Woodring Branch Primitive 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 15:22 UTC
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 11All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Woodring Branch Primitive Campground is located in the North Georgia Mountains on the beautiful Carters Lake Project, which is just a short 70 miles north of Atlanta. Carters Lake provides clean, safe, and quiet campgrounds that help you escape the hustle and bustle of your day-to-day routine and relax with your family. Woodring Branch offers boating, hiking, mountain biking, picnicking at the day use area, and many other summer activities. Woodring Branch has two different loop style trails from easy to moderate. The Amadahy Hiking Trail and the Oak Ridge Nature trail will ensure a great family hiking experience as they both include a wide diversity of plants, animals, and scenic views. Woodring Branch at Carters Lake has something for everyone, no matter what your hobbies are. Keep reading
Recreation
Boaters visit Carters Lake to enjoy its solitude and scenic beauty. Whether in a powerboat or sailboat on the open water or paddling along the shoreline in a canoe, Carters Lake offers enjoyable boating experiences for everyone. Fishing is a popular activity on the lake. Major species include bass (largemouth, smallmouth, hybrid, striped and spotted), crappie, walleye, bream and catfish. Bank fishing locations are limited due to steep shoreline terrain, but six boat ramps are scattered around the shoreline, offering easy access to the lake. The Amadahy Trail is located in the Woodring Branch Recreation Area. This 4-mile loop is excellent for beginners with flat to rolling terrain. Bikers and hikers are treated to beautiful views of Carters Lake along most of trail's length. The Oak Ridge Nature Trail is also located in this area and offers a shorter one mile hike through upland forests.
Facilities
This heavily wooded campground offers eleven primitive sites.
Natural Features
Carters Lake embraces a spectacular tract of foothills scenery in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia. It covers 3200 surface acres and has 62 miles of undeveloped shoreline.
Nearby Attractions
Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge there are many attractions nearby. The towns of Blue Ridge, Ellijay, Jasper and Chatsworth all boast of many tourist opportunities. From restuarants, festivals, etc. there are many opportunities for exploration of local attractions.
Charges & Cancellations
Changes and cancellations must be made on Recreation.gov
What the agency tells you
ALL CAMPERS MUST HAVE A RESERVATION BEFORE ENTERING CAMPGROUND Campsite occupancy is limited to maximum of eight (8) and two (2) vehicles and one (1) boat. NO VISITORS, registered campers only
Camping at one or more campsites at Carters Lake Project for a period longer than 14 days during a 30 day period is prohibited. Title 36 CFR 327.7B
All pets must be penned, caged, on a leash under six feet in length. Title 36 CFR 327.11
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 11 · 11 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 11 of 11 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Mountain biking
- Picnicking
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 15:22 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 11 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 10 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:22 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.
“Changes and cancellations must be made on Recreation.gov” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
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 · 28 mi · 1 of 80 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:22 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
11 sites
All 11 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. 11 of the 11 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Woodring Primitive | 1 | tent only nonelectric | $10 |
| Woodring Primitive | 10 | tent only nonelectric | $10 |
| Woodring Primitive | 11 | tent only nonelectric | $10 |
| Woodring Primitive | 2 | tent only nonelectric | $10 |
| Woodring Primitive | 3 | tent only nonelectric | $10 |
| Woodring Primitive | 4 | tent only nonelectric | $10 |
| Woodring Primitive | 5 | tent only nonelectric | $10 |
| Woodring Primitive | 6 | tent only nonelectric | $10 |
| Woodring Primitive | 7 | tent only nonelectric | $10 |
| Woodring Primitive | 8 | tent only nonelectric | $10 |
| Woodring Primitive | 9 | tent only nonelectric | $10 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Woodring Campground (GA)0.5 mi
Doll Mountain Campground1.2 mi
Lake Conasauga Overflow CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 16 mi
Lake Conasauga CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 16 mi
Jacks River Fields CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 18 miHickey Gap CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 19 miFrom Atlanta, take I-75 north to Exit 293; follow Highway 411 north. Turn right on Highway 136, then left on old Highway 411. Turn right on Highway 282/76. Campground is located 4.5 miles off Highway 282.
From Ellijay, GA, take Highway 282/76 west for 11 miles to the access road and follow signs to the campground.
Physical Address, Woodring Branch Rd, Ellijay,GA,30540
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ellijay, GA
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 74°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Woodring Branch Primitive 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 Woodring Branch Primitive Campground, Georgia
Dear Andrew S. Clyde, I’m a constituent in Georgia’s 9th district. I tried to camp at Woodring Branch Primitive Campground, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 11 sites at Woodring Branch Primitive Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 11 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. Woodring Branch Primitive Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Woodring Branch Primitive Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Woodring Branch Primitive Campground (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 Woodring Branch Primitive Campground, Georgia
Dear Jon Ossoff, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Woodring Branch Primitive Campground, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 11 sites at Woodring Branch Primitive Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 11 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. Woodring Branch Primitive Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Woodring Branch Primitive Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Woodring Branch Primitive Campground (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 Woodring Branch Primitive Campground, Georgia
Dear Raphael G. Warnock, I’m a constituent in Georgia. I tried to camp at Woodring Branch Primitive Campground, Georgia, and couldn’t. All 11 sites at Woodring Branch Primitive Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 11 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. Woodring Branch Primitive Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Woodring Branch Primitive Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Woodring Branch Primitive Campground (Georgia) via campanac.com