Planned Activities

The Barlow RV Elk Park

4 RV Sites

The Barlow RV Elk Park in Elk Park, North Carolina, is a boutique mountain RV park with just four full-hookup sites in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Avery County — an intimate, carefully curated camping experience near Banner Elk in the high-country corridor where Beech Mountain, Sugar Mountain, and Grandfather Mountain sustain the most concentrated alpine and ski resort environment in the southern Appalachians, giving guests the specific high-elevation mountain character and the dramatic Blue Ridge scenery that this northwestern North Carolina corner delivers at a density unmatched anywhere else in the eastern United States south of the White Mountains. The four-site scale gives the Barlow its boutique identity and its guests the genuine privacy and quietude that larger campgrounds structurally cannot provide. Four full-hookup RV sites give the campground its defining intimate character — a camping experience defined by the mountain setting and the proximity to the Avery County high-country attractions rather than by on-site amenity density, reflecting the specific appeal of a small, well-positioned boutique property where the surrounding landscape is the primary attraction and the campground infrastructure is the comfortable base from which to access it. The Elk Park location in Avery County's high valley gives guests the 3,000-foot-plus base elevation that distinguishes the Banner Elk corridor's summer climate from the piedmont heat below. Pets are welcome. Beech Mountain, five miles north of Elk Park at 5,506 feet, is the highest elevation incorporated town east of the Rocky Mountains — a ski resort community whose Beech Mountain Resort ski area sustains winter skiing and snowboarding, whose summer mountain biking trails on the ski slopes and the Beech Mountain Parks and Recreation trail network give the resort its four-season outdoor recreation character. The mountain's elevation gives it measurable temperature advantages over the valley communities below, and the Blue Ridge Parkway access via the Linville area and the parkway's high-country corridor near Beech Mountain provides the summit ridge driving and hiking experience that parkway travelers specifically seek in the Avery County section. Grandfather Mountain, 12 miles southeast of Elk Park via U.S. 221, is one of the most ecologically significant mountains in the southern Appalachians — a 5,946-foot summit in the Blue Ridge Mountains privately managed as a nature preserve and state park hybrid, whose Mile-High Swinging Bridge suspension footbridge, museum of natural history, and native wildlife habitats housing black bears, white-tailed deer, bald eagles, and river otters give it the character of a natural attraction of extraordinary quality. The mountain's eight distinct ecological communities from cove hardwood to boreal spruce-fir forest represent the most compressed elevation-driven ecological succession gradient in the eastern United States. The Barlow RV Elk Park serves guests through the Avery County mountain seasons — summer from June through August delivering the high-country cool and outdoor recreation, the fall foliage season from mid-October through early November bringing the most dramatic color display in the high-elevation spruce-fir and hardwood forest, and the winter ski season from December through March serving the Beech Mountain ski market that specifically values the walking-distance or short-drive proximity to the resort lifts. Sugar Mountain Resort, adjacent to Beech Mountain, extends the ski and snowboarding options with its own terrain and lifts. Reserve sites well ahead for the fall foliage peak and ski season weekends, when Avery County's limited boutique campground inventory fills against strong demand from the Charlotte, Raleigh, and Triad markets.

from $110/night

Spacious Skies Bear Den

68 RV Sites, 20 Cabins, 31 Tent Sites

Spacious Skies Bear Den in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, offers 67 RV sites, 20 cabins, and 31 tent sites directly off the Blue Ridge Parkway at Milepost 324.8, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 40 feet. Premium pull-through and full-hookup back-in categories join water-and-electric tiers, with a lake, beach, jumping pillow, and gem mining. Sixty-seven sites span back-in 30-amp, back-in 30/50-amp, back-in water-and-electric 30-amp, premium pull-thru 30/50-amp, and pull-thru 30-amp categories, carrying water, sewer, and electric where noted, sized to 40 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. Confirm your tier, as the water-and-electric category does not carry sewer, and note the 40-foot cap — mountain terrain sets the limit here. Twenty cabins and 31 tent sites round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, propane fills, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. One safety note: the adjacent trail system belongs to the Foothills Conservancy and crosses public and private land with known logging and hunting activity — those trails are not supervised by the campground. A lake and beach anchor the summer, with a jumping pillow, arcade, game room, recreation center, sports courts, basketball, ping pong, horseshoes, corn hole, gem mining, golf cart rentals, walking trails, hiking, a playground, and dog park filling the rest. The property sits inside Pisgah National Forest at the base of the Black Mountains, the highest range in the eastern United States. Fall foliage drives the sharpest demand. Reserve well ahead for October.

