The Forestry Service website calls the Indian Boundary Recreation Area and Campground the “crown jewel of the South Zone of the Cherokee National Forest .” My wife and I spent four nights there 05/09/2016 thru 05/13/2016, and I cannot disagree with them. While there are a few shortcomings (mostly minor issues with the bathhouses), it would be very difficult to beat this value in RV, trailer, and tent camping. The campground and campsites are VERY nice, and the location is superb.

General description of park/area:

Indian Boundary Recreation Area and Campground is a U.S. Forestry Service facility in the Cherokee National Forest of east Tennessee about 15 miles up the Cherohala Skyway from Tellico Plains. It is anchored by a beautiful 97-acre man made lake formed by a dam across Flat’s Creek with a backdrop of the Unicoi Mountains, over which the Cherohala Skyway crosses. Indian Boundary Lake is a non-motorized (electric trolling motors are allowed) lake apparently known for fishing, and is a popular spot for casual kayaking and canoeing. There is also a nice beach for swimming (I imagine the water is cold, welcome in the summers) with a picnic pavilion and restrooms. Between the campground and the beach there is a picnic area with several tables and a volleyball net, and there is another volleyball net on the waterfront area of campground Loop A. For hiking and biking, a 3.1 mile trail circles the lake, providing beautiful views, access to the lake for fishing, and – it’s best feature, of course – a myriad of wildflowers.

But it’s not only the Indian Boundary Recreation Area that attracts to the region. The Cherohala Skyway is a famous drive through high Appalachian Mountains, with a number of overlooks providing grand vistas into Tennessee and once you cross the border, into North Carolina. There are a number of trails to walk, both short – such as the trail to Falls Branch Falls, and long-distance – such as the Benton McKaye Trail, which runs along the route originally envisioned for the Appalachian Trail. On down toward the end of the Cherohala is a side road that will take you to the Joyce Kilmer – Slickrock Wilderness, which contains the 3,800-acre Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, one of the largest and few remaining virgin forests in the eastern United States.

Additionally the drive up River Road along the Tellico River is magnificent, and the road crosses a bridge over the Bald River just downstream from the famous Bald River Falls, a 90-foot cascade which is described by the National Forestry Service as “one of the most spectacular falls in the region.” The Tellico River in this area is famous for both trout fishing and for white-water kayaking. One of my favorite backcountry drives is up the mostly-gravel North River Road to where it joins with the Cherohala Skyway just into North Carolina.

General description of campground:

The 87-site campground is a treat – clean and neat, and the roads, driveways, and pads are well-maintained, situated on the lake, and spread through a forest. The sites are roomy, and well-appointed. While there isn’t water in the campsites, there are hydrants throughout the campground – fill up before you reach your site or plan on carrying water to your site. Each site has electricity – 30-amp in most sites; 50-amp in some sites in Loop D. There is a little understory between sites (more than a little in some areas) to provide some appearance of privacy when the leaves are on the trees, and they certainly aren’t crowded together like many commercial RV campgrounds. A number of sites in Loop A are on the lake, but even those that aren’t have easy access to the lake via a sidewalk in Loop A to a nice pier with benches, and via the Lake Trail which comes into the campground behind Loop B, runs behind the camp store, and across a small stream and then along the waterfront of Loop A.

The sites must be reserved 5 days ahead of arrival time, although on weekdays during the offseason you probably can get a site without a reservation. Reserve well in advance if you want to spend a weekend at Indian Boundary. There are several campground hosts – one for each loop it appeared to me – to provide help if needed.

Access: Indian Boundary Campgound is 17 miles from the small town of Tellico Plains, TN, about 2 miles off the Cherohala Skyway on a paved access road. Both the Cherohala Skyway and the access road (Indian Boundary Road) are in excellent condition, although somewhat curvy and steep. There should be no problems with access in any kind of vehicle. The roads through the campground have some fairly tight turns, but they are certainly easily managed by vehicles within the published 26-foot limit (damages caused by larger vehicles are the responsibility of the driver; fines may be imposed.) In fact, based on my walk-thru of the campground, I don’t understand the 26-foot limit. Most sites would easily accommodate longer rigs, and in fact there were some there that I’m certain exceeded that limit.   While the campground roads are paved (and in good condition), the driveways of campsites are gravel, angled to make back-in easier. I didn’t notice any pull-thru sites. There are four bathhouses for four campground loops, but they aren’t necessarily centrally located in each loop (the loop A bathhouse is centrally located in that loop.) Some of the sites might be a fair walk from the bathhouse. Access to the group/tent campground is before the gate closing the road into the RV campground, which also goes to the beach. That gate closes at 10 PM and opens again at 6 AM; it must be an emergency to get the gate opened outside the 6 AM – 10 PM timeframe. If you arrive after hours, you park at the overflow campground and walk to your site – a pretty good walk, so don’t be caught out late.

Site: We stayed in Site #11, a back-in site in Loop A. I did not see any pull-thru sites in the campground, but the roads are roomy enough and the driveways angled such that back-in is relatively easy. While the roads through the campground are paved, the driveways and tent pads are densely-packed, small gravel (I suspect it may take a hammer to get a tent stake into the ground.) Since this is on hilly ground, most of the driveways have a grade into the site – some just a bit, some quite a bit. The parking area for the trailer/RV is mostly level, although every almost all of them are slightly off-camber. I needed to raise one side of my trailer about 2 inches to get level.

