Best Equestrian Camping near Elm City, NC

Good location off of 85. Great trails and equestrian trails!

I have stayed there twice over the past couple years.  The only changes to this Campground are the Prices !!  ..which keep going up (to $35 day now).  For this, you get a parking space with full hookups.. that's it, no Amenities whatsoever!

It's pretty much a "Camper Trap", because there are so few options in the North Carolina Piedmont.  Spaces are tight, a lot of the people there are long-term workers, that totally ignore any "Dust" decorum, speeding through the area as if they were on public streets!

This campground is adjacent to the NC State Fairgrounds. Sites are spacious and full hook ups. Gravel roadways and grass/gravel sites. Most sites appear to be fairly level; we did have to use blocks on one side. There are no amenities so you must be fully self-contained. There seem to be quite a few long-term campers. Campground is quiet and security staff very friendly. Equestrian facility is next door. Sites are first come first serve; no reservations.

Water, sewer, electrical hook-ups It's a pretty relaxing spot. Restaurants and downtown Raleigh are within short driving distance. Public bathrooms and showers (cold water) are a 2 minute walk to Horse Complex H6, Barn B Very little tree cover.

The actual address is 801 Youth Center Drive. One camping location is up in the woods behind the horse complex. The other is on the actual fairgrounds property along Youth Center Drive. These are less desirable unless you are doing an event on the fairgrounds and want to be closer.

I live in Raleigh and use this campground if I need a place to work on the rig or staging before going out for months at a time.  Full hookups are available at all sites and very convenient to downtown Raleigh.  Check-in is simple and you can pick your own spot.  Most weekends have a horse show next door.

Only cons are the sites are grassy and can get swampy when wet, and not very level.

A small (only 34 spots) but relatively new (or refurbished) state park. Our site required minimal leveling. Interior roads were all paved and easy to navigate -- no low-hanging branches. The camp hosts were visible and attentive. Unlike other NC State Parks, the bath house seemed quite new and was spacious. Showers were hot and had great water pressure. Half the sites have electric, none have individual water. There are communal water spigots throughout the campground, but they don't easily allow hose connections, so be sure to fill your water tank before arriving (there's no potable water at the dump station, either). LOTS of hiking and horse trails throughout the park. The mountain biking trails were closed during our visit. Limited cellphone coverage (3G was spotty). The Ranger and local Sheriff made several drives through the park. Overall, another top-notch experience at an NC State Park.

No amenities, but the price reflects that. Conveniently located to everything this area offers. Fun to check out whatever is happening at the fairgrounds and the horse complex is across the street. Big rig friendly but you might need to park your your truck/road a ver short walk away if you have a very large rig. The issue here is lack of oversight. There are security folks, but only if you call and request them. There is trash pickup, but no other staff anywhere. So people break the various rules often. Mainly they stay longer than 14 days. There were squatters when we were here one time - about 5 rigs and they wouldn’t leave and had no reservations. They were gone two weeks later when we came back (state troopers and Raleigh PD had to get involved).

This was our first time at Medoc Mountain State Park in Hollister, NC. There are bike trails, horse trails, and walking trails at this state park. When we went the trails were too wet for us to do but I understand that they are beautiful right along the creek. We were there with a group of Bigfoot enthusiasts and we found out that this area of NC is known for Bigfoot sightings. The group had a thermal image hit the night before we got there. Anyway, the RV park and Tent sites are intermixed which I kind of like. The campground is like a figure 8 with the top of the 8 as mainly RV with electric sites and the bottom with sites without electricity. Most sites were recently graveled and were in good status especially on the tent side of the site. You could park a small RV in any of the sites, even the “tent” sites but there would be no electricity. There is no water or sewer at any of the sites but there are water faucets spread around the campground to fill freshwater tanks and there is a dump station out the way out of the camping area. This is an older park so it is Not setup to handle larger RVs. Angles getting in and out of some of the sites will be challenging for some RVs. We stayed 3 nights and enjoyed our time there. Fred, the camp host, was the best camp host ever and fun to talk with.

If you are ok with dry camping with electricity only, this is a great place to try and especially at such a low site cost.

Went for a winter overnight camp. The park is quite large with many miles of easy trails to explore. Many follow a tranquil stream. It was a beautiful and peaceful stay. Also the camp hosts on duty were wonderful! So friendly, and they had a Saturday morning coffee social.

So I have a goal to camp out at least once a month this year. And Medoc was a great opener. I haven't been here before but after one visit I can recommend it whole heartedly. The camp spots are well kept (fire pit and tables at each one). Tent and RV's are in the same loop but there is plenty of separation between spaces. The bath house (with hot showers) is clean and spacious.

There are probably 10 miles of trails and the ones I hiked were well kept and nicely laid out.

And if you are lucky, Chuck and Skye will be your camp hosts. They provide coffee and hot chocolate and wonderful conversation 8-10 Saturday and Sunday mornings. What a great couple.

No cell service! 😀 Clean restrooms, hot showers! Camp host and rangers are great!

This campground is beautiful for fall camping. There are over 10 miles of trails to hike. We also conoed down the creek. The creek is about 2.5 miles long and took us only 2 hours to paddle. The campground was also very clean!

This was my first time hiking with my teen daughter by ourselves, setting up camp, tent, cooking, etc. Picnic table, fire pit w/grill, level gravel tent pad on site, water spigot and trash can right in front of camp site. Bath house had doors for shower stalls as opposed to curtains, with shelves and hooks for your things. We brought our furbabies with us and we enjoyed 2 or 3 wonderful trails with beautiful views, some rock climbing, just a wonderfully happy place. My girl rode her bike around the campground and it was perfectly safe. I've been waiting to get back for quite a while.

The name of the park is deceiving because it is not in the mountains, but it has beauty in its meandering streams and trails.  The campsites have gravel tent pads, and tents must be set up on them.  The gravel on the site where I stayed was deeper than my tent stakes were long, and I could not get a good hold.  I was trying out a newly required tent, which was not freestanding, so it was frustrating.  My advice is to make sure you take a tent that IS freestanding.  Deep gravel tent pads and non-freestanding tents do not go together.  The tent site was large, had a fire ring, and a lantern pole, but the pad itself was NOT level.  I had to move the picnic table so I could set up my tent on the only level spot I could find.  Something you have to be careful about is poison ivy.  There was poison ivy all around the perimeter of my campsite.  The bathroom facilities were surprisingly modern and had spacious showers with hot water.  As far as I know, there are no electrical, sewer, or water hookups, but there is a dump station.  There is a mixture of pull-through sites and back in sites for RVs.  There are plenty of trails to explore, and plenty of fishing holes.  The Bluff Loop Trail leads from the campground and along Fishing Creek.  To see Medoc “mountain,” you have to hike quite a distance, or you can drive to the park office down the road and hike from there.  Cross the road to the Bear Swamp Trail, get on the Saponi Loop (which is also a bicycle trail), and then head to the Summit Loop Trail.  There are several miles of bicycle trails as well as hiking trails, and some of them are one way only, meaning that hikers are required to hike in one direction and bicycles go in another direction.  Even though this is in the Coastal Plain, the Bluff Loop Trail will take you by a couple of sections of whitewater.  They are small, but if you like a (mostly) easy hike through the forest, this trail is a good one.  There are no swimming pools or playgrounds, but if you want to just enjoy nature, there are hiking, biking, and fishing opportunities.

The list begins. Camp sites were alright but this place is more for RVs. Hiking was not bad but not very many miles. Outside the park was sketchy so make sure you have all you need.

Nice sites and great for mountain bikers

We spent one night here in April. It was great! 

There are some pretty easy hiking trails, great for kids. Really beautiful wooded area. The campground was everything you could ask for! Large, level sites that are very secluded and far apart from each other. Bathrooms were clean and well situated. Very family-friendly!

We want to come back soon!

Not far from the Roanoke River and right around the corner from Halifax, this spot is perfect for getting away from it all. Walking trails along the mountainside with small bridges over a creek offer a scenic view. Gazebo with grills and bathrooms are located a small walk from the tent sites.

I found this to be a decent campground . I stayed at tent site 12. The site was slightly uneven but it had a fire ring with grate, lantern pole and table. The tent pad was gravel. Water pump, trash and bathroom all in very close proximity. The bathroom was clean and hot showers. Lots of families with children. There are many hiking trails but many were unavailable due to flooding. Trail from campground to picnic area and large grassy field used for relaxing, frisbee and picnics. Phone service spotty at times but not totally unavailable. Overall a decent place to stay.

Have waited six months into our RV life to start reviews for fair comparisons. Spent four nights. Loved this campground. Small, quiet, great mountain biking trails that you can ride to from the campground. No direct water hook-up, which was a bit surprising for the cost. But you can get water there. Great dog walking areas.

We stayed in site 4 which was fairly level if you park in the right spot. The bathrooms were clean and the hosts were friendly. No cell service, but if you go to the Visitor’s center during the day they have WiFi. The history of the location is interesting. We won’t spoil it for you.

Nice amount of little trails. The reason we gave it 3 stars, in the morning fighter jets were screaming overhead at treetop level. Really ruined the atmosphere and sense of being out in nature.

This was our shakedown for our new camper. We found the site to be very neat and well cared for. The trails are very nice. There are lots of nice camping spots including some pull through sites. It was hot when we camped — but there is lots of late afternoon shade. It seems that higher numbers have more shade/are closer to wooded tracts. We will be back.

Labor Day weekend car camping at Medoc Mountain State Park campground!  Had a great time camping and hiking.  Spacious campsite with gravel parking space, gravel tent pad, picnic table, fire ring with grill and lantern pole.  We were fortunate that we had shade at our site most of the day.

Hiking trails were in great shape - well maintained.  We hiked a few of the trails and ended up with about seven miles total, but there were more we could have done.  

Firewood was readily available, the bathrooms and showers were clean.  We had a great time and plan to return when we are in the area.

We had a great weekend getaway. The campsite was perfect and the hiking was great. Different levels of difficulty for hiking trails and and little fishing creek.

We loved staying at Medoc Mountain! The staff is superb!! Very well maintained. Restroom’s & shower’s are kept very clean. Their’s always firewood right next to the ladies restrooms. We enjoyed all of the hiking we did during our stay. We weren’t aware that there are quite a bit of Sasquatch sightings in this state park. I seriously thought I was seeing things when I witnessed Big Foot!!! Plenty of wild flowers and insects. The campsites are all good. Our favorite was site 32 it’s a pull through. At night you can see the constellations Amazing views right from your campsite. We loved our stay there in August so much we recently went back to visit and of course he needed to say hello to my favorite park ranger Miss Barbara as well as Allan in the office. Peaceful and very friendly environment.

Very quiet with well spaced sites.

Well maintained hiking trails.

Big open park area for night sky viewing or daytime picnics.

Most the sites have deteriorating construction or in need of new gravel.

The bath house was very clean.

Trailer / RV sites aren't level for most sites. Some of the pull through sites don't accommodate large trailers due to tight turns.

The tent camp areas are very level.