Agency-listedGeorgia DNR Wildlife Resources DivisionFree
Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5
Drive-up · Georgia Wildlife Resources Division · GA · 34.37992, -84.15575
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 →Georgia Wildlife Resources Division lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest town: not published by GA DNR for this property. Designated primitive campground on a Georgia DNR Wildlife Resources Division wildlife management area. Camping on a Georgia WMA is legal only in designated campgrounds (rule 391-4-2-.61). A hunting licence, fishing licence or Lands Pass is required to be on the property. GA DNR publishes no camping fee. No potable water is claimed.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,191 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5NIFC · 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 Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5 · Dawson Forest WMA · GA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel3 mi
- RxPharmacy3 mi
- @Mail3 mi
- GGrocery4 mi
- HHardware4 mi
- +Urgent care4 mi
- MMechanic5 mi
- AAir-up6 mi
- WWater6 mi
- LLaundry7 mi
- ShShower10 mi
- OOutfitter10 mi
- DDump12 mi
- EVEV fast charger13 mi
- PPropane53 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 3 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 — Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5
Access
Drive-up
Land
Georgia Wildlife Resources Division
Elevation
1,191 ft
Ground slope
39.9% · steep
Nearest highway
~9.3 mi · US Hwy 19
State
GA
Coordinates
34.37992, -84.15575
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5 · Dawson Forest WMA · GA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureShoal Creek · ~0.2 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townDawsonville · ~4.1 mi
- Nearest rail linenone mapped within 10 mi
- Nearest highway~9.3 mi · US Hwy 19
- Drinking waterWater · ~6.3 mi
- FuelExxon · ~3.4 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~12.1 mi
- GroceriesExpress Food Mart · ~3.5 mi
- PharmacyGoodson's Pharmacy · ~3.4 mi
- Hospital / clinicDawson County Health Department · ~3.6 mi
- HardwareDawsonville Hardware · ~3.5 mi
EV charging — from Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5 · Dawson Forest WMA · GA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger13.3 mi straight-line S — Lanier Crossing, Cumming, GA · eVgo Network · CHAdeMO, CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach32 within 25 mi · 194 within 50 · 372 within 100 · 654 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)13.5 mi — Cumming, GA - Tesla Supercharger, Cumming
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)4.1 mi — Autel - Atlanta Motorsports Park - Kart Track, Dawsonville, GA (at a parking lot) · AUTEL · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-11-13 · hours: 9am-8pm daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveDC fast, restricted access — Autel - Atlanta Motorsports Park, Dawsonville, 3.7 mi · CCS · hours: 9am-8pm daily; for visitor use only · AFDC lists it “$0.40 per kWh and $0.50 connection fee”
- 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 228783 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5 · Dawson Forest WMA · GA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomBowmans Island Restroom · ~15.9 mi S · NPS
- Vault / pit toiletWhissenhunt Ohv · ~16.2 mi NE · USFS
- RestroomGA DNR Trout Hatchery Restroom · ~17.1 mi S · NPS
- RestroomGATC Woody Gap Vault Privy · ~22.4 mi NE · NPS
Coming out here — Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5 · Dawson Forest WMA · GA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Shoal Creek as a perennial stream, ~0.2 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 39.9% — 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 is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) — abandoned, lifted and out-of-service track excluded, so a rail-trail does not count as one.
- US Hwy 19 is mapped ~9.3 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- 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 Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5 elsewhere
Other camps near Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #6~0.2 mi
- Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #3~0.2 mi
- Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #10~1.2 mi
- Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #4~1.4 mi
The unit that manages Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5
Primitive Campground #5 is in Dawson Forest WMA, a wildlife management area managed by Georgia DNR Wildlife Resources Division. Stay limits, permits, road closures and fire restrictions are set there, not at the campsite — check before you go. Its page maps every camp in it.
How we know this — Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5
Stay limit
14 nights (not to exceed 14 consecutive days)
Permit
The WMA License is no longer available or required. A basic hunting or fishing privilege that allows hunting or fishing on state lands is all that is needed to be present on designated state WMAs, state PFAs, and state shooting ranges.
Area rules
All camps or fires shall be in designated campgrounds unless otherwise posted at the check station, except that camping is allowed anywhere on National Forest lands unless otherwise indicated or signed. It is unlawful for any person to use any musical instruments, radios, televisions, generators or other noise making devices after 10:00 p.m. daily, in such a manner that such devices may be heard by other WMA visitors.
Source
public land records
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
GA DNR layer values for this point, verbatim: Camping='Primitive', Access='Seasonal', Maintained='No', Management='OTH', Comments=None, Name=None. SEASONAL: GA DNR marks this campground Access="Seasonal", meaning it is NOT open year-round. DNR does not publish the open dates in this layer; check the WMA check station or the property page before publishing. GA DNR marks this campground Maintained="No". Coordinate is Georgia DNR Wildlife Resources Division's own, unrounded, from the agency's public WMA feature service, layer 6 "Campgrounds" (188 points statewide, read 2026-08-16): https://services6.arcgis.com/9QlSLDqa0P1cHLhu/arcgis/rest/services/WRD_WMA_Public/FeatureServer/6 . Not derived, not geocoded, not rounded by us. SECOND SOURCE - the property's own page (https://georgiawildlife.com/dawson-forest-wma, read 2026-08-16) affirms camping: "Camping allowed in designated locations only." / "Campers may only camp in the designated single campsites (marked on the Interactive Map)." / "Permits are required for horse, bicycle and camping use." / "Special rules apply to horse, bicycle, and camping use; rules are posted at trailhead, camping areas and WMA check station." / "Camping on Dawson Forest WMA is only allowed in designated camping areas during the dates below. No other camping is allowed on Dawson Forest WMA." A CAMPING PERMIT IS REQUIRED HERE - GA DNR says so in those words and does not publish the permit terms on the page. GA DNR publishes no street address for this WMA; it is in Dawson County. FEE BASIS: Georgia DNR prints a "Fees & Passes" block on every property page and none of the 135 WMA pages read this fire names a camping fee. State-managed WMAs and PFAs print "Land Access: Hunting License, Fishing License, or Lands Pass" - i.e. a licence or Lands Pass is required to BE on the property at all, camping or not. GA DNR (https://georgiawildlife.com/LicenseChanges, read 2026-08-16): "The WMA License is no longer available or required." / "A basic hunting or fishing privilege that allows hunting or fishing on state lands is all that is needed to be present on designated state WMAs". We found no first-party page printing the Lands Pass price, so no price is claimed here. This is an ABSENCE-OF-CAMPING-FEE finding, not a published "free" statement; fee=0 means "no camping charge", not "free to enter". REVIEWER: decide whether a pass-gated site should be labelled on a free-camping map. STATEWIDE WMA RULE, Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 391-4-2-.61 (Camping Regulations on Wildlife Management Areas), verbatim: "All camps or fires shall be in designated campgrounds unless otherwise posted at the check station, except that camping is allowed anywhere on National Forest lands unless otherwise indicated or signed."; camping limited to "a period of time not to exceed 14 consecutive days; after which the campsite shall be vacated and all personally owned property or physical features of the camp removed for a period of not less than 7 days."; "It is unlawful for any person to use any musical instruments, radios, televisions, generators or other noise making devices after 10:00 p.m. daily, in such a manner that such devices may be heard by other WMA visitors." SOURCING CAVEAT: Georgia's official rules host (rules.sos.ga.gov) renders rule text via JavaScript and returned no body text; its API paths returned 403. This rule text was read at https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/georgia/Ga-Comp-R-Regs-R-391-4-2-.61 (Cornell LII), a REPRODUCTION, NOT a .gov source. Clause (1) is corroborated by GA DNR's own per-property pages. | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.
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
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5
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.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- 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 — Dawson Forest WMA Primitive Campground #5
Fire rules & restrictions →Gear & rig loadout →Off-grid communication →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →