Best Tent Camping near Fontana Dam, NC

Gateway to the Smokies is a small family owned and operated campground with two very large and private campsites on over an acre of land. It is located right off of US Highway 441 just 7 miles to the North Carolina Entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There is a Dollar General located right across the highway which was very convenient for refilling coolers with ice. They also sold propane, charcoal for the grill, drinks, snacks and any thing you'd need for camping! Site 1 sits along the creek and is a walk-in Tents Only campsite with a 16' tent pad. Site 2 is up the hill on a nice grassy area large enough to turn around a 1/2 ton size pickup truck and 20' travel trailer without having to back up. Both sites have a fire pit, park style grill, and a picnic table. There is also a shared portable toilet located near the site 1 parking area. There is no potable water and no hookups but I'm sure you could boil water from the creek. Generators are allowed with no restrictions unless there is other campers on property then quiet times are from 10pm- 7am. Verizon service worked fine w 3 bars of service. Great spot for exploring the NC side of the Smoky Mountains. Saved money using Dyrt Pro Discount compared to other apps the property is listed on.

Campground Review

On a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, you quickly learn that you’ll enjoy your visit a lot more if you are located close to what you want to see and do. This means you may find it worth your while to move from one campground to another during your stay, as I did. My final night in the park found me setting up camp at Elkmont Campground, < 5 miles from the Sugarlands entrance, so I would have a shorter drive to view sunset and sunrise from overlooks along the beautiful Newfound Gap Rd. This is also the viewing area for the synchronous fireflies in late May/early June (dates vary; parking passes by lottery in April) if you don’t have a campsite reservation).

Elkmont is open early March – October and reservations are required. If you arrive without a reservation, there is a phone line there that you can call to make them, or you can return to town where you have cell service and make reservations online. This early in the season (mid-April) the campground wasn’t full, some of the loops were closed. I was in site A14, beside a branch of the Little River with a large tent pad, fire ring, picnic table, and paved, slightly sloped, parking pad. It was a compact site;  the location of the picnic table between the tent and fire ring made it a challenge to set up a screen house over the picnic table and maintain sufficient distance from the fire. I was pleased with my site and the privacy, though I liked the looks of A13 even better. It was somewhat larger and more secluded. Many of the sites, particularly those on the western side of A - F loops, are along the river. Most of the sites are shaded. A few of the B-loop sites are walk-in. It’s bear country, so your food and toiletries need to be locked in a vehicle or hard-side camping unit; there are some food storage lockers provided for the walk-in sites. There’s a small camp store with limited supplies and hours (open late afternoon); Cades Cove has a much larger one, though it tends more toward souvenirs.

There’s cold running water, flush toilets, and a dishwashing station available, but no showers or hookups (a couple of accessible sites do have electricity for medical equipment). Bathrooms are basic, no frills, but clean; The one in the A loop didn’t even have an outlet or hand dryer. If you ask at the visitor’s center, they’ll provide you with a list of area campgrounds that allow you to take a shower for $3-7. The nearest dump station is a seasonal one at the Sugarlands Visitor Center (doesn’t open until late May); the one at Cades Cove is open year round. Buy firewood in the park or, better yet, pick up deadwood around the park.

One of the more intriguing areas to explore at Elkmont is the Daisy Town ghost town. Once you’ve set up camp, walk or drive down the road toward the Little River and Jakes Creek trails (leaves the camp road to the left before the ranger station on your way into the campground). Follow the signs for additional parking and you’ll find yourself at the end of a road lined with assorted cottages and cabins that used to be vacation homes. Some are open for exploration, others are cordoned off, and some are undergoing renovation. Another nearby, popular highlight is the hike to Laurel Falls.

Product Review

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I sometimes I get to test and evaluate products. This is a review of a Wenzel Sun Valley 12’ x 12’ Screen House As a camper with a teardrop, I’m always looking to maximize my outdoor living space in subpar conditions, so I was excited to try this out at Elkmont.

I set this up alone the first time in 14 minutes without reading the instructions. The instructions are attached to the inside of the bag and recommend 2 people for set-up, but if you’ve pitched a dome tent in the past, you’ll find this inituitive. Continuous sleeves for 4 of the fiberglass poles and the “Fast Feet” made set- up easy. I did wish the sleeves for the cross-poles were continuous as well, but the gap allows for a hook to hold the ceiling up and it didn’t take much extra effort to slide the poles in. The hardest part was getting the 4th end of the cross poles for the roof into place. I couldn’t bend them enough to slide it in while on the ground, so waited until everything else was up…should have figured it out while it was at ground level rather than over my head! This part would definitely be easier if there were two people pitching it.

The zippers on the two doors close tightly and easily without extreme tension, though it was definitely easier to open and close with 2 hands rather than one. There was no gap at the junction of the 3 zippers. Once you are inside, you have a crystal clear view of the outside! It’s quite tall, I couldn’t touch the ceiling in the middle with a raised hand. It doesn’t have a floor, just a wide border around the perimeter, so you can place it over a picnic table. The picnic table (about 6’) fit inside it easily with plenty of room to walk around and even add a chair in a corner. I had to be careful about making sure the bottom of the walls lay flat on the ground, otherwise there were gaps.

It comes with 10 thin metal stakes for the feet and 4 plastic ones for the guy lines. A word of advice: USE THEM.  The first time I set this up, this experienced camper made a rookie mistake. The weather was nice, but it was getting dark, and I wanted to move it over the picnic table in the morning…so I didn’t stake it down. That night a wind storm blew through and blew it away! Found it at 4am in the next campsite,  astonished to discover it was still intact! No broken poles, just a slight abrasion on one sleeve and a tiny tear in one part of the screen that will be easily repaired. A couple of the poles slid out of the Fast Feet during its overnight adventure, allowing the screen house to collapse and preventing damage to the poles themselves (I’ve seen MANY other screen houses/canopies with bent and broken poles from wind). Truly impressed.

Pitched it again the next afternoon with the wind still blowing and as you can see in my video, the screen house was like a kite until I staked it down. Once staked, it stood up well to the wind, though it did cause the bottom edge of