Desoto Falls Recreation Area

Two waterfalls within a short distance from the campground. The campground was quiet except for traffic on the nearby road. Loop A has a shower.

DeSoto is a great location to just be away. There is some civilization within 10 min or so (restaurant, convenience store etc) but it's a quiet place to relax. The campground has no power so it's very dark at night....the place rolls up at 10pm on weekends, earlier during the week. There are a few spots to get water - at the main bath house and some other spots spaced around the property. Main bath house has running water and hot showers (no lights so be prepared at night). The upper loop has pit toilets that seemed well kept.
The property is close to the highway and it's a switchback road so there is alot of 'curve traffic'.....motorcycles flying by, sports cars taking the turns at speed and jake braking trucks. Most of this is during the day and it fades to the background, but you can hear it at night so be prepared with some earplugs.
My biggest gripe is due to the age of the facility, the tent pads are extremely small and large modern tents just won't fit. This is workable on some sites as the pads are even with the surrounding ground and you can just run your tent over, but many of the pads are raised above ground level and it's impossible to put a large tent on them without wasting part of your tent...and it's not always possible to put your tent elsewhere due to uneven ground. Would be great if the pads were extended to fit the size of most tents people have now.

The falls are not spectacular, but definitely worth the hike just to get further away from it all. Hiking the upper and lower fall trails is approx 2 mi total and is a fairly easy hike. There are some stairs, but I wouldn't consider it strenuous.

We camped at site 15B. Spacious campsite right by the creek. Even though we had neighbors, it didn’t feel overrun like a can of sardines like some public campgrounds. Road noise is the only real issue but not that bad especially by the creek (my little one kept thinking the trucks were bears growling lol). There’s only a pair of pit toilets on the lower side of the loop, but the stalls were clean. The trail was the perfect distance for little ones and the falls very beautiful. Definitely little to no service here and the tree canopy was too dense for satellite connection. A good thing… we were there to disconnect a bit and definitely enjoyed it, will be back.

Nice hot showers but the road noise is insane. We were in campsite 5 right next to the road and cars ran around those curves loudly at all hours. If you camp here, try to get the side opposite campsite 5, furthest from the road. Two nice easy and short trails to waterfalls - best after a rain.

Enjoyed the stay

The site was clean and was walkable with super easy access to the DeSoto Falls trails. We didn't realize there was not a check-in station at the site and neither of us had cell coverage which made it difficult to retrieve our reserved site number. The biggest problem is the CONSTANT and extremely loud vehicle sounds racing up and down the mountain road beginning by 8am and persisting throughout the entire day until dusk. It is clearly a popular place where motorcycles and cars with aftermarket mufflers race. So if you want to go to the North Georgia mountains to get away and relax in peace and quiet of nature...go somewhere else.

I have camped there a few times. We were on the water site #18. Great site. Sunday there was a lot of motorcycles on the road making a lot of noise but it got better after dark. Was much better during the week. Would definitely stay there again.

The campsite was nice and clean. One MAJOR thing that I did not think to consider with Desoto Falls Recreation Area is it's right next to a 3 lane road. Every car and motorcycle enthusiast were out having a great time on the winding road. As a result it was like camping next to a race track until the sun went down. Also, 2 different campers managed to set off their car alarms at 4am - that was a neat feature. Not the serenity I was looking for, but the kids still enjoyed it.

I’ve been camping here over the last 65 years. It’s regrettable how run down this campground is. Horrible bathrooms, everything is in need of maintenance and repair. Shameful!

Campsite 2 was great - short walk to restrooms and trailhead. The noise from the nearby highway was constant - sounds of motorcycles and other vehicles with loud exhausts rang out all day and well past midnight.