The Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area is a recreational day-use area and campground near Suches, Georgia at the site where a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was located in the 1930’s, and some of the facilities (the beach bathhouse; maybe other parts) were built for that camp. I had heard that there were Yellow Ladyslippers blooming in the vicinity, so I spent two nights there 05/18/2016 and 05/19/2016. While there is only a single site available with electricity, this is definitely a campground worthy of your consideration if you can get that site, or especially if you don’t need electricity. While there are some issues with the bathhouses, the campground and campsites are nice, and the location is superb.

General description of park/area:

Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area and Campground is a U.S. Forestry Service facility in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest of northern Georgia at around 3,000′ elevation bordering the Blood Mountain Wilderness at the base of Blood Mountain, the highest mountain on the Appalachian Trail in Georgia. There are two Appalachian Trail approach trails starting at Lake Winfield Scott – the 2.7 mile Slaughter Creek Trail, and the 1.0 mile Jarrard Gap Trail. Both are about the same distance from the top of Blood Mountain, a peak which provides breathtaking views of the surrounding and distant countryside, and those two approach trails and a section of the AT can be used for a great day-hike loop; including the top of Blood Mountain if you have the energy and strength.

The 18-acre Lake Winfield Scott anchors the recreation area, with fishing from shore or no-motor boats, a swimming beach, picnic tables, and two reservable pavilions. There is a relatively short trail near the lake in addition the walkways around the picnic area. For the more intrepid hiker, in addition to the trails mentioned above, 6 miles in either direction out of the park will take you to Woody Gap or to Wolf Pen Gap, both of which allow you access to world-class hiking trails. A few miles past Wolf Pen Gap and you come upon Vogel State Park, Georgia’s oldest state park. In the vicinity are a number of waterfalls which can be reached with relatively short hikes, and you can drive to Neel’s Gap where the Appalachian Trail crosses, 10.6 trail miles from Woody Gap. The Neel’s Gap side of Blood Mountain (at the Herbert Reece trailhead) provides the shortest – and busiest – walk (no, “climb”) up Blood mountain, 2 miles. This is one of my favorite areas to visit for my wilderness fixes. Lake Winfield Scott is a good alternative to Vogel State Park for camping in the area.

General description of campground:

The 31-site campground is very scenic and pretty well maintained, despite its age. The campground is divided into two loops, which are a fair distance from each other. The south loop is a reservation-only loop; the north loop is walk-up only except for site 21 in the north loop.

The south loop is along Slaughter Creek to the right past the entry pay station; it is closed in the winter. This loop houses the campground manager, sites 1 thru 15, and two bathhouses. Six of these sites are tent-only, the others can be used by RVs. The reservation map does not correctly show the location of the bathhouses in the south loop; one is located right after the road into the loop separates into one-way (just before the manager’s site), and the second is on the lower section of the loop as it returns toward the exit – across from site #11. This lower leg of the loop runs along the creek, and the outside sites (sites 8, 11, 12, & 14) are creek-side. A couple of the sites in this loop are pull-through, the others are back-in. There are NO ELECTRIC sites in the south loop, and all sites must be reserved at least two days in advance via the online system. All sites are picturesque and have pretty good privacy.

The north loop is directly past the beach area and has a campground host site, site #21 – the only electric site available in the campground – and 16 non-electric sites. The loop road is paved and in good condition, but there is a gravel extension with four sites if you really want some privacy. Site #30 is a double site (at double the fee) just as the loop road turns onto its return leg, and it, along with several other sites, is situated right on a very lovely creek. If site 30 had electricity, it would be my site of choice. (I almost wound up on that site despite my reservation for site 21 due to a reservation conflict with walk-up usage, and would have been satisfied without electricity because #30 is a GREAT site.) Sites 33 – 37 are pull-thru sites. All sites in the north loop except site 21 are not reservable – walk-up only. The bathhouse is across from site 21.

Since the campground is full every weekend starting at least in May, if you want one of these sites you need to arrive Thursday or very early Friday – and then no promises. There is no overflow campground, so if Lake Winfield Scott is full, you might need to go back to Vogel State Park (which may also be full) or one of the several commercial campgrounds in the area. There is at least one in Suches and there are a number between Vogel State Park and Blairsville.

Most of the sites are roomy (double-sites 8 and 30 are HUGE, but also costs the same as 2 sites) and the gravel driveways, tent pads, tables, fire pits (with grate), and lantern posts are in good shape. 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. As stated previously, only one site has electricity – 20/30/50-amp connections in site #21. 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 although a few of the sites are close to one another, they certainly aren’t crowded together like most commercial RV campgrounds. These close-together sites would be nice for a couple of families, or a large family, since the campground has a 5-person limit per site (double sites double that, of course.)

A word about the reservation system. The South Loop requires online reservations (I’m pretty sure this is accurate), so there is little conflict. The North Loop is walk-up only, except for site #21. As I understand it, site #21 can be reserved online, or, if not reserved, occupied by a walk-up. The reservations must be made at least 2 days in advance to ensure that the walk-up registrations have time to get entered into the system, and to get the “reserved” sign up for online-registrations. Unfortunately, the campground managers were gone the day after I made my reservation so the sign wasn’t put up, and (apparently unusually during the week at this time of year) a walkup RV pulled in and decided they wanted the electric site. The managers discovered the conflict when they returned, and tried to contact the camper in the morning to ask him to move (he had been warned this might happen by the campground host, who doesn’t have access to the online system,) but he was already out for the day. They left a note on his camper door, but when I arrived between 5:30 and 6:00 PM he had not returned. The managers were very apologetic and accommodating in their efforts to make things right, and sent me over to site #30 – an excellent site, but without the electricity needed to keep my frozen stuff frozen, and offered me ice and a cooler to keep my food cool. I had ensconced myself in 30 with the ice and eaten the frozen goods for dinner so the freezer wasn’t required. But about 7:30 a truck with trailer in tow pulled up to my site. It was the camper from #21 ready to swap sites with me. If I had run into him before he pulled up camp I would have told him just to stay put, but since he was already there I spent 5 minutes getting things secured (I hadn’t disconnected since I was expecting site #21 to be available the next day), and we made the swap. Fortunately he didn’t seem particularly upset, and we had a nice conversation about the gold prospecting he had been doing. I guess the point is that since this is the only site with electricity, you need to come with some flexibility planned. Secondarily is that the managers (a husband and wife team) at Lake Winfield Scott are a really nice couple, and will do what they need to make your stay at the campground pleasant and enjoyable.

Access: Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area is 17 miles from the town of Blairsville, GA, and about 4 miles from the tiny hamlet of Suches. The 10 miles on U.S. Highway 19 out of Blairsville is a good road, but the last couple of miles on it before the turn onto GA 180 are pretty curvy, but quite wide – easy traveling. The remaining 7 miles on GA 180 up through Wolf Pen Gap and then down to Lake Winfield Scott are an adventure. The road is in good condition, but EXTREMELY curvy, pretty steep, and occasionally narrow. I was pretty comfortable pulling my 16-foot T@b trailer on this road, but I’m not sure about a much longer trailer, and certainly not in my previous RV – a 36-foot motorhome. I suspect the route through Suches from Blue Ridge might be preferred for longer vehicles. Don’t take the road immediately past the lake as you cross in front of Lake Winfield Scott – that’s a day-use area where you’ll need to turn around to exit (I did that, needing to back-and-forth with my trailer a couple of times to get headed out.) The entrance road is about a 1/2 mile further. That entrance road and the roads through the recreation area and campground are in good shape (except for one area just past the day-use pay station), and clearance seemed good. While most RV sites list 15, 20, or 25-foot limits, there are two that specify 40-feet, and several would accommodate longer RVs. For example, site 21 specifies 15 feet, but the trailer that was in it when I arrived was a 29-footer. I was able to easily back my T@b to near the back of the site and had room to park my car in front of it (or beside it), and had 10 feet to the road.

Site: I stayed in Site #21, a back-in site in the North Loop. The sites that weren’t pull-thru or tent-only had 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 back-in driveways have a grade into the site – some just a bit, some quite a lot. The parking area for the trailer/RV is mostly level; when parked in site 30 I was level without adjustment; in site 21 I needed to raise one side of my trailer about 1 inch to get level.

The sites are quite roomy, and I think a tent is allowed along with an RV, but as mentioned before they are limited to 5 people per site. There is a large wooden picnic table, a fire ring with grill, and a lantern post in each site. The sites are irregularly spaced, sometimes providing good privacy, sometimes not so much, but even then there was good space between most sites so you wouldn’t feel crowded.

Electric:  20/30/50 amp at my site #21, the only site with electricity available. The campground description on the Forestry Service website says no sites have electricity, but the reservation site lists it properly. The pedestal is well-located at the side of the pad, and seemed to be fairly recently installed.

Water: Water connections are not available at the campsites, but there are one or two hydrants available in each loop. The hydrants are turned off during freezing weather, and the site cost is reduced. I didn’t use the water; what I had on-board was adequate for my 2-night stay.

