Fontana Dam Shelter

"Wow what a beautiful view. It seems like you can see forever. This area is part of the Appalachian trail, there is a bunkhouse showers, cell phone charging station. There are picnic tables views for days. We got to meet a very kind gentleman who works for the Tennessee valley authority who maintains the area, told us some amazing stories about travelers who come through on the Appalachian Trail, and how much of this stop means to people."

"As shelters go, this is the most luxurious one I have ever visited. Power, showers, toilets, and level tenting on concrete slabs."

"There is one great shelter. Beautiful location. In great shape and clean when I was there. I can't lie, I didn't try the charging station because I didn't need it but it did look like it had seen better days. There is a hiker box of sorts here and that was pretty cool. The fact that there are hot showers available here pretty much makes this an automatic 5 star even if the showers screamed at you to be sure to wear shower shoes."

"This is easily one of the nicest shelters that I have stayed at on the AT. It has all of the amenities. The gnats and mosquitoes were a little bit of a pain in August, but not that bad. If you plan to tent camp, then it needs to be a free standing tent. There are a lot of tent pads, but they are all concrete. It was really nice waking up and using a real bathroom! This shelter has its own faucet, solar station for charging phones, a fire pit, shower, commodes, sinks, and even hot air blower to dry your hands. If you want a cold soft drink, you can walk about a half mile down to the visitor center at the dam. They have vending machine if they are closed, otherwise you can have ice cream, drinks or candy from the gift store. I would highly recommend this stop."

"How could a shelter be better? The only suggestion, make sure the solar powered charging station actually works. Other than that, it is your standard shelter that is overlooking a beautiful lake, it has multiple picnic tables for eating, and it has a shower house with hot water."