Best Campgrounds near Dana, NC

My family and I have been camping at Bearden since 1995 and it has always been great.  Getting to know the owners and all the people who ran the campground BUT now that is is apart of a large corporation or hedge fund and people looking to satisfy shareholders it's not as fun.  Sure we love the location (hint here if pulling a camper, don't follow the Bearden sign, go to Linville to get on the parkway and go left.  This way you will avoid the steep curvy road going up a mountain.) but it's ran like a corporation.  No more calling the campground office talking to the friendly owners, now you call to somewhere I believe in NJ and talk to a person to make reservations at one of the campground Spacious Skies have purchased.  So much for the family owned campgrounds who wanted to make money but provided a better atmosphere.

Checked in around 6:00. The guy checking us in told us that the golf carts haven’t been working on hills(the whole place is hills) and to let it cool down for 10 minutes at a time if it overheats. We go to the cabin, which is littered outside with used baby wipes, get settled in, and by 8:10 realize the kitchen is infested with ants. Dozens of ants covering the appliances, counters, and kitchen sink. We asked for help and were told that maintenance would come to our cabin. They never showed up. We called the emergency line and it didn’t work, just put us in an endless loop and then hung up on us. Over and over again. We stayed that night because what other choice did we have? No one was available to help us with literally anything. Following morning, we pack up our stuff and tell the staff we’re leaving and all of our issues and ask for a refund on the room we spent 15 reluctant, ant-filled hours in. They escalate to a manager, and then tell us that another manager will call us“shortly”. The call never came. You don’t get what you pay for here. What’s advertised is a complete lie. You pay for a full kitchen? Too bad—you can’t cook or even store food here because there’s ants everywhere. Paid several hundred dollars for a golf cart to get around? It only works when it wants to. Call the emergency line for assistance? Yeah right! We spent$2k and they’re trying to dodge us for a refund. Disgusting place, disgusting behavior.

-absolutely gorgeous campsite #6! -creek running through the culvert under our driveway. Concrete picnic table, rocky terrain, a legit fire ring with two grill options, and a nice packed tent pad

-didn’t get lucky tonight as far as neighbors go, super loud and annoying groups at two of the sites nearby. One group in particular drove up at 10:30pm, it was a couple with, what sounded like, at least 3 little kids. They lit their smoky fire at 11:30pm and were jacked up on candy or something. The kids were so rowdy and disrespectful and kept the whole campgrounds up by YELLING non stop until 1AM. At one point they were all so loud that I yelled across the campground “SHUT THE F*CK UP! PLEASE STOP YELLING!! BE COOL!!” And their sassy kid said back, “We’re just talking!” But I swear, there were pterodactyl childish screams again and again, kids yelling at each other, mom yelling at the kids, at least the dad would calmly tell the kids to settle down, butt whippins, mom yelling “Shut Up!” at the kids, they were seriously the worst neighbors I’ve ever encountered while camping. Finally going to sleep now 1:09am

This place is nice. It is in the middle of nowhere. Since there were reported construction delays on I 40, I took the alternative route offered by google maps. Do not go that way. The roads were very bad and when I was 1 mile from making one of my last two turns, the road was closed. I went around the signs and came to an area of the road washed out by the hurricaine. They was a crew working on the road. I asked if I could get through to make my turn a mile ahead and a very nice fellow said I could, but at my own risk. I had barely enogh room to drive my van past the washed out area that was about 500 feet above a river with a sheer drop. The gate to this camp is locked but they email you the combination with your booking confirmation. The lock is a little hard to open. You have to pull and push on it once you have the right numbers dialed in. There is a horse camp here to the right at an intersection, the regular campground is to the left. Very nice picnic tables in the sites . I believe there is a trash dump here someplace, but have not looked for it yet. You need to be self contained to camp out here. The nice thing is , the camp is at 3144 feet in elevation according to my altimiter app so it is nice and cool. If not for the picnic table and trash dump, this would be about the same as a dispersed camping area. Price was good, $7.50/night with lifetime pass. A very remote campground but it is very, very quiet, at least it was last night which was a Thursday.

Campground has been open at least since June 2025. Nice, secluded campground. Some sites are a bit close, but as long as campers observe quiet hours (10 PM - 6 AM) and are aware that generators are allowed (60 dB max) to be run from 8 AM to 8 PM, all should be good. Wildlife is present and being over a mile high, temperatures can be cool, even in summer, for a great relief from temperatures in lower elevations. There are two sets of restrooms and a dishwashing station. There's no electricity, so no lights or hot water, so be ready to rough it a bit.

This campground has a few tent campsites near the office/shower building but a great number of remote sites up on the side of a mountain. 4WD required due to steep inclines and rough road conditions. Each site had a picnic table and fire ring and some shade during different times of the day. Fireworks were an issue the first night because it was 4th of July but other nights it was quiet.

Management was mostly absent and check in was easy. Tent site selection is first come first served. Manager did pick up the phone to hear my complaint about fireworks (midnight) but shooters were coming from outside of the campground.

Lot of cabins and RVs But I didn't see any pull throughs.