from $21/night

Doe River Landing

5 RV Sites, 1 Cabin, 1 Onsite RV/Trailer

Doe River Landing in Roan Mountain, Tennessee, offers six RV sites with water and electric on 20, 30, and 50-amp service, plus a cabin and a travel trailer rental, in the Doe River gorge of Carter County. Sites take rigs to 45 feet with fire pits and picnic tables, and site WiFi reaches the property. At six sites this is a small, modern operation minutes from Roan Mountain State Park. Six back-in sites carry water and electric on 20, 30, and 50-amp, in premium and standard configurations sized to 45 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. A cabin and a travel trailer rental serve guests without a rig. A dump station is on site for guests without sewer connections, and a general store, firewood, laundry, restrooms, and showers cover the practical side. The property makes good use of its river frontage and mountain setting. Walking trails run the grounds past a community fire pit and a pavilion, with a dog park and playground for families and pets. Fishing, swimming, hiking, volleyball, horseshoes, corn hole, and picnicking all run from the property, and the mountain and creek terrain makes for good birding. A barn on site doubles as a wedding venue. Pets are welcome. Roan Mountain State Park and the Appalachian Trail's Roan Highlands balds are minutes away. Bristol Motor Speedway, Grandfather Mountain, and Sugar Mountain Ski Resort are all within day-drive range, and skiing and snowboarding are nearby in season. Office hours run 9am to 6pm Monday through Thursday and Sunday, and 9am to 8pm Friday and Saturday, seasonally. The June rhododendron bloom on Roan Mountain and October foliage are the two peak windows — with six sites, book as far ahead as you can.

from $57/night

Growing Faith Farms

Enjoy all that nature has to offer at our mountainview glamping retreat. Growing Faith Farms is a small farm and glamping retreat located in the Brushy Mountains of NC. We are about 30 minutes from Boone, 15 minutes from Wilkesboro or Lenoir, and 90 minutes from Charlotte. Owned and operated by Joseph and Christina Angott, Growing Faith Farms was established in 2021 to introduce people from all walks of life to a slower pace. There is so much history and beauty in these mountains just waiting to be explored. Come visit and see where humanity and heritage unite to form a magical connection with the land and nature in a unique experience.

from $30/night

Barefoot Landing Camping Resort

19 RV Sites, 9 Cabins

Lake James, a 6,800-acre reservoir in the mountain foothills of McDowell County, North Carolina, is one of the clearest and most naturally beautiful lakes in the southern Appalachians — fed by the cold streams draining off Linville Gorge and the Table Rock massif, and held in a setting where the Southern Blue Ridge mountains frame the water on every side. Barefoot Landing Camping Resort occupies 65 acres of gated lakeside terrain on Lake James, providing seasonal RV sites, cozy cabins, and comfortable cottages in a full-service resort that makes the lake's recreational character accessible without requiring a private lakeside property. The resort's activity lineup is built around the lake — paddleboarding, fishing in a secluded cove, swimming in the summer-ready pool, and boat launching for guests who bring their own vessel or want to explore Lake James's 150 miles of shoreline by water. Golf cart rentals make getting around the 65-acre property effortless, and a dedicated dog park serves traveling guests with pets. Gem mining adds a distinctly western North Carolina activity to the recreational roster — the McDowell County area sits in one of the most geologically productive gem-bearing regions in the eastern United States, and the mining experience resonates particularly with families and younger guests. The Fourth of July celebration is one of the campground's signature annual events, drawing guests who plan their summer calendar specifically around it. Lake James's water clarity results from the cold mountain tributary streams feeding the reservoir, and the resulting transparency makes underwater viewing and kayak touring unusually rewarding compared to the murkier piedmont reservoirs further east. The surrounding scenery — with Linville Gorge, Table Rock, and Hawksbill Mountain visible from the water — gives Lake James a mountain lake character more reminiscent of the western United States than the typical southern Piedmont reservoir environment. Linville Gorge Wilderness, just northwest of Marion, is one of the most spectacular and least-visited wilderness areas in the eastern United States — a dramatic canyon carved by the Linville River through billion-year-old Precambrian rock, with hiking trails to Chimney Rock, Table Rock, and Hawksbill overlooks that rank among the most rewarding in the southern Appalachians. Grandfather Mountain, with its mile-high suspension bridge and nature museum, is within easy driving range and provides a world-class mountain experience accessible without technical preparation. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs through the high country north of Marion and delivers some of the most iconic mountain driving in the East, particularly in October when the hardwood foliage reaches peak color across the ridgelines. Barefoot Landing Camping Resort is open through the outdoor season, with summer bringing peak lake activity and the July Fourth celebration that anchors the summer calendar. Fall foliage in McDowell County and the surrounding Blue Ridge terrain is exceptional — October stays combine Lake James's natural beauty with the hardwood color of the surrounding mountains for one of the most visually compelling camping weekends available in the Carolinas. Reserve cabins and waterfront RV sites well in advance for summer and fall weekends.