The sites are quite roomy, and I think a tent is allowed along with an RV, but they are limited to 5 people per site. There is a large wooden picnic table, a fire ring with grill, a lantern post, and the electric pedestal in each site. Most of the sites are staggered in an off-set from each other, or at slightly different elevation to the neighbor, and there are a lot of trees and shrubs throughout the campground, providing a fair amount of privacy.

Electric: 20/30 amp at my site #11 and most of the 87 sites in the campground. Sites 75 thru 91 have 50 amp hookups; all these are in Loop D. The pedestals are nicely located close to the driveways.

Water: Water connections are not available at the campsite, but there are several hydrants available in each loop. I used gallon jugs to carry a couple of gallons back to my T@b when I got low in my 5-gallon freshwater tank. The hydrants may be turned off during freezing weather.

Bathhouse: There are four bathhouses in the campground, one per loop. All are handicap-accessible. I didn’t enter the ones in the other loops, but I imagine they are all similar to the one in Loop A. The bathhouses were well-lit and clean, and certainly adequately appointed, there were a few disappointments. When the campground is full they may get a bit crowded with a single urinal and single toilet in the men’s (two toilets in the women’s.) The single sink (adequate for 20+ sites?) is in a vanity with generous space, and a shelf is alongside the vanity. There is a hand-dryer which dries the hands nicely – but are those hands clean? There is no soap dispenser provided. When folks are making a run to the bathhouse just to use the toilet facilities, it’s unlikely that they’ll think to bring their own soap. I’m sure this reduces cost and maintenance effort, but to me it’s a big miss.

The single shower in each bathhouse is probably adequate, although during the busy season you might have trouble timing your shower. The shower stall is roomy, and a bench and hook are provided. However, there is no temperature adjustment for either of the two showerheads (one high, one low), and the water temperature was too cool for me, although not so much as to completely deter me from showering – in fact it might be just right if the air temperature is in the 90’s. Cindy reported that the showers in the women’s side of the bathhouse were quite warm – just right. The showers are timed – you press a button to start the water, and it runs for a preset amount of time. Presumably this is to save water, but it also means you can’t turn the water off when you’re through; it must wait for the timer to expire, which might be several minutes. During this time, the shower in Loop A was spraying water all the way across the ample room of the shower stall, wetting the entire floor except for the corner (where I learned to leave my shoes after the first shower.) There was no way to adjust the direction of spray.

These are small complaints about a small part of a fine facility – worth overlooking for the overall package that is Indian Boundary Campground.

Sewer: No sewer at sites; the dump station is away from the campground past the overflow campground. I didn’t use it, but it seemed well designed. Potable water is available at this location with which you can fill your tanks before you make your way to the campground.

Cell Phone Service: None, zip, nada. Let me qualify that – every once in a while when we checked, our phones would not show “no service” but would also show no bars, or occasionally a dot. But even during these times, we weren’t able to make calls or even text. However, we were able to get a variable-strength Verizon signal at the Turkey Creek overlook on the Cherohala Skyway a few miles from the campground, one time even enough to use my hotspot to (slowly) get some Facebook updates. A couple of other times, the hotspot wasn’t effective at the Turkey Creek overlook either. We could travel the 17 miles to the Cherohala Visitor Center in Tellico to get the Internet fixes we needed. Don’t count on routine cell phone, text, or Internet service.

Trash disposal: Bear-proof trash cans are provided at several locations in each loop. It should not be a problem getting your trash to a trash can. No separation of recyclables except at the camp store.

Cost:  $20.00 per night. My multi-agency Senior Pass gave me a $5 discount, so with the $9 recreation.gov fee, the 4 nights we stayed there cost $69. This is a great deal for this beautiful facility, in spite of the lack of water at the sites, and the slight shortcomings of the showers.

Supplies/Food: There is a campground store open 5 days a week (closed Mon / Wed, I think). It was closed while I was there, so I didn’t go in to see what they had, but the size implied that it could carry a reasonable variety of goods. Tellico Plains is 17 miles away, and there are a number of stores including a grocery, hardware, and Dollar General. The historic center of town has a variety of stores, including coffee shops and bakeries. There are a couple of restaurants along the Cherohala Skyway before you arrive in Tellico Plains, a Hardee’s, and a couple of other restaurants in town. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the Tellicafe restaurant – we ate lunch on the way to Indian Boundary, and liked the food so much we returned for an early dinner a few days later. Their fried okra is excellent, and they have the best sweet potato fries I’ve ever eaten.

Note that this is bear country; you will need to make sure you do not leave food outside if you are not preparing or eating it.

T@b Note: Our 2012 Highlander Limited (4WD, 6-cylinder) towed our T@b admirably on our 2 hour drive up from just south of Chattanooga. We traveled on Interstate 75 about 30 miles, and then on backroads (US64, US411, TN39, Cherohala Skyway) the remain 66 miles. We averaged 16.4 mpg until we started up the Cherohala Skyway, and then dropped to 15.7 mpg for the overall trip – that final 17 miles really put a dent in it. On our return trip we got 17.2 mpg; clearly more of a downhill run than the trip up to Indian Boundary.

We ran air conditioning in the T@b because my wife needs it cool to keep her asthma under control, and the smoke of the campground was a problem. It was noteworthy that we could close the blinds and top vent, and run the air conditioner, and we detected very little smoke smell entering the trailer. If I cracked the shades open a bit, we could immediately tell our neighbors still had their fires going. Unfortunately, the T@b keeps the outside noises out as well; I had to go outside to hear the whippoorwill singing to us.