★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic landFee
Carter County
Drive-up · public land · Carter County, TN · 36.31379, -82.11817
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — a fee site. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
An inexpensive fee campground on the shore of Lake Watauga. Many sites are walk in, but several drive in like this one. Forest service campground. Fire ring, picnic table, sheltered tables, showers, running water, restrooms. Lovely wooded setting on lake surrounded by mountains. Discounted with Annual NPS pass. Enough room for one or two vehicles per site. Good cell service. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 12 May 2019. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Carter County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,992 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Carter CountyNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Carter County · Cherokee National Forest · TN
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- MMechanic3 mi
- OOutfitter3 mi
- @Mail3 mi
- RxPharmacy3 mi
- FFuel4 mi
- GGrocery4 mi
- HHardware4 mi
- +Urgent care6 mi
- LLaundry6 mi
- WWater8 mi
- EVEV fast charger8 mi
- ShShower22 mi
- AAir-up22 mi
- DDump44 mi
- PPropane56 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 4 mi out.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Carter County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
1,992 ft
Ground slope
17.4% · steep
County
Carter County, TN
Coordinates
36.31379, -82.11817
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Carter County · Cherokee National Forest · TN (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureWatauga Lake · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Shook Branch (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townHorseshoe · ~1.5 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~0.7 mi
- FuelFuel · ~4.5 mi
- Propane / LPGPropane · ~4.4 mi
- GroceriesQuickStop · ~3.5 mi
- PharmacyHampton Pharmacy · ~3.4 mi
- Hospital / clinicFresenius Kidney Care · ~7.6 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~4.9 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
Had a signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
Yes
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Carter County · Cherokee National Forest · TN — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger8.3 mi straight-line W — Elizabethton Ford (at a public site) · FORD_CHARGE · CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: Mon: 8:00am-7:00pm; Tue: 8:00am-7:00pm; Wed: 8:00am-7:00pm; Thu: 8:00am-7:00pm; Fri: 8:00am-7:00pm; Sat: 8:00am-7:00pm · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach18 within 25 mi · 49 within 50 · 181 within 100 · 431 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)12.2 mi — Johnson City, TN - Tesla Supercharger, Johnson City
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO12.9 mi — BRIGHTRIDGE EV STATION 1 (L), Johnson City
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)6.1 mi — EEDEV ELIZ DOWNTOWN, Elizabethton, TN · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 416859 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Carter County · Cherokee National Forest · TN — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Flush restroomCardens Bluff Cg · at this camp · USFS
- Flush restroomWatauga Point Recreation Area · ~1.8 mi E · USFS
- Flush restroomDennis Cove Recreation Area · ~4.0 mi S · USFS
- Flush restroomLittle Oak Campground · ~14.7 mi N · USFS
Coming out here — Carter County · Cherokee National Forest · TN
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Watauga Lake as a perennial lake or pond, under 0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 17.4% — steep. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Carter County elsewhere
Other camps near Carter County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Little Stoney Creek Camp~2.5 mi
- A.T. Laurel Fork Shelter~2.6 mi
- Dennis Cove Recreation Area~4.0 mi · fee
- A.T. Vandeventer Shelter~4.9 mi
The unit that manages Carter County
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Carter County are set by Cherokee National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Carter County
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Carter County, TN). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 12 May 2019. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Carter County
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- How many rigs actually fit
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Carter County
Finding water out here →Reading a forest MVUM →Dumping grey & black →Dispersed camping tips →All field notes →