Best Campgrounds near Dalton, GA

The Tiny House is one of several rental options on this property. (Others include a huge glamping tent and a farmhouse). This review focuses on the tiny house where we stayed for two nights but I have included a few photos of the glamping tent, which was not open when we were there (opens in April). 

A lot is packed into a small space with so many creative touches. There is a full-size loft bed and a pull-out couch so while you could sleep four people, it would be a bit crowded inside. There is also a screened-in porch with two swing seats, and a table so you could eat outside. 

Lyn (the owner)’s hospitality is second to none. The tiny house is stocked with a microwave, toaster oven, electric kettle, Keurig, and an induction burner plus dishes, flatware, and just about everything else you would expect in a fully stocked kitchen. There is also a table grill that can be set up on the table on the screened porch. There is a great selection of tea and hot chocolate plus pancake mix, and syrup. 

There is a full bath with a flush toilet, sink, and shower with fluffy towels. 

There is a fire pit available to use. 

This would make a wonderful couples retreat, a mother-daughter getaway, or a place for solo reflection. Chattanooga is located just 25 minutes away and there is a fully stocked gourmet grocery store just down the road.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. Go to the website for more information on this and other options at this property.

We really enjoyed our night tent camping here. There is a parking lot right off the road after a fun ~30 minute drive through residential roads right on the water, then sites with fire pits are scattered throughout a small clearing. Plety of firewood to collect on site. There was another group of campers at a spot fairly close to us making some noise, but not too late into the night. With respectful campers nearby, this is a great spot to spend a relaxing night.

Has a bathroom, picnic tables, fire ring and grill. No water this time of year but the lake can be accessed at the nearby boat ramp. Beautiful lake and forest. Have the place to myself for the most part at this time of year. Often in the 30s at night but nice in daytime

If you like primitive camping versus all that campground nonsense this is a great area. Bring everything as there’s nothing around to purchase stuff, you’re literally out in the forest. There’s maybe 10 ish spots along the river, first come first serve. The Appalachian Trail is very close by for some good hiking. The dirt roads to get there are somewhat rough. It’s much easier on your vehicle if you come from the west. Luv sleeping with the sound of the river and hanging out in a hammock! Enjoy

Red Top Mountain State Park is an incredible spot for a camping getaway. I love campgrounds that offer both nature and comfort, good hiking trails, a peaceful lake, and hot showers are definitely a win. The fact that they have rental cottages and yurts makes it a great choice for people who want a more relaxed camping experience too. The only thing I’d be cautious about is those narrow roads, but once you're set up, it seems totally worth it. If anyone needs to sort out travel plans to get there, you can always call Avianca customer service for flights.

This is a beautiful WMA area with tons of offshoots along a service road for camping, but please note, 99% of areas are closed between December and March. Had to turn around and find somewhere else to camp for the night./:

Loved this park. Everyone was very friendly. Lots of Intermediate to strenuous level hiking.

This isnt for backpackers but for camping with your family, its good. They have water and outlets and very very clean bathrooms. Like cleaner than a Publix bathroom. Kid friendly.

We have a 27' airstream and there are a couple campsites that are hard to get into. Number 18 does not look hard, but the layout is very difficult to get into. The bend halfway into the campground would be extremely difficult with much bigger than 27' camper. This is a great campground though. It was January and basically had the place to ourselves.

The park is nice with plenty of amenities. I had two complaints. We stayed creekside at site 24. The site had about a 5 inch difference shopping towards the road. I used rocker blocks maxed out (about 4 inches in height) and still was not level. Secondly with the site, there is a telephone pole that is a bit too close on the exit side. Singing out as far as I could, i barely missed sideswiping my camper when pulling out. The online pictures looked like it was a fairly private spot, but no. Just out of frame was the campground host site who happened to be flying a very offensive flag. I decided to avoid her. Lastly, gravel from most of the sites was washed out into the road. That could, and should have been cleaned up.

As our Brinkley G3500 is 13’ 8” high, we routed to miss a 13’ 7” bridge on a small portion of US-76 just off of US-411. Instead of taking the left turn onto US-76, we stayed on US-411 down to GA-136. We had followed the RV Life navigation, which routed us this way to avoid the low bridge. We were the first official check in for the Brinkley rally arriving around noon. We checked in and were escorted to pull through site H-48 with FHUs in the bottom Hawk level of this large campground (CG). The pull throughs in this part of the CG were plenty long enough for our 40’ toy hauler and F450 to include being able to put the patio down. The utilities are at the middle of the pad so you can adjust according to your needs. The water pressure was good at around 50 psi. From talking to other campers in this area, some had lower water pressure and took their regulators off. There are not a lot of mature trees so satellite was not a problem. We got 4 bars on Verizon and the CG WiFi was above average for a park of this size. We were near their nice sized dog park that has separate areas for large and small dogs. Their Welcome Center with a gift shop is very nice and they have super friendly customer service. There are a lot of amenities here such as pool(soon to be a second pool for kids), pickleball, propane, laundry, and curbside trash pickup. The owners of Talona Ridge continue to take inputs from RVers on how to improve the CG. There’s a plan to expand RV sites across the street primarily for smaller rigs. This was our second rally at this location and we would definitely come back for another rally or on our own.

Stayed at an RV/tent site (they’re one in the same and all have plug ins and water). Nice bathhouse with full private bathrooms that include a toilet, sink, and shower. There are about 6 I think. Walkable to a lot of hiking.

Red Top Mountain State Park is beautiful and Lake Allatoona is large.  Campsite 50 is a premium tent only walk-in site (a few dollars more).  It sits on a point that sticks out in the lake.  There is no shade or tree cover, so it's not "private".  There are 3 other sites near by on the walk-in area and there are no boundaries or barriers between so your neighbors are in full view.  There is no electric near the tent pad, the electric pole is 150+ feet away near the parking area.  You probably could run 175 feet of electric extension cord... but it would have to run past the three other sites... so don't plan for electric.  There is water right by the pad with a ton of pressure.  The tent pad was large but extremely hard to drive tent stakes into... smaller stakes worked better.  The bathhouse was an uphill hike probably 300 ft away but was modern and clean with hot showers and good water pressure.  The park is clean and scenic.  The staff is very courteous, friendly and helpful.  There are plenty of opportunities to hike, fish and boat.

This park is about 30-40 minutes outside of Atlanta right off of I-75.  If you are in a tent... you will hear I-75 traffic all night so keep in mind, that while it looks like country, you are not deep in nature... the drone of the highway will remind you.  There is a train that blows its whistle that will wake you up 3 times each night and also remind you that you are not deep in the woods.  The winding roads through the park outside the campground also seemed to be very popular with motorcyclists who like loud pipes.

The name Red Top Mountain is derived from the red soil in the area that was popular for the mining of abundant iron ore.  But don't look for "mountains" here... you have to travel further north for more dramatic elevation.  

Overall, a nice park, pretty scenery but not as secluded, quiet and relaxing as expected for tent camping.

We tent camped on Spot 27. Nice back in RV spot with water and electric. Bathhouse is close by. Gray water dump is across the road. Originally we booked Spot 60. That’s a pull through with little room for a tent. No cell service but that’s okay as we disconnected for a while. You can get service at the top of the park. Clean bathrooms with hot showers. Trails are nicely blazed with colors that match trail map. Georgia apple farms are a short, 20-30 minutes away.

The campground is very clean and like new. We used our pop up and the site we used was very level.
Excellent hiking and views of the canyon.

I slept really well last night here, and the camp host and guests were just great. Heated bathhouse with warm shower was definitely a highlight on a chilly morning!

Only downside in my mind was that I booked a tent site, only to find that the tent sites are down the hill from all the other sites, so if you book them you will have to haul your stuff down to the lake. It did sound like the night-time fishing would be awesome though!

I had a wonderful time at backcountry site #4 this past Sunday - Monday. The hike to the site is downhill from the stone wall parking lot, so it was pretty easy to get to at only 1 mile. The site is private and pretty large. There were plenty of trees for hammocks and a few flat spots for small tents. A small creek flows through the site for easy water access (but I was told that it doesn’t flow all year).
The best part of site #4 is that it’s about 0.2 miles from a beautiful west facing overlook where I enjoyed the sunset. I can’t recommend this site every .

Bob has a wonderfully serene campground for both RV’s and tent camping. I invite everybody looking for a quiet place on Mentone to visit 1776 RV.