Camping in Black Rock Mountain State Park: Georgia’s Highest Park

A peaceful and unplugged campground where everyone is welcome!  This is camping in Black Rock Mountain State Park in a nutshell.

There are cottages for glampers, backcountry sites for those rough-it kinds of people, walk-in tent sites and the run-of-the-mill campsites for tents/campers/RVs too.  

So whether you are looking for a cottage with a view, a place for your tent, or your 40 foot fifth wheel, you are welcome here!

Important Links: 

Black Rock Mountain State Park website

Black Rock Mountain Camping – Reserve Camping Here!

State Park Map

Camping Checklist Freebie 

Hiking in Black Rock Mountain State Park Post

Location

Located in Rabun county, 3 hours east of Chattanooga, TN, 2 hours northeast of Atlanta, GA, and 4 hours west of Charlotte, NC, Black Rock Mountain State Park is nestled into the northeast corner of Georgia.  

This quiet and isolated mountain park boasts the highest altitude of any Georgia State Park.  With several stunning overlooks, this park is worth a quick stop if nothing else.  However, I highly recommend hiking in Black Rock Mountain State Park if you have the time. 

To get here, simply type “Black Rock Mountain State Park” into your preferred maps app (Apple, Google, Waze) and follow that blue line.

Anyway, now that you know where the park is, let’s take a look at how much time we recommend here.  

Time To Spend Here:

My husband and I stayed here for a weekend.  We arrived early in the evening of a Friday in June and stayed until Sunday.  We hiked several of the trails in the park on Saturday and then hiked a nearby trail on Sunday before calling it a day and heading home.

If you plan to hike here, I would say at least a weekend is necessary.  There are 11 miles worth of trails in Black Rock Mountain State Park and you can either hike all of them or some of them. For a more in-depth post on hiking in Black Rock Mountain State Park, check out my post here!

If you just plan to stop and see the views, this park can be enjoyed at the overlooks within a few hours.  The Cowee Overlook is located near the trading post and the Black Rock Overlook is located near the visitor’s center.  

But if you are looking for a getaway with little to no cell phone service, then the sky’s the limit for staying in this peaceful campground.  Just like any state park there is a limit of 2 weeks that you can stay here, so be aware of that.   

So it truly depends on your goal when staying here.  But for reference, here was our itinerary!

Our Itinerary

Friday: Arrived to Black Rock Mountain State Park by 7pm and set up camp at our reserved site.

Saturday:  Started our day early by hiking the ADA Hi Falls Trail straight from our campsite.  Then we hiked the Tennessee Rock Trail before driving to Black Rock Lake and hiking the trail that goes around the lake.  We also stopped at the Visitor’s Center and enjoyed the views from this overlook.

Sunday: We packed up camp, stopped and looked at the morning clouds from the Cowee Overlook, and headed over to the trailhead for Rabun Bald.  This 3.4 mile trail has an overlook tower where layers and layers of blue mountains can be seen.  Finally we hiked back to the truck and headed home.

Now, you can copy our itinerary or choose to create your own.  We didn’t do the backcountry trail, so you could add that.  Or you could simply stop to enjoy the views at the overlooks and keep rolling through.  

Hopefully our itinerary helps you decide!

Campground:

When it comes to Camping in Black Rock Mountain State Park, there are several options.  You have Walk-in Tent sites, Tent/RV/Camper sites, Backcountry sites and for the glampers, there are Cottages.  

Total there are 44 Tent/Camper/RV sites, 12 Walk-In Tent sites, 4 Backcountry sites, and 10 Cottages in a separate area of the park.  So whatever fits your form of camping, there are options!  Just make sure you book sooner rather than later.  Like most popular state parks, there were no openings on the weekend that we camped here.

One final word about this campground (and all campgrounds for that matter!).  Be sure to read the description of the site before you book.  Some are listed with a limit of a 20 foot camper while others can accommodate up to a 50 foot camper.  

In my experience, Georgia State Parks are great at listing all the details of the campsite, but only after you click on them.  So before you bust out those credit card numbers, make sure you read every line so you aren’t caught in a difficult spot when you get there.  

Details:

• 44 tent/camper/RV sites
• 10 cottages
• 12 walk-in tent sites
• 4 backcountry campsites
• Playground
• 3 bath houses with showers

Walk-In Tent Sites (Dogs welcome)

If you are unfamiliar with walk-in campsites, essentially they provide a parking area for your specific site and the distance from your tent pad can vary between a 75 foot walk and a 600 foot walk (as described on the website).  

While these sites are cheaper, if you have a lot of gear, I don’t recommend this as you will have to carry all of your gear to the site.  We keep a lot of our gear in plastic bins to keep it organized but it wouldn’t be very fun to have to carry those bins down a trail.  

I will admit that we have made this mistake before and booked a walk-in site before without realizing how far of a walk it was.  We quickly realized we didn’t need as many things as we thought and some things stayed in the car all weekend.  Don’t make our mistake!

Fortunately, this walk-in section does have a bath house with showers, so you aren’t going to be COMPLETELY roughing it.  

Backcountry Sites (Dogs welcome)

Speaking of roughing it, you also have the option to book a backcountry site.  

Now, these sites are not in a loop, but instead all spaced out around the 7.5 mile James E. Edmond Backcountry Trail.  2 of these sites are listed as requiring a moderate hike to reach the site, while the remaining 2 require a strenuous hike to reach them.

There is no bathroom nearby, so bring your TP and don’t forget, you are in bear country so be cautious about your food.  

While this isn’t my cup of tea, if you are looking for something a little more wild in your camping adventure, go for it!  They just require that you be at the site 2 hours before dark so you aren’t hiking in the dark and trying to set up in the pitch black of night.  

But if you are like me and prefer to have access to a bathhouse, to be able to park your car on your site and to be near some people, let me tell you about what we booked.  

Tent/Camper/RV Sites

This is the type of campsite we booked.  We stayed at site 23 which easily accommodated our truck, our tent, our gear and of course the provided fire ring and picnic table.  

All the sites on this loop can accommodate tents, campers, or RVs.  But be sure to read the description of how big of a rig the site you are looking at can take.  They have several options on the website.  

Sites for 20 foot campers/RVs.  Sites for 30 foot campers/RVs.  So on and so forth with 40 foot sites and all the way up to 50 foot sites.  There is a filter on the reservation site, so you can easily enter what type of equipment  you have and then determine which sites would be a good fit for you.  Just remember, the larger your rig, the fewer options you have.  In other words, book sooner rather than later. 

All sites have full water hookup and electric hookup, so that’s a nice bonus!  

Cottages

And finally we come to the nicest accommodations in Black Rock Mountain State Park, the cottages.

It’s important to note that there are only 10 cottages, so I would imagine that they book up pretty quickly, especially in the summer months when people tend to go on vacation.

But it is also important to say that only 3 of these cabins are dog friendly.  So if you plan on bringing Fido to go camping in Black Rock Mountain State Park, book as soon as possible.  Like seriously, don’t put it off.  3 cottages is not many to choose from.

Other notes about the cottages include 2 cottages have 3 bedrooms and the remaining 8 cottages are 2 bedroom options.  Of those 10, 2 cottages are ADA compliant, 1 that is a 3-bedroom cottage and 1 that is a 2-bedroom cottage.

You can see a sample taken from the booking website of what they look like above.  While they don’t seem to be luxury stays, they are much better than sleeping on the ground.  Unless you are pinching pennies, than a cottage might not be your smartest decision.  Let’s look at the money!

Price Comparison

• 1 Walk-in site is $20 per night, or $140 per week
• 1 Backcountry site is $25 per night, or $175 per week
• 1 Tent/Camper/RV site is $36 per night, or $252 per week
• 2 Bedroom Cottage is $225 per night, or $1,575 per week
• 3 Bedroom Cottage is $255 per night, or $1,785 per week

Depending on your budget, there is something for everyone.  We chose the $36 per night option as this was closer to the bathhouse, but the walk-in campsites would have been cheaper, had they been available.  

Which leads me to how do you book a cabin or a campsite?

Here is the link for campsite reservations and Here is the link for cottage reservations.  

Now, we camped here for a weekend in the end of June, and here are our thoughts on the campground.

Our Experience:

We camped at site 23 and enjoyed the peace and quiet of this campground.  There was little to no cell service and honestly we kind of prefer it that way.  For keeping up with the weather or checking the area for a store or gas, it can be a little annoying but besides that, we sit and talk to each other or read.  It’s quite relaxing.

Our site was just a 2 minute walk to the bathrooms and showers.  If you know me, you know that a shower is a must for me after a long day of hiking.  It’s hot in the summer, I sweat a lot and I don’t want to go to bed all grimy.  

The lack of cell service allowed us to have an unplugged and peaceful weekend together that we quite enjoyed.  If you don’t enjoy a service-less campsite, this place might not be for you.  

We also enjoyed how close some of the trails were to our site.  Whether we walked to the trailhead (like the ADA Hi Trail) or we drove to the trailhead (like the Black Rock Lake Trail), nothing was more than 10 minutes away.  10 minutes of walking or 10 minutes of driving.  

The overlooks were also gorgeous at this campground.  Whether it was the Cowee Overlook right near the trading post, or the Black Rock Mountain Overlook at the Visitor’s Center, we enjoyed the beauty of the highest state park in Georgia.  The layers and layers of blue mountains can be seen for miles in all directions.

We also enjoyed how close we were to other trails in the area.  We hiked a trail to Rabun Bald on Sunday before leaving.  A mere 20 minute drive from the campground and we enjoyed the views there as well.  

Overall, we would recommend this campground to anyone who is looking for easy access to trails and a quiet weekend away in the woods.   

Conclusion

Camping in Black Rock Mountain State Park can be done in a tent, a cottage, a camper or even an RV.  The peaceful campground and proximity to great hiking made this an awesome location you won’t want to miss.

In the market for a great camping location where you can get away from all the hustle and bustle and even away from your cell phones?  Black Rock Mountain State Park sounds like the place for you!

If you still have questions or if you have a comment, I would love to hear from you!  You can comment here or email me at [email protected]

Happy Camping!