Bathhouse: There are three bathhouses in the campground, one in the north loop, and two in the south loop. The bathhouses were well-lit and clean, but showing their age. The north loop bathhouse had 2 sinks, 2 urinals, and a toilet stall. The sinks were not in vanities, and there were no hooks, shelves, or benches available to put anything on except the paper-towel dispenser. Unlike the Indian Boundary Campground (which had generally nicer bathhouses) these did provide soap dispensers at the sinks. Also missing from the north loop bathhouse – no shower. The managers told me that I could use the shower facilities at the beach / picnic area bathhouse, which had recently been thoroughly cleaned. Upon inspection, however, there was one problem – while there were two shower stalls, they were just that – shower stalls. There was no private changing area. There were a lot of benches and hooks in the main “lobby” of the men’s room – and it was a lobby, as both entrances into the men’s room opened into that area. Maybe I’m more shy than most, but I wouldn’t be comfortable in that situation during the busy season.

I chose to use one of the bathhouses in the south loop instead, driving over there. That bathhouse had a single sink (no vanity), a urinal, a toilet stall, and a proper shower stall. The stall had a bench and a number of hooks for your towel and clothes, and a single shower head. There is no temperature adjustment for showerheads, but the temperature was perfect – quite warm, but below uncomfortably warm. The showers are timed – you press a button to start the water, and it runs for a preset amount of time. Compared to the Indian Boundary shower, this timer was much shorter – long enough to rinse part of your body, but not so long that it would continue to run for several minutes after you were through. The shower was spraying water all the way across the most of the floor of the shower stall, but I have learned to take my shower sandals so I didn’t worry about them getting wet. Having contracted some athlete’s foot from prior public shower use, I wear them while showering now.

Sewer: No sewer at sites; no dump station. I also didn’t find a good place to dispose of gray water.

Cell Phone Service: None, zip, nada. I could pick up a cell signal about a mile toward Suches, and pulled over into a church parking lot about 3 miles toward Suches to use my hotspot and laptop to upload a photo of the Small Yellow Ladyslipper I photographed on Thursday.

Trash disposal: Bear-proof trash cans are located in and near the picnic grounds. Each loop had a large dumpster in it. Presumably that large dumpster was the preferred place to put your household trash, although I used the picnic area trash can for the one plastic grocery bag of trash I produced while there.

Cost:  (2016) $18.00 per night for non-electric; $36 for the double sites. Sites are $9/$15 in the winter when the water/bathhouses are closed (there is a vault toilet facility available in winter.) The single electric site is listed at $30, but the reservation site lists it at $25, which is what I was charged. The reservation site charges a $9 fee. My multi-agency Senior Pass gave me a $9 per night discount (50% of the non-electric site fee), so the 2 nights cost me $41.

Supplies/Food: Ice and firewood can be purchased from the campground manager, but no other supplies are available at the campground. Wolf Pen Gap Country Store is a general store in Suches, four miles away. In addition to a general store where you can get supplies, it’s also a hiker hostel, a gas station, and the Suches Post Office. There is little else in Suches. Blairsville is 17 miles away in the other direction, via a much curvier road, but there is a Dollar General store 11 miles toward Blairville. The Country Store in Suches has pizza and burgers, but there are several restaurants along the road to Blairsville, including Jim’s Smokin’ Que, which has the interesting motto of “You can smell our butts for miles.” We have eaten at The Hole in the Wall on the square in Blairsville, as well as Fatz of Blairsville, and can recommend both of those restaurants.

T@b Note: I have started reporting fuel mileage here towing our T@b with our 2012 Highlander Limited (4WD, 6-cylinder.) On the 125-mile 2.5 hour drive up from just south of Chattanooga we averaged 15.2 mpg, partly because I was in a hurry due to a late start Wednesday afternoon; partly because it’s uphill. On my return trip I paid more attention to fuel economy, and also spent less time on the Interstate. Due to traffic and weather I also drove more slowly while on the Interstate. I got 18.2 mpg on the return trip. In addition to the speed and driving style, I think it’s pertinent that the campground was at about 3,000’ elevation while home is closer to 900’ – a downhill run. The T@b towed nicely up Wolf Pen Gap Road, and even more importantly down it.

I’m working on sealing the front window a little bit; the screen frame is separated from the wall by a bit – the curve of the frame doesn’t quite match the interior wall, so the space is open for bugs to get in. I had a few no-see-ums biting me, so when I wasn’t cooking I kept the front window closed. I put some double-backed tape into the opening, but it didn’t quite fill it. I think I’ll go back to the caulk I used on the other side.