Scouts BSA overnight resident camp on a private cove of Watts Bar Lake in Roane County, run by the Great Smoky Mountain Council. Sixteen campsites of four- and eight-person Adirondacks with electrified shelters hold more than 600 Scouts, who choose among program areas including aquatics, shooting sports (shotgun, rifle and archery ranges), COPE and climbing on a 60-foot tower, a high ropes course with zipline, mountain biking, handicraft, scoutcraft, nature and STEM. Boating runs to canoes, kayaks, sailboats, paddleboards and ski boats, and the health lodge is staffed through the week by physicians from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center's Department of Family Medicine. Scouts attend with their unit rather than enrolling individually.
The practical details
We list only what the camp itself publishes, and programs change — dates, prices, ages and availability can all move after we check. Confirm the details on the camp’s own website and contact Camp Buck Toms directly before you register or pay. Last checked August 2026.
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★★★★★Doug T.I visited Camp Buck Toms for a service project to help clean up some fallen trees and make the camp safer for visitors. We enjoyed the beautiful dining hall and camp areas for the weekend. This scout camp has great amenities and wonderful views of the water and forest. Ranger Billy welcomed us, showed us around, and was there to provide support as needed throughout the event. I highly recommend this camp for Scouts and anybody else who has the opportunity to visit.
★Mason WilliamsThe staff was extremely rude. My 2 boys were new to scouts and this was their first event outside a weekly meeting. We were there for an overnight trip with several stations planned during the day. At the BB gun station there was no attention to time and took forever to cycle all the kids through. My kids were among the last, the rest of their group had already moved on the archery. When they finally got their turn they were told to join their group at the archery station. It took so long groups were already leaving the archery range. We walked to the range as we were instructed and the range master screamed at my 2 kids. It was in an uncontrollable anger scream, that they didn’t have permission to be on “his range.” I tried to explain this was our group and the other staff instructed us to join them and catch up. He didn’t care, and kept screaming at my kids to leave and wait for permission. We stood by the entrance for about 30 minutes and was ignored. When that group was done he said he was going to take a break and come back. He came back about 15 minutes later and let us in. They missed about half of the events that day because of this. And being young and brand new to scouts, being screamed at like that by an adult was terrifying to them. They were brought to tears and were asking to just go home after than experience. It was extremely uncomfortable and unprofessional in an uncontrollable anger sort of way. I don’t know if they are paid or volunteers, but if they can’t vet their staff properly to not have people who can’t control their anger like that around kids, we won’t be back. Nor do they want to after that experience.
★★★★★Jonathan CayceGreat camp especially for holding Cub Scout pack campouts. We did the pinnacle and it has a nice open space for a more rustic experience for the cubs.
★★★★★sebastian neffThis camp was awesome my troop and I had a great time and definitely lots of things to remember, only thing that our troop complained about was a massive down slope from mess hall to water front, but! It has trees and great staff that were extremely helpful and the med lodge was awesome when it came to getting ticks out of your skin and bandaging you up when you decide to run down the hill. 😂
★★★★★Kenneth DillonCan’t say enough good things about this place, the staff was great and helpful, just love the new Metal Working staff, my son loved it and the Welding class he took, both areas had fantastic teachers giving them all the skills needed to work with the equipment safety and skillfully, the zip line was a blast, canoes and swimming area, this place was great