★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Rhea County
Drive-up · public land · Rhea County, TN · 35.66219, -84.84517
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 — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
Nice flat spot with fire ring on shore of lake. This is a popular area for locals to hangout, fish, and party. Some other van dwellers. Not very private, and potentially noisy, but a great place to set up camp for a night or two if passing through the area. Good cell service, and enough room for multiple vehicles. Recommended due to convenience.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 17 March 2018. 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 Rhea County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 743 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Rhea 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 Rhea County · public land · TN
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- GGrocery1 mi
- FFuel1 mi
- MMechanic2 mi
- LLaundry2 mi
- DDump2 mi
- RxPharmacy2 mi
- HHardware2 mi
- @Mail2 mi
- +Urgent care10 mi
- EVEV fast charger15 mi
- ShShower18 mi
- OOutfitter23 mi
- WWater30 mi
- PPropane33 mi
- AAir-up40 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 30-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 1 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 — Rhea County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
743 ft
Ground slope
6.3% · gentle
Nearest rail line
~1.3 mi · industrial lead
County
Rhea County, TN
Coordinates
35.66219, -84.84517
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Rhea County · public land · TN (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureWatts Bar Lake · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townSpring · ~2.0 mi
- Nearest rail line~1.3 mi · industrial lead
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelSunoco · ~1.3 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~2.2 mi
- GroceriesJ & L Market · ~1.2 mi
- PharmacySpring City Pharmacy · ~2.3 mi
- Hospital / clinicHospital · ~10.3 mi
- HardwareGalloway's Sign Shop · ~2.3 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
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Rhea County · public land · TN — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger15.1 mi straight-line SW — ELECTRIC DEPT. STATION 2 (R), Dayton, TN · ChargePoint Network · CHAdeMO, CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach15 within 25 mi · 38 within 50 · 145 within 100 · 571 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)15.1 mi — ELECTRIC DEPT. STATION 1 (L), Dayton
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)17.3 mi — Comfort Inn (Athens) - Tesla Destination (at a hotel) · Tesla Destination · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-08-27 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles.
- 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 389489 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Rhea County · public land · TN — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaNHS Parking Area, No Facilities · ~16.8 mi N
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 17 · ~18.3 mi SE
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 18 · ~18.5 mi SE
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 11 · ~18.8 mi N
Coming out here — Rhea County · public land · TN
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Watts Bar 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 6.3% — gentle. 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.
- Rail line mapped ~1.3 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as an industrial lead. No track the atlas classes as a main line is mapped within 10 mi. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). That file holds the divided, limited-access highways only — a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not be in it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- 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 Rhea County elsewhere
How we know this — Rhea 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 (Rhea 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 17 March 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Rhea 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 — Rhea County
Water on public land →Stay limits →Your first dispersed night →Reading your camp page →All field notes →