National Parks & Outdoors / PROFILE
Gauley Tailwaters
Open the filtered interactive map →
SELECTED RECORD
Gauley Tailwaters
The National Park Service offers primitive camping at Gauley Tailwaters, located just below Summersville Dam. From Route 19 at Mt. Nebo, take Route 129 west across the dam, then turn left at the river access sign. Bear right through the parking lot to the campsites. There are 18 drive-in sites for tents and RVs. Camp only at designated sites. RV, camper, or car camping in non-designated sites, walk-in sites, or any parking area is strictly prohibited.
Gauley Tailwaters primitive campground is managed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Published campsites
- total Sites
- 18
- group
- 0
- horse
- 0
- tent Only
- 0
- electrical Hookups
- 0
- rv Only
- 0
- walk Boat To
- 0
- other
- 0
Published camping fees
- Gauley Tailwaters Campground
- $0 · The National Park Service offers primitive camping at Gauley Tailwaters, located just below Summersville Dam. From Route 19 at Mt. Nebo, take Route 129 west across the dam, then turn left at the river access sign. Bear right through the parking lot to the campsites. There are 18 drive-in sites for tents and RVs.
Amenities
- trash Recycling Collection
- Yes - year round
- toilets
- Vault Toilets - year round
- internet Connectivity
- No
- showers
- None
- cell Phone Reception
- Yes - year round
- laundry
- No
- amphitheater
- No
- dump Station
- No
- camp Store
- No
- staff Or Volunteer Host Onsite
- No
- potable Water
- No water
- ice Available For Sale
- No
- firewood For Sale
- No
- food Storage Lockers
- No
Accessibility and facilities
- wheelchair Access
- The Gauley Tailwaters campground is a flat campground that is easily accessible. The parking area has some loose gravel. The tent sites are on grass. There is a ramp in front of the restroom for wheelchair accessibility. There are no hook-ups or running water. There is a pit-toilet restroom.
- cell Phone Info
- Cell phone coverage can be spotty.
- fire Stove Policy
- Open fires are allowed where campfire receptacles are provided and must be contained in these designated containers. Campfires are prohibited within 100 feet of any river access area, developed trail head area, top edge or bottom of any cliff, park structure or historic ruin. Use only dead and down wood. Be sure your fire is out and cold before leaving. Do not burn tires or drive nails into trees. The use of chain saws is prohibited.
- rv Allowed
- 1
- rv Info
- The campsites at Gauley Tailwaters campground are close together. The campground can only accommodate small (less than 25 feet in length) RVs and trailers. There are no hook-ups or running water. There is a pit-toilet restroom.
- rv Max Length
- 25
- additional Info
- Camping is allowed throughout the park on federally-owned lands unless otherwise posted. The National Park Service does not own most of the land within the boundaries of the Gauley River National Recreation Area. Be aware of private property and respect the rights of land owners. Unless developed sites are offered, camp sites must be at least 100 feet away from any river access area, developed trail head area, top edge or bottom of any cliff, park structure or historic ruin. The maximum stay is 14 days at the same camping area. There is no camping fee.
- trailer Max Length
- 25
- ada Info
- The Gauley Tailwaters campground is a flat campground that is easily accessible. The parking area has some loose gravel. The tent sites are on grass. There is a ramp in front of the restroom for accessibility. There are no hook-ups or running water. There is a pit-toilet restroom.
- trailer Allowed
- 1
- access Roads
- Paved Roads - All vehicles OK
- classifications
- Designated Primitive Campsites
1 matching records · Campground records| Place / record | Campground records | Context | Explore |
|---|
| Gauley Tailwaters | 1 | The National Park Service offers primitive camping at Gauley Tailwaters, located just below Summersville Dam. From Route 19 at Mt. Nebo, take Route 129 west across the dam, then turn left at the river access sign. Bear right through the parking lot to the campsites. There are 18 drive-in sites for tents and RVs. Camp only at designated sites. RV, camper, or car camping in non-designated sites, walk-in sites, or any parking area is strictly prohibited. | Source record |
|---|
SOURCES & DEFINITIONS
Know what the map counts.
Source: National Park Service API for sites, facilities, campground locations and published fee entries; NPS Public Use Statistics for monthly recreation visits, 1979–2025. Snapshot retrieved 2026-10-03. 474 NPS site records include 62 national-park API records; Sequoia and Kings Canyon share one API record. These record counts are not the official count of individually designated parks. 392 API site records have matched visitation history, including the separately reported Sequoia and Kings Canyon visit totals combined for their shared API record. 665 campgrounds are included.
Complete monthly series reconcile with the source’s annual totals. Published annual totals remain available for years with partial monthly reporting. Four monthly entries contain negative accounting corrections. They remain in the archived data and annual totals, and are unavailable as ordinary monthly visit counts. Blank data is not zero. Recreation visits are visits, not unique people. Month as percent of annual peak = selected month visits ÷ largest monthly count that year × 100, requiring twelve nonnegative monthly values. This helps compare recorded seasonality; it is not a crowding forecast, reservation forecast, or present-condition report.
Activities and amenities reflect published NPS entries, rather than a guarantee of access on a particular day. Fees and pass categories are dated 2026-10-03; official site and reservation links provide current conditions and rules. Campground points are published NPS coordinates. Offshore sites can be viewed on the world extent. Broader public-land agencies are outside this reviewed NPS snapshot.
World outlines: Natural Earth 1:50m map units, public domain. U.S. state outlines: Census via us-atlas. Source licenses apply to their respective inputs and derived data. Download the derived parks snapshot · Source manifest, retrieval dates and SHA-256 hashes.
Archived inputs and attribution (14)
- nps-parks.json · National Park Service · NPS federal data; media rights vary by credit · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 3,921,936 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 29b719dea3c3361c4ef1d7c0f068da09ee366e5335907442453b08db7737072b - nps-campgrounds.json · National Park Service · NPS federal data; media rights vary by credit · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 3,464,748 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 9762634332c69e5ed729fbe4751a163cab534722c07c7e595b857e9a372b75e3 - nps-campgrounds-500.json · National Park Service · NPS federal data; media rights vary by credit · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 967,966 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 4160009fb0ddc173680428bba03b765398deeca9d303a518821967c7db5fea20 - nps-visitation-2025-2025.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 1,071,221 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 878c51940ae94a29c7e47518d2321713e6d48ad9b008408530723745ca5fab5a - nps-visitation-2021-2024.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,209,731 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 508548d54089885eb78af5a81c63856ba289c01ee8f39c2d096267b3cf9ce243 - nps-visitation-1979-1983.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 3,868,488 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 494795b9ffb6da1f00e10614cde87ef8b18aca67e9c504c2196ba0346c21ddd7 - nps-visitation-1984-1988.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,171,732 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: cd6e3b86c83ecc9ab11d123ea8f560f0590446020fe66eea21e272eb8d931eb7 - nps-visitation-1989-1993.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,393,574 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 22960690990cec0c7af0e7a55d87ef7ee3d8a116afd81bf753c821f65e50ad00 - nps-visitation-1994-1998.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,538,236 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: c021fdd6108c9d3e1047b954376cf8e01c4f8abf0f327dfe081596dff7939e48 - nps-visitation-1999-2003.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,704,673 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: da3f808031e6f26e1e36c42cc11403b415e24e67844762ac51f33998d2c1cd5f - nps-visitation-2004-2008.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,844,655 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 373f1d9ae9eff33e2e73b3bfc26d26c6504d2f831fc5b41c5c1e3df7bade6047 - nps-visitation-2009-2013.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,928,350 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 968591a7dd40985cc44fea48568b8a0880953c7b982b328a6c88077d064c12c2 - nps-visitation-2014-2018.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 5,057,268 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 76f1e2173bee73eee3550e4e2e3a987e19d67d4f6841c9c726fa412360a3fb20 - nps-visitation-2019-2020.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 2,028,678 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 661d426529aa1b5771d52e29c90758b943edf883fa8e1f9c53f76851e450e5f1
