Best Tent Camping near Castle Hayne, NC

I stayed here the night before a mountain bike race at Brown’s Creek. I only needed one night, but wished I would have stayed a couple more. When I got to my site, I didn’t realize that I reserved a handicap spot (my mistake). The site was on concrete so I couldn’t stake down my awning. I rode my bicycle around the park and found the hiking trail right by the campground. It went around the lake, but since it said hiking, I stopped at the trail head. After dinner I started a fire, pulled out the guitar and played for a bit. I would have had a beer, but there is a no alcohol policy. (Still don’t understand this policy at state parks). The bathrooms/showers were great. Clean, heated, private showers. Quiet hours start at 10pm, but there were kids running around the park yelling. No too bad though. Never had to talk to anyone from the office. Just reserved online, pulled into my spot and left in the morning. I’ll come back to stay longer and hike the trail, check out the lake and go mountain biking down the road.

Our family has tent camped here twice and recently reserved a camp cabin for a week this summer. This is a quiet and spacious campground mere miles from Carolina Beach at a price that's hard to beat. We tent camp here around $30 a night for a tent site. Each site is very large and spacious. It could could comfortably fit 2 tents and a car.

This Campground offers bathhouses, picnic tables, and fire rings. Dogs allowed, but not in the cabins. Plenty of walking trails.

Campground is flat and shaded, although there are some primative group sites away from the main campground but they don't have as much shade. Grocery store is maybe 6 miles away.

General: Small campground (20 Sites) around a circle with the bathhouse in the center. Although you can walk to the lake (about a half mile away), the sites are not lakefront. There is also a group campground.

Site Quality: Camper driveways are very generous in size and level. Sites are spaced far enough apart to provide reasonable privacy/separation. Sites vary. Two ADA-accessible sites have a concrete pad; most others have gravel pads, but two are just open grassy sites. Some are FHU, while some have no hookups. Some are pull-thru, and some are back-in. Each site has a fire ring, picnic table, and lantern hook. Most have a raised tent platform. 

Bath/Shower house: Very clean. Three showers, including one ADA-accessible one. The spray was not very strong, but the water was warm. 

Activities: In season, there is boating, canoeing, kayaking, swimming, and fishing, but we were there at the beginning of April, and the weather was in the 50s. We did the four-mile Bay Trail, which was really more of a walk and not a hike. The signage was good, and the trail weaved back and forth from the gravel road. We were disappointed that there were not many views of the lake (there are three overlooks, but access to them was restricted due to flooding). Due possibly to recent rains, the last mile of the trail (we went in a clockwise direction from the campground) was flooded in several places, making passage challenging. There is also a short one-mile Cedar Loop trail as well as a spur leading from the Bay Trail to Salters Lake. 

We chose this campground primarily because of its location - it was a good stopping point for us. In early April, even during spring break, only a handful of sites were occupied. I imagine it would be a much different story in the summer months.

The group campground is isolated from the rest of the camping areas and is quiet at night. There are a lot of park visitors who walk through the area, but the trail through goes around he main campsites. The pit toilets are in need of some attention, but have always been well stocked. It’s about 400 yards to hike in, so we used a wagon to bring in gear. No water on site, but a really nice fire pit with grill top and 2 picnic tables. Shady tent sites available, but really hot and buggy in summer. Group camp site is about .5 mile hike from the river which is great for wading, but swimming is not allowed.

Many species of carnivorous plants grow here and abundant wildlife.

in the summer months there is a place to rent kayaks and paddle boards at the marina.

The camp ground was really easy to get around with kids, plenty of trails that preschool kids can enjoy as well as adults. Lots of beautiful views just a short hike away. We camped in a primitive tent site, plenty of shade with nice picnic table and fire ring with grill grate. The bathrooms were so clean, we were really impressed. The rangers are super helpful and very nice. One of our best camping trips ever. Fort Fisher Historic site and Aquarium are less than 15 minutes away. Beach accesses are less than 5 minutes away by car. I would highly recommend visiting in early Spring or late Fall. I live a short distance away and the mosquitoes are unbearable in the warmer months.

Carolina beach state park is one of my favorite places to go in North Carolina. Not only does it have an awesome campground, but it's right near one of the best beaches I've ever been to. The sites are nice and secluded, just how I like them. Most of the sites are tent sites, but they have a few full hookup sites for RVs and some cabins to rent too. All of the sites have picnic tables, fire rings, and drinking water.

Within the park, there are tons of hiking trails through a really beautiful area. I hear the fishing is also really good within the park, but I've never done it myself. The only downside is you can't swim within the park, because the currents can get dangerous. The beach is only like 5 minutes away though, so not really a big deal.

As for the beach, it's my favorite one to go to in the states. I like it because it's not really touristy like the outer banks or myrtle beach. Not a whole lot of people come to it, so it's always pretty secluded and clean. In July, the water temperature is perfect, the waves are nice, and it's great all around.

Awesome spot in NC.

The campground is in a nice area. The small lake is beautiful and full of fish. It is near a small bustling town with everything you need. The staff is friendly.

The only drawback is that the camp itself is outdated. The so-called bathhouses need a severe update. The bathhouse does not have HVAC in it. There’s one male toilet and one female toilet for the entire camp. There are two portable toilets on the back end of the property. There’s one shower of the two that works and it is a small shower. Do not weigh more than 175 pounds going in that shower.

All in all, it’s a good temporary campsite. This is not set up for long-term, even though there are multiple long-term campers here.

Our GPS wanted us to take Jones Lake State Park Rd, that was closed off, about 300 yards before the main park entrance. They have good directions on their website to follow. Check-in was easy. We proceeded to site 8, back-in with FHUs and 50 AMP. The roads were narrow but one way. Our back-in was a little challenging with our 39’ 5th wheel due to brush across the road, but very doable. Utilities were centrally located to the pad. Water pressure was good at around 50 psi. We got 2 bars on Verizon, a variety of OTA channels, and clear shot to the southern sky for satellite. Six of the CG’s back-in sites are FHUs with both 30 & 50 AMP. However, there are very spacious pull thru sites, but no hook ups, not even electric. We could have extended our stay and dry camped in one of these spots but there’s no dump station. This made us wonder if the state ran out of money or if they are still building? This was a very nice CG with well spaced campsites and a good trail system. There are no water views from the CG but the lake is a short walk. The CG is essentially a large circle with even numbers to the inside and odd numbered pull thru sites and some smaller tent sites to the outside. There is also a group tent camping area. FHU sites are 2, 4, 6, 8, 18& 20 and are long enough for large rigs. Back-in site 18, which is a handicap spot, could be a tight back-in for a trailer over 38’. Eighteen is pretty much a 90 degree turn plus there’s a water spigot and metal recycle container directly across the street to contend with. There are water spigots about every 4 sites(near sites 3, 7, 11, etc.) throughout the CG. There is a newer looking shower house conveniently located between sites 16& 18 that we didn’t use. The 3 nights we stayed over a weekend, the CG was maybe half full so very quiet and peaceful. If we could book one of the FHU sites or they add a dump station, we would stay here again.

We camped here Wed through Sat for my son's fall break. We arrived on Wed afternoon around 4pm. I was wearing leggings and the mosquitos literally landed on my leggings and bit me through them. I didn't even know that could happen. I should have left the campsite then and gone to Walmart, 17 min away, and bought enough bug spray and candles for the weekend but we set up the campsite instead. We just got back so camped the first week in October, site 17. For the four days, I had two citronella candles, one on the picnic table and one near our camping chairs, a thermocell fogger in the tent (ran for about an hour before we went in to go to sleep)  and then two bottles of 40% deet spray...one for our car when we came back to the campsite and one on the picnic table. We brought our kayaks and launched from both the Carolina Beach State Park marina and also Trails End public access (intercoastal waterway). Both were great with plenty of parking while we were there. There are VERY large yachts in the trails end area which are cool to see, just be careful when paddling that area. We fished at both places and also at Carolina beach from the surf. I caught a HUGE drum there. Lots of dogs off of leashes (rules change Oct 1st) so that was cool to see. We mostly cooked at the campsite but ate dinner at Sea Witch Cafe one night. The place is dog friendly, which we needed, and the food was reasonably priced and so good. The park rangers lock the gates at 9pm and they don't open until 7am so you have to plan accordingly. This wasn't an issue for us, we just watched the clock and made sure we were back. Beach is about 6 min away, Walmart is about 17 min or so, several grocery stores nearby (Food Lion, Publix). Overall, it was a great trip, I just wasn't prepared initially for the mosquitos. I got 90 bites that first day. I even had to constantly spray down my dog to keep the mosquitos off of her. It was a bit much. Definitely put all of your food in your car or at a minimum in your tent. Raccoons come nightly. :) We lost a quesadilla, some dog food, etc.