Lake Conasauga Campground

20 years ago I cut my backpacking teeth on the Cohutta Wilderness and at one point stumbled onto Lake Consauga. Having fond memories of the lake and the area, I had been trying to get back up to this wonderful place for the past 5 years. For one reason or another it always seemed to through. Well, we finally made it and it's my new favorite campground in Georgia!

So when I asked the ranger about pulling a 27' trailer (ok, so I lied a little bit to him, we actually have a 30' TT) up to the campground he kinda laughed incredulously. I understand why now... While the campground itself can easily fit 30' trailers, the road up to it is a different matter altogether. We were advised to come up from the Ellijay side which is what we did. There is 9.6 miles of gravel road that climbs about 1500 feet and is heavily rutted and bumpy. Needless to say, not ideal for my trailer. With my truck in 4x4 (an absolute necessity) we lumbered up the mountain, having to stop at one point to cool off.

***There is a hairpin turn that requires me to jacknife my trailer (not advisable with a TT), double pumping the truck, to make the turn!!! I am a competent driver and this was far from being safe. I was concerned I would get stuck coming down as my tires were inches from the edge of a drop-off.***

Caveats and warnings stated, this campground is amazing in every respect. Being 20 miles from anywhere gave us the rare solitude that is nearly impossible to find in GA. The campground is comprised of 2 loops, an upper and a lower. Each loop is first-come, first-served. You're not supposed to save sites, though someone did save the last waterfront site for a friend coming the next day which didn't make us happy at all. The lower loop is less private but has the best sites. About 4-5 of them are waterfront and can easily fit trailers. The rest on this loop are all great, though not overly private. Almost all of them have a view of the lake. The upper loop is much more secluded but these have no views and not much in the way of useable yard or play space as they are on hills.

The campground is open from April (dates are variable) thru October 31. It has running water spigots (there were many of them) and flush toilets. Bathrooms relatively clean. Ranger only comes by 4-5x a week during peak times he said. Verizon had zero coverage in the campground but at the turnoff for the campground we had 1-2 bars of LTE.

There is a wonderful, flat trail that goes around the lake that's about 1 1/4 mile long. There is also a 4 mile loop trail to a tower that we didn't have a chance to do. There is a small grassy beach to park the canoes and a swim area with a dock on the other side of the lake. The woods are full of old-growth hemlocks that make it feel like you're in the mountains of CO, which is probably why I liked it so much.

If you have a small rig or are tent camping this needs to be on the very top of your list. FYI, ranger said that it's 20 degrees cooler up here than in Atlanta and that if you want a waterfront site, get there by Wednesday of each week.