Grandfather Campground

If you love the Banner Elk, Grandfather mountain area, then I recommend this campground! You are surrounded by beautiful views of the mountains. Not far from Boone, and is basically next door to Grandfather Winery. Only thing I didn't like was the sites we stayed in near the office/general store were close to one another, but other sites for tents and campers didn't seem to have this problem. Will be staying at again!

This is a very nice campground close to good hiking and skiing. The camper sites are fairly close together, but the tent spaces are more spread out.

The campground is in a good area with restaurants, grocery stores and anything you might need close by. We camped in the tent area with no water or electricity which was fine with us. The tent sites are away from the RVS and set into beautiful wooded areas. However, because the terrain is hilly, the sites are not level, either because of grade or because of roots and big rocks under the ground. Therefore your tent will not be level and you will sleep best off the ground where roots or big rocks are not protruding into the tent floor. Our second night we decided to sleep in our SUV where we thought we’d be more comfortable. We picked the most level site and tried moving our SUV to many different positions and could not make it level enough to get a good sleep. This was our only complaint but a big one since no sleep will make you very grouchy in the morning! Also because a busy highway is close by, there is lots of traffic noise although after 11 pm it quiets down. We loved this campground if they could offer more level sites for tent or car camping. We reserved three nights but because of the sleep problem we stayed only two. The bathhouse did not seem to be cleaned too often as large amounts of trash were still in the waste bin through our stay.

We camped back in June at Grandfather. It is a very large campground but doesn't feel that way. We were next to the stream near the entrance. 

The facilities were very nice and you can hike right around the campground. 

The campground is very close to Grandfather Mountain entrance. Perfect driving distance to Boone, Valle Crucis, and Banner Elk. 

If you are into wineries...there is one almost next door and one in Banner Elk. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a short drive away as well. 

It was easy to be transported to a relaxing time. Then only con was traffic noise from the two lane road. It is on the downgrade and the trucks traveling throughout the day are downshifting to lower gears. The noise can be heard through out the campground. The creek does sorta drowned it out or we either got used to it.

Nice place to relax! I wish there was more for the children to do but overall the scenery was nice and quite. Made a friend with the campground dog <3

I like this campsite. You have to be careful to book the correct kind of tent site if you want to be in a more wooded area. The camping cabins are really nice and spacious. It's a good site with some really good breakfast spots located just right next to the campsite itself

For my first time camping, we got a great location. The tent site we got, we could hear the running water from the stream. Bathroom and shower are clean and has heated water. Our came site had a lot of rocks so it was hard to sleep at night. Would recommend talking a air bed.

We love going to this campground! We are tent campers and most of their tent sites are tree covered which is great for summertime when we visit most. The location is close to Boone which has amazing food options to explore and a Walmart for any necessities you may have forgotten. Grandfather Mountain State Park is up the road. And you can get on the Blue Ridge Parkway to find all kinds of amazing hiking trails. The biggest drawback for us was that the bathrooms never seemed very clean, but hey, it is camping!

Grandfather Campground is located about 15 minutes south of Boone NC and less than 10 minutes from the trailhead to Grandfather Mountain.  

There is a new sign for the Grandfather Campground directly off HWY 105.  Pulling in, you drive over a bridge with a beautiful view of the creek and immediately see an office to your right and a large grassy area and private gazebo to your left (I do not think the campground owns this gazebo).  

RV's and tents occupy the first loop past the office.  On the left side of the road are several tent sites (too close for our preference - but in a pinch - it works!) On the right side of the road are RV sites that back up to the creek.  A bathhouse is centrally located for this loop.  As you continue on, you pass several simple camping cabins and then a variety of different sleeping arrangements depending on the size of your group.  There is  fishing and a playground but to us, the most valuable amenity of this site is the proximity to Grandfather Mountain.  We can be at the trailhead within 10 minutes for a great hike to the top of Grandfather Mountain!

Great site with very clean bathrooms/showers. Sites are very close together, so if it was a busy weekend, it may be a little snug. However, the campground has great amenities and definitely worth going. Only 10-15 minutes from Sugar mountain and Boone.

The bathroom that we used (at the top of the campground) is in need of updating. The showers in particular were moldy and didn’t drain well.

The campsites were amazing and ours backed up to a state park. In late July it was cool in the evenings. Some of the fire rings have ‘flip over’ grills which were super convenient. My 95 lb dog was welcome also. Very pretty Campground!

We stayed here during ski season and it was great! Not very busy, which was fine and only 15 mins to the ski slopes. That trip we had a great experience.

On another occasion, over Labor Day weekend, we tried to get a spot but they were ful. So we decided to rent one of their cabins. Upon arriving, we found out that they had switched our cabin to a different one then the one we had originally booked, and it was so small (which would have been okay, but we had a young baby who needed to sleep in a port-a-crib, which did not fit anywhere in the cabin) but the real issue was that there was mold on the ceiling and coming down some of the walls. We immediately went down to the office, at first we were told there was nothing they could do. After I went momma-bear on them and let them know I would not be staying in a moldy cabin with a baby and demanded my money back, they finally agreed and gave us a refund. Luckily I was able to find a hotel that still had a room available.

So long story short: great for camping, beware of cabins.

We stayed here 10 days in our 34-foot travel trailer and were very happy with our stay. The campground is located on Hwy 105 heading down from Boone towards Linville. There are two grocery stores within a 5-minute drive (towards Banner Elk) and several restaurants close by as well. When you turn into the campground, you will cross a narrow 1-lane bridge across Watagua Creek. The office is located around a circle and there are several sites backed up against the creek. We stayed up the hill, where there are three lanes of diagonal pull thru sites sloping up the hill. The sites are fairly level, long but a little narrow. Because of the slope, there isn't much 'yard' space, just a platform with a picnic table. However, there is a large field to the east of the rows that is great for play (even has a decent playground) with a fantastic view of the mountains. There's a decent mix of people here for the weekend vs staying longer term. Up in the trees there looks to be campers that haven't moved in years. The store is decently stocked with camping odds and ends though no groceries. The bathrooms I didn't have much occasion to use, but I heard several people complain about them during the busy weekends (dirty and low on supplies). The laundry facilities are pretty icky, but they did the job. The wifi is decent when there aren't a lot of campers. Over the weekends, forget about it. Overall, I would stay here again and recommend to others.