern posts at each site. A toilet facility and bear resistant trash bins are available in the parking lot. These are walk-in only sites. You must park your vehicle in the main parking lot and walk to your campsite.
Natural Features
West Fork Campground is located in the Chattahoochee-Oconee 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
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. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (706) 754-6221. Charges & Cancellations
What the agency tells you
All camping is by First Come, First Serve only until May 1st, 2025. After May 1st, 2025 all camping will be reservation only. Reservations can be made online at recreation.gov or via the Rec.Gov mobile app.
Camping or maintaining a campsite in develop 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 hunting within any developed campground, on or across any developed trail, or other developed recreation sites ont eh Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
No driving, unloading, or loading of any ATV, UTV, or Golf Carts allowed on or near all the campgrounds or on Overflow Road.
Generators may be used up to 4 total hours per day between the hours of 6:00 am and 10:00 pm. Quiet hours are from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., please adhere to these quiet hours to not disturb other campers and area wildlife.
Click Here for more information on the Chattahoochee-Oconeed 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 buring it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Check-out time is 12:01 pm and check-in time starts at 2:00 pm
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 5 · 5 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- PIT TOILETS on 5 of 5 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, River, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Kayaking
- River Trips
- Scenic drives
- Water access
- Night sky · 11th darkest of 96 in GA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 15:38 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 16:11 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 5 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 5 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:38 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 · 15
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 · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:11 UTC
- Cherry Hill CampgroundSumter National Forest · 6.6 mi · 1 of 56 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:38 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
5 sites
All 5 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. 5 of the 5 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Willis Knob Horse CampChattahoochee National Forest · 3.5 miLong Bottom FordSumter National Forest · 3.6 mi
Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA)Chattahoochee National Forest · 3.7 miBurrells FordSumter National Forest · 5.1 mi
Whetstone Horse CampSumter National Forest · 5.9 miCherry Hill Recreation AreaSumter National Forest · 6.6 miFrom Clayton, Georgia drive on Warwoman Road (east bound towards South Carolina) for approximately 13.2 miles, turn left on Overflow Creek Road and the campground will be 1 mile up the road on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Highlands, NC
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 67°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 26°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
West Fork 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 West Fork 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 West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 5 sites at West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 5 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. West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run West Fork 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 West Fork 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 West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Jon Ossoff, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 5 sites at West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 5 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. West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run West Fork 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 West Fork 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 West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia
Dear Raphael G. Warnock, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA), Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 5 sites at West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 5 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. West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run West Fork 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 West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA) (Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia) via campanac.com