from $49/night

Spacious Skies Hidden Creek

108 RV Sites, 18 Cabins, 26 Tent Sites

Spacious Skies Hidden Creek in Marion, North Carolina, offers 108 RV sites, 18 cabins, and 26 tent sites at the base of the Black Mountains, with 20, 30, and 50-amp full hookups and rigs accepted to 60 feet behind a gated entrance. Premium creek-front pull-through and lakeview categories join standard back-in sites, with a pool, mini-golf, and gem mining. One hundred eight sites span back-in 20/30-amp, back-in 30/50-amp, premium creek-front pull-thru, premium lakeview back-in, and premium lakeview pull-thru categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric, sized to 60 feet. The creek-front and lakeview premiums are the ones to request. Eighteen cabins and 26 tent sites round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, propane fills, restrooms, and firewood handle the practical side. All guests and visitors check in at the main office on arrival and sign the terms. An outdoor pool anchors the summer, with a lake and creek supporting fishing, boating, and swimming. Mini-golf, gem mining, a jumping pillow, arcade, recreation center, billiards, basketball, volleyball, horseshoes, and corn hole fill the grounds, with walking trails, hiking, golf cart rentals, a playground, pavilion, community fire pit, and dog park besides. Pets are welcome. McDowell County's gem mining tradition is genuine rather than a novelty, and the surrounding hollow-and-ridge terrain marks the Blue Ridge's steepest eastern escarpment. Summer and fall foliage drive demand in the North Carolina mountains. Reserve well ahead for October.

from $25/night

Jellystone Park™ Golden Valley

112 RV Sites, 157 Cabins, 26 Tent Sites, 6 Glamping Sites, 29 Cottages, 4 Lodges

Jellystone Park Golden Valley in Bostic, North Carolina, offers 112 full-hookup RV sites, 190 cabin, cottage, and lodge units, 26 tent sites, and six glamping sites across more than 600 acres, with 30 and 50-amp service, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 80 feet behind a gated entrance. Creekside premium and Creekside Red Carpet categories join a water park, zip line, mountain coaster, and disc golf course. One hundred twelve sites span Creekside premium back-in, Creekside premium pull-thru, Creekside Red Carpet back-in, and Creekside Red Carpet pull-thru categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 80 feet, with fire pits, picnic tables, and BBQ pits. Every RV category is creekside, which is unusual — there is no inferior inland tier. One hundred ninety cabins, cottages, and lodges, 26 tent sites, and six glamping sites make the lodging inventory extraordinary. A general store, laundry, propane fills, restrooms, showers, firewood, and RV storage handle the practical side. A daily resort fee covers mini-golf, the playground, and the amenity program. A water park and outdoor pool anchor the summer, with a hot tub and sauna alongside. A zip line, disc golf course, mini-golf, laser tag, a jumping pillow, sports courts, tennis, pickleball, volleyball, basketball, ping pong, golf cart rentals, walking trails, hiking, a lake, creek, playground, pavilion, dog park, on-site dining, and a bar fill the rest. Six hundred acres at the base of the Blue Ridge makes this one of the Southeast's most expansive family resorts. Summer and fall foliage drive demand. Reserve well ahead.

from $57/night

Roaring River Vineyards

7 RV Sites

from $25/night

Lakeview RV Resort

87 RV Sites

Lakeview RV Resort in Bluff City, Tennessee, offers 87 full-hookup RV sites overlooking Boone Lake with 20, 30, and 50-amp service, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 50 feet, open all year. Standard, cable-equipped, and wide back-in categories join a storm shelter, fishing pier, boat docks, and outdoor pool. Eighty-seven back-in sites run in standard, with-cable, and wide with-cable categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric on 20, 30, and 50-amp, sized to 50 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. The wide category is worth requesting for larger rigs or guests who want elbow room. Cabins round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, propane fills, restrooms, and firewood handle the practical side, with a storm shelter on site — a genuine safety feature in the Tennessee Valley. Site rates vary by category and date. An outdoor pool anchors the warm months, with a lake, pond, fishing pier, boat docks, and boat rentals giving direct water access for fishing, boating, canoeing, and kayaking. A recreation center, playground, pavilion, dog park, horseshoes, corn hole, biking, and on-site dining fill the rest, with planned activities through the season. Pets are welcome. The elevated viewshed over Boone Lake against the Blue Ridge is the resort's signature. Bluff City sits on US-11E between Johnson City and Kingsport, with the lake's bass and walleye fishery and the South Holston River tailwater close by. Year-round operation makes this viable across seasons. Summer and October foliage are the peaks — reserve ahead.

from $55/night

Mama Gertie's Hideaway Campground

18 RV Sites

Mama Gertie's Hideaway Campground in Swannanoa, North Carolina, provides a relaxed and welcoming campground experience in the Swannanoa River valley east of Asheville, where the Blue Ridge Mountains' signature mix of mountain character and small-community authenticity creates the backdrop for a campground that has developed a loyal following among western North Carolina visitors who prefer an intimate, personality-driven camping experience over the resort-scale developments that have grown around the Asheville area's tourism economy. The campground's convenient valley position gives guests fast access to Asheville's world-class restaurant, arts, and brewing scene while maintaining the quieter, forested atmosphere that mountain camping provides. The campground's facilities include both cabin rentals and RV sites with full hookup utility connections, and the on-property amenities emphasize the social and practical needs of extended mountain stays: dining, a recreation center, library, fitness center, walking trails, a general store and propane service, community fire pit, pavilion, dog park, laundry, showers, and dump station. The dog park and pet-friendly policies reflect the campground's popularity with the hiking community, where leashed dogs on mountain trails are expected rather than exceptional, and the library provides a rainy-day resource suited to the Blue Ridge's frequent afternoon summer showers that interrupt outdoor recreation. The Swannanoa River valley's landscape is the Blue Ridge at its most accessible, with the river corridor running between Swannanoa's residential neighborhoods and the mountain ridges that rise steeply to the north and south in the ridge-and-valley topography characteristic of the southern Appalachians. Black Mountain, a short drive east of Swannanoa, is one of the most pleasant small towns in western North Carolina—an artists' community with independent galleries, the historic Monte Vista Hotel, and the Seven Sisters mountain range visible from the main commercial street providing one of the Blue Ridge's most photogenic small-town settings. Asheville's downtown, approximately 10 miles west via I-40, represents one of the American South's most vibrant small-city cultural scenes—a concentration of James Beard Award-recognized restaurants, craft breweries, independent bookshops, galleries, and live music venues in a walkable downtown built from the Western North Carolina river trade's late nineteenth-century commercial prosperity. The Biltmore Estate, George Vanderbilt's 8,000-acre château completed in 1895 and now operating as a private historic attraction, provides the region's most popular single visitor destination. The Blue Ridge Parkway's southern sections, connecting Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Shenandoah National Park, are directly accessible from the Asheville area. Mama Gertie's Hideaway operates year-round in the Swannanoa River valley's mountain climate, where Asheville's elevation moderates summer heat below the extremes of the South Carolina and Georgia lowlands and the four distinct seasons—including occasional winter snow and the spectacular autumn foliage that blankets the surrounding ridges from mid-October through early November—provide compelling reasons to visit across the entire calendar year. Fall foliage season, particularly the peak weeks of mid-October when the Blue Ridge's hardwood forest reaches maximum color intensity, represents the single most competitive reservation period and guests targeting this window should book several months in advance.

from $75/night

Iron City Campground

41 RV Sites

Iron City Campground in Blacksburg, South Carolina, is a peaceful, family-friendly basecamp on 40 wooded acres in the Appalachian foothills of Cherokee County — a relaxed, nature-first campground near the Broad River Greenway with a fishing pond, hiking trails, and the kind of roaming space for kids and dogs that flat, fenced urban-adjacent campgrounds cannot provide. Blacksburg's Cherokee County position in the upper South Carolina Piedmont, near the North Carolina border, gives guests access to the Kings Mountain National Military Park and State Park complex, the regional trail network, and the distinct character of the southern Appalachian foothills that this corner of the Carolina backcountry preserves in a relatively undeveloped form between the Charlotte metro and the Upstate South Carolina cities. Full-hookup RV sites, tent camping, and the campground's 40 wooded acres give guests the complete accommodation infrastructure for family camping in the Cherokee County foothill forest. The fishing pond provides the on-site angling access that introduces young anglers to the sport without the licensing and trailhead logistics of public water fishing, and the hiking trails through the wooded property give guests the immediate nature immersion that a 40-acre wooded campground specifically enables. The relaxed, pet-friendly, family atmosphere reflects a campground built around the social values of rural Carolina camping rather than resort amenity density. Pets are welcome. Kings Mountain National Military Park, 15 miles southwest of Blacksburg in Cherokee County's border with North Carolina and York County's southern edge, preserves the site of the October 7, 1780 battle that Thomas Jefferson called the turning point of the American Revolution — the engagement where Patriot militia from the Carolina Overmountain communities defeated a Loyalist force under Major Patrick Ferguson in a 65-minute engagement that eliminated the British southern army's western flank and directly contributed to Cornwallis's eventual retreat to Yorktown. The battle trail through the mountain forest and the visitor center's collection of period weapons and artifacts give the small mountain park an outsized historical significance. Kings Mountain State Park, adjacent to the National Military Park on the South Carolina side of the state line, preserves 6,141 acres of Piedmont mixed hardwood forest with 16 miles of multiuse trails, a fishing lake, and a living history farm that reconstructs the 19th-century agricultural methods of the South Carolina Piedmont in the operational setting of an active demonstration farm. The park's proximity to the National Military Park and the combined trail network across both units gives active guests the full-day hiking and exploration programming that the Iron City Campground's foothill base makes directly accessible. Iron City Campground serves guests through the South Carolina camping season with spring and fall representing the most comfortable outdoor recreation conditions for the Appalachian foothill environment, and the summer months providing the full swimming pond and trail access in a forested setting that the 40-acre woodland canopy moderates against the Piedmont summer heat. Crowders Mountain State Park, 30 miles northeast in Gaston County, North Carolina, provides the dramatic quartzite monadnock geology and summit hiking that the more accessible but less elevated Cherokee County foothill terrain cannot match for the panoramic viewshed experience. Reserve RV sites ahead for spring and fall weekends when the Charlotte regional market's campground demand fills the Cherokee County foothill area's limited inventory.

Spacious Skies Peach Haven

111 RV Sites, 5 Cabins, 14 Tent Sites

Spacious Skies Peach Haven in Gaffney, South Carolina, offers 111 full-hookup RV sites, five cabins, and 14 tent sites in the Cherokee County hills, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and rigs accepted up to 141 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout, behind a gated entrance. Premium patio back-in, pull-in, and pull-through categories join deluxe and standard tiers, with a pool, mini-golf, jumping pillow, and gem mining. One hundred eleven sites span back-in, deluxe back-in, deluxe pull-thru, premium patio back-in, premium patio pull-in, and premium patio pull-thru categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric with fire pits and picnic tables, sized to 141 feet. One hundred forty-one feet is the most generous length allowance in this batch and accommodates anything on the road with room to spare. Five cabins and 14 tent sites round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, propane fills, dump station, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. All guests check in at the main office and sign the terms — e-signature in advance is encouraged. An outdoor pool anchors the summer, with mini-golf, a jumping pillow, arcade, recreation center, clubhouse, gaga ball, horseshoes, corn hole, gem mining, golf cart rentals, walking trails, hiking, a pond, community fire pit, and dog park filling the rest. Fishing runs on site. The Piedmont uplands here once supported peach orchards across Cherokee County, which the name acknowledges. I-85 is close, with Charlotte 60 miles north and Spartanburg 30 south. Summer and fall drive demand. Reserve ahead for holiday weekends.

from $30/night