Things to Do
Lake Blue Ridge is deep, cold and mostly ringed by national forest. Boat ramps, the winter drawdown, where to swim and what the water is actually like.
UnsplashLook at Lake Blue Ridge from a boat in the middle and count the houses. On most stretches the answer is none. The shoreline is trees to the waterline, cove after cove of them, and the reason is jurisdictional rather than aesthetic: most of the land around this reservoir belongs to the Chattahoochee National Forest and was never available to subdivide. Anyone who has spent a weekend on Lanier or Allatoona will notice the difference within about ninety seconds.
The lake exists because a private power company dammed the Toccoa River. Construction on Blue Ridge Dam started in 1925, the Toccoa Electric Power Company brought it into service on 1 July 1931, and the whole enterprise passed to the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1939 after the Supreme Court upheld the act that created it. The dam stands 167 feet tall and turns out 22 megawatts, which is small as hydro schemes go. What it made is about 3,300 acres of water with something like sixty miles of shoreline, held at roughly 1,686 feet above sea level in summer.
The water is the second surprise. This is a deep, cold, clear mountain reservoir, 246 feet at its deepest and averaging around a hundred, which is a different animal from the warm shallow lakes further south. It stays cool well into June, the thermocline sets up hard in summer, and the clarity is better than most Georgia water. It also means there is no gently shelving beach in most places. The bank goes down.
The third thing to know is the one that ruins winter plans. TVA does not run this as a scenic amenity, it runs it as part of a river system, and the lake is drawn down through the colder months and refilled in spring. A cove that had eight feet of water over it in July can be mud and stumps in February, ramps can end well short of the waterline, and the marina's season reflects that. If you have booked a cabin with a lake view for January, the view may include a good deal of exposed bank.
None of which is a complaint. A quiet, deep, forest-ringed lake half an hour from a cabin with a hot tub is an unusually good thing, and the emptiness is the point. The rest of this page is about getting onto it, where the few public access points are, and what the water does through the year.
UnsplashWhen the Tennessee Valley Authority took the dam over, the land around the reservoir was largely already in federal hands or went that way, and the Chattahoochee National Forest now wraps most of the lake. National forest land does not get sold to developers, so the wall of docks that defines the big reservoirs closer to Atlanta never appeared here.
The upside is obvious from the water. Long stretches with nothing on them, coves you can have to yourself on a weekday, and a horizon of ridges rather than rooflines.
The cost is access. Private lakefront means private ramps, and a lake with very little private lakefront has very few places to put a boat in. Public ramps here are counted in single figures, they concentrate around Morganton Point and the marina end, and on a Saturday morning in July the queue at a ramp is the real bottleneck on your day. There is also far less rental inventory than a lake this pretty would suggest, and what exists books out in advance for summer weekends and for October.
Plan accordingly. Launch early, or take a pontoon that somebody else keeps in the water, or accept that the best day on this lake is a Tuesday.
When to go
This is a working reservoir on a river system managed for power and for flood storage. The pattern that follows from that is seasonal and predictable in shape even if the exact numbers move year to year: the lake is held near full through the warm months, lowered through the autumn and winter, then refilled in spring.
What that means in practice.
May to early September. Full pool, everything in the water, ramps usable, marina busy, water warm enough on the surface to swim in from about June.
Late September to November. Still lovely, still boatable, and beginning to come down. This is the prettiest the lake ever looks, because the surrounding forest turns and the water is low enough to expose a pale rim of shoreline that reads as a beach in photographs.
December to March. Low. Ramps may end above the waterline, shallow coves become mudflats with stumps in them, and the marina's operations contract. A lake-view cabin in February looks out at a bathtub ring. The walking around the lake is excellent in this season and the boating is not.
April. Refilling, rising week to week, and genuinely unpredictable. Check before you tow a boat up here.
The lake level is published, and it is worth thirty seconds of looking before a winter or early-spring trip that depends on getting a boat in.
Morganton Point. The Forest Service recreation area at Morganton, on the north-eastern arm of the lake, is the closest thing here to a public lakefront park: campground, a swimming area with a roped-off shallow, picnic ground and a ramp. It is where most families without a boat end up, and it is seasonal. This is the sensible answer to the question of where to swim.
Blue Ridge Lake Marina. The lake's marina end handles slips, fuel, and what pontoon hire exists. It operates on a season rather than year-round, and rates and hours move with it, so ring rather than assume. If you want a boat for a Saturday in July or a weekend in October, book weeks out. This is a small lake with a small fleet.
Public ramps. There are a handful, they are not evenly spread around the lake, and they get busy. Arrive before nine on a summer weekend and rig in the car park rather than on the ramp, because the etiquette here is closely observed and the queue has opinions.
What the lake is good for. Pontoon drifting, swimming off a boat in deep water, kayaking and paddleboarding in the coves on a still morning, and fishing. It is a poor lake for anyone who wants a wide-open playground for towed sports, because it is narrow, winding and busy in the middle on a summer afternoon. The coves are the reason to be here.
Lake Blue Ridge has a reputation among Georgia anglers out of proportion to its size, and it rests on two fish that are unusual this far south: smallmouth bass and walleye. Both like the cold, deep, rocky water that the Toccoa valley produced when it was flooded, and both are the reason people tow boats up here from far away in spring.
The lake also carries largemouth, spotted bass, various panfish and, in the cooler months, trout that come down the river system. Georgia's Wildlife Resources Division publishes an annual forecast for the lake, which is a better guide to what is happening this year than anything written once and left up.
The practical notes are these. Spring, as the water warms and the fish move shallow, is the season everyone wants. Summer means fishing deep and early, because the surface is busy with boats from ten onwards. Autumn fishes well and the lake is quiet again once the holiday traffic thins during the week. Anyone sixteen or over needs a Georgia fishing licence, and if you are targeting trout you need a trout licence as well.
A local guide is worth the money on a lake like this, not because the fishing is difficult but because the structure is invisible. The old river channel, the drowned timber and the creek mouths are the whole game, and you cannot see any of it from the surface.
Local tips
Before you book
The surface warms up nicely by late June and stays pleasant into September. Two feet down it is a different story, and thirty feet down it is cold all year. That layering is the thing to respect on a deep mountain reservoir, because the shock of dropping through it catches people out.
Practical consequences for a cabin week.
There is no lifeguarded swimming on this lake except, in season, at the designated area at Morganton Point. Everywhere else you are swimming off a bank or off a boat at your own risk.
Most of the shoreline shelves steeply. There is rarely a long sandy wade-in. Somebody who is not a confident swimmer goes from waist-deep to out of their depth in a couple of steps, and that transition is where the trouble happens.
Wear a life jacket when you swim off a boat in open water, not just when you are under way. Georgia requires wearable flotation aboard for every person and requires children under thirteen to wear one while a boat is moving, and the sensible version goes further than the legal minimum out here.
Watch for submerged timber, particularly in the upper arms and on a drawn-down lake. This valley was forested before it was flooded and not all of it was cleared.
And do not swim near the dam or in the tailrace below it. Water is released without warning when the turbines run.
On the ground
Every place below has its own page — hours, parking, what it costs and what to expect when you get there.
Thirty-three hundred acres of cold green water with national forest around most of it, and a level that TVA moves by dozens of feet a year.
1.5–8 hoursFree to look at and to fish from public land. Recreation areas and ramps may charge.
Photograph: Thomson200
Around 106,000 acres of public land in Fannin County alone, almost none of it signposted, gated or supervised in the way visitors expect.
2–8 hoursFree to enter. Developed campgrounds and some day-use areas charge a fee.
Photograph: USFWS
A ridge of Forest Service singletrack wedged between the lake and the river, and the closest real hiking to most Blue Ridge cabins.
1.5–6 hoursFree. No permit, no parking fee, no facilities.
Photograph: Unsplash
The public way onto Lake Blue Ridge: a small sand beach, 42 forest campsites and a ramp, in a village that used to run the county.
2–5 hoursDay-use parking fee per vehicle; camping charged per night.
Photograph: Thomson200
The lake's main rental and fuel point, sitting near the dam on a reservoir whose level TVA changes by dozens of feet a year.
2–8 hoursBoat rental, fuel and slips are charged. Looking at the lake is free.
Photograph: Thomson200
A 167-foot earth dam from 1931 that made the lake, chilled the river below it and set the rhythm of the whole county.
0.5–1 hoursFree. No visitor centre, no tours and no facilities at the dam.
Photograph: Chief Mass Communication Specialist Scott Curtis, U.S. Navy
Straight answers
About 3,300 acres, with something in the region of sixty miles of shoreline depending on which measurement you read. It is small by Georgia reservoir standards and deep by any standard: 246 feet at its deepest point and averaging around a hundred. Full summer pool sits at roughly 1,686 feet above sea level. Most of the surrounding land is Chattahoochee National Forest, which is why the shoreline has so few buildings on it.
Yes, and the water is clear and clean. The designated swimming area at Morganton Point Recreation Area is the obvious choice for families, with a roped shallow and facilities in season. Everywhere else you are swimming off a bank or a boat with no supervision, and the bank shelves steeply in most places. The surface is comfortable from about late June through September; below the first couple of feet it stays cold all year.
Because TVA manages it as part of a river system rather than as a scenic lake. It is held near full pool through the summer, drawn down through autumn and winter, and refilled in spring. In February a lake-view cabin looks out at exposed bank, shallow coves become mud, and some ramps end above the water. If your trip depends on launching a boat between December and April, check the published lake level first.
The marina at the lake handles most of what hire exists, and some cabin rental companies arrange boats for guests. The fleet is small, the season is warm-weather, and summer weekends and October dates go weeks in advance, so book before you arrive rather than after. Rates move with the season and with the length of hire, so ask for a current quote rather than trusting anything published in advance.
Only a handful, which is the direct consequence of having almost no private lakefront. Morganton Point and the marina end carry most of the traffic. On a summer Saturday the ramp queue is the slowest part of the day, so launch before nine, rig your boat in the car park rather than on the ramp, and have a plan for where you are parking the trailer.
It is best known for smallmouth bass and walleye, both unusual this far south and both suited to cold, deep, rocky water. Largemouth, spotted bass and panfish are there too, and trout move through from the river system in cooler months. Anyone sixteen or over needs a Georgia fishing licence, plus a trout licence for trout. The state publishes an annual forecast for the lake that is worth reading before a trip.
Yes. It was created by damming the Toccoa River. Construction began in 1925 under a private power company, the dam went into service on 1 July 1931, and the Tennessee Valley Authority took it over in 1939. The dam is 167 feet tall with a 22-megawatt generating capacity. The valley that flooded was forested, which is why submerged timber still shows up in the upper arms when the lake is drawn down.
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