Camping at River Creek WMA

I live in Thomasville, Ga. I was looking into camping at River Creek with a friend and the kids. It is a beautiful place.

I called to get information as I am new to using public land. The number I had put me through to the W.R.D. and not the people on site. I was told that the camping was only allowed during hunts.

Was the person I spoke with misinformed or is it common for camping on a WMA to be restricted to two youth quota hunts a year. I am all for supporting youth involvement in outdoor activities but it seems like a massive waste of 2600 acres of beautiful land and what looks to be about 10+ miles of river/creek frontage to not allow the general public to utilize this resource.

If this is in the wrong section, I apologize.

Unless it's changed the gates are only open the day before each scheduled hunt

yea it stays closed unless there is a hunt going on other wmas in the area are open almost all the time

The only camping is at the house at the entrance. And it's only during hunts and most hunts there other than archery are quota only. There are a couple weeks of small game hunts that you could camp there. But to me it's not the ideal camping experience for just getting the kids out. There is a large lake that no one ever gets to fish as well. Lots of wasted opportunity in my opinion out there. You might find some better places to take kids either on state parks in ga or fl where you could make it more of a real out door experience. Or just wait until after hunting season,park at the bridge and hike down the river or use a boat and camp on the river. There are a couple places people do that from the ramp on 19 as well.

Try silver lake

Thanks guys. I cannot believe that such a large amount of money is put into public land that isn't really open to the public.

On all WMA land, you can only camp in designated camp areas. In areas where WMA land overlaps National Forest land, that may be different, and National Forest rules may apply.

GoneShootn said:

On all WMA land, you can only camp in designated camp areas. In areas where WMA land overlaps National Forest land, that may be different, and National Forest rules may apply.

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Some WMAs outside of NF land do not have designated camping areas, but they do allow you to camp pretty much anywhere except food plots or other areas posted as no camping. Paulding Forest and Pine Log are 2 nearby that allow camping throughout the WMA.