Georgia has 1 designated Wild and Scenic River protecting 50.7 miles across 9 segments of the Chattooga River in the northeastern corner of the state, where it forms the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina through the Chattahoochee and Sumter National Forests. The Chattooga is one of the most storied whitewater rivers in the eastern United States — a steeply dropping granite-bedded stream with a continuous Wild designation through its most powerful sections. The US Forest Service administers all 9 segments across 7 Georgia counties. Click any segment on the map for classification and mileage details.

Wild and Scenic Rivers in Georgia at a Glance

The Chattooga Wild and Scenic River was designated in 1974, making it one of the earlier eastern additions to the federal system. The river rises in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and drops steeply through the Chattooga River Gorge before reaching Lake Tugaloo on the Georgia-South Carolina state line, forming a natural interstate boundary managed jointly by the Chattahoochee National Forest (Georgia side) and the Sumter National Forest (South Carolina side). With 39.6 miles classified as Wild on the Georgia side alone, the Chattooga holds more Wild-designated mileage than most entire state systems. The river became nationally recognized through the 1972 film Deliverance, shot on location along its upper reaches, though paddlers and anglers have long prized it for genuine reasons: a near-continuous Class III–V gradient, clean water from a roadless upper watershed, and a native rainbow and brown trout fishery in the upper sections.

Classification Breakdown

The Wild classification dominates Georgia’s Chattooga mileage by a wide margin — nearly 78 percent of the designated length is Wild, reflecting the gorge’s deep roadless character through the Chattahoochee National Forest. The shorter Scenic and Recreational segments appear where Forest Service roads approach the river in the upper watershed and near the Section III put-in at Earl’s Ford, where more regular foot and vehicular access occurs.

Managing Agencies

All Georgia-side segments of the Chattooga are managed by the US Forest Service, Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests. The South Carolina side is managed by the Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests. A joint management plan governs the full river corridor, setting consistent rules on boating access, permit requirements, and off-road vehicle restrictions that apply regardless of which bank a visitor is standing on.

Longest Designated Rivers in Georgia

Visiting the Designated Reaches

The Chattooga is divided into four paddling sections. Section III (Earl’s Ford to Sandy Ford Road) is the most popular beginner-to-intermediate run and is open to kayaks and canoes. Section IV (Woodall Shoals to Lake Tugaloo) is the expert reach, including the famous Five Falls sequence and the technical Woodall Shoals rapid, and draws experienced kayakers and commercial raft trips from across the Southeast. Hiking access follows the Chattooga National Wild and Scenic River Trail, which tracks the Georgia bank for most of the Wild corridor; the trailhead off Overflow Road (FR 86) near Clayton is the most common entry point for day hikers wanting to reach the gorge. For fishing, the upper Wild segments above Hwy 28 hold wild rainbow trout in the cold, spring-seep-fed water, while the lower Recreational segment near the confluence supports populations of smallmouth and largemouth bass, catfish, and panfish in the warmer slack water above Lake Tugaloo.

Maps for Neighboring States

The Chattooga forms Georgia’s border with South Carolina, which has its own Wild and Scenic designation of the same river: South Carolina. Other neighboring states with designated rivers include Alabama (Sipsey Fork), Florida (Wekiva and Loxahatchee), North Carolina (Chattooga, Lumber, and others), and Tennessee (Obed). For the full national picture, see our US Wild and Scenic Rivers map covering all 249 rivers across 42 states and Puerto Rico.

Data Sources

River segment geometry, classification, mileage, and managing-agency attributes come from the US Forest Service Enterprise Data Warehouse, specifically the National Wild and Scenic River Segments dataset jointly maintained by the USFS, NPS, BLM, and US Fish and Wildlife Service. Source service: USFS EDW Wild Scenic River Segments. Authoritative national index: rivers.gov. State recreation and fish-management context: Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests, and the relevant USFS district offices.