Whetstone Horse Camp
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:20 UTC
- A night
- $15–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 18All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Whetstone Horse Camp is located in the Andrew Pickens Ranger District in Oconee County in the western corner of South Carolina, about 13 miles northwest of Walhalla. The Chattooga River flows nearby. With over 30 miles of horseback riding trails, Whetstone serves as a base for those who like to ride and camp. Keep reading
Recreation
The Rocky Gap Trail on the South Carolina side of the river and the Willis Knob Horse Trail on the Georgia side provide excellent horseback riding and hiking opportunities. Visitors also enjoy exploring the nearby Chattooga River.
Facilities
The campground is open year-round and has 18 sites with parking spurs for horse trailers. All of the 18 Sites are by reservation only. Each site is equipped with a picnic table, fire ring and lantern post. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Hitching racks are located throughout the facility.
Natural Features
The camp is situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, near the Rocky Gap and Willis Knob Horse Trails. The Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests encompass more than 629,000 acres in four districts throughout South Carolina, from the lowcountry Atlantic Coast to the western foothills along the Georgia border.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Walhalla is 13 miles away. The town holds an annual Oktoberfest celebration the third weekend of October. Stumphouse Tunnel, a 19-century uncompleted railroad tunnel, and Isaqueena Falls make for interesting visits. Both are located just 20 minutes from the camp.
What the agency tells you
Horses must be tied to the highline, hitching rail, or stalls provided at each site; portable corrals or other devices may be used, but only if they are placed at the designated horse tethering area
Do not tie horses where they can chew on trees
Dispose of all manure in manure bins
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Do not place trash in the fire rings
Hoses may be used to fill water tanks and horse troughs; do not leave hoses attached to water spigots
Pets must be leashed in the campground
At single campsites, you may park up to one camper, one horse trailer, and two motor vehicles in your parking spur; at double campsites (sites 6 and 7), you may park up to two campers, two horse trailers, and two motor vehicles in your parking spur
Click here for more information on Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 18 · 18 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 18
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…table, fire ring and lantern post. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Hitching racks are…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…ring and lantern post. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Hitching racks are located throughout…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Coast
- Hiking
- Horse Camping
- Horseback riding
3 of 17 sites open on Sat, Oct 17read 15:20 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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 rates for this season, $15–$30 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:20 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
18 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 18 mapped sitesAll 18 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. 18 of the 18 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| WHHC | 001 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 105 ft | 2,846 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 002 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 102 ft | 2,950 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 003 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 102 ft | 3,041 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 004 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 110 ft | 3,111 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 005 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 118 ft | 3,283 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 006 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 118 ft | 3,337 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 007 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 56 ft | 3,378 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 008 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 56 ft | 3,407 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 009 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 99 ft | 3,455 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 010 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 90 ft | 3,485 ftChattooga River | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 011 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 90 ft | 3,427 ftChattooga River | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 012 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 94 ft | 3,368 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 013 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 155 ft | 3,250 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 014 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 142 ft | 3,200 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 015 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 142 ft | 3,213 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 016 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 127 ft | 3,104 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 017 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 120 ft | 3,059 ft | $15–$30 |
| WHHC | 018 | equestrian nonelectric | yes | 120 ft | 2,973 ft | $15–$30 |
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
Willis Knob Horse CampChattahoochee National Forest · 2.4 miLong Bottom FordSumter National Forest · 3.2 miGrapevineSumter National Forest · 3.8 mi
Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA)Chattahoochee National Forest · 4.9 miCassidy Bridge Primitive CampSumter National Forest · 5.5 mi
West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA)Chattahoochee National Forest · 5.9 miFrom Walhalla, go north 6 miles on State Highway 28. Turn left onto Whetstone Road. Go straight for about 5 miles. Continue straight at the four-way stop, for another 1.5 miles. The pavement ends and gravel begins. A sign for Whetstone Horse Camp is about 3/4-mile down the gravel road. The camp is 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 Longcreek, SC
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 70°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
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
Whetstone Horse Camp is in South Carolina’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Sheri Biggs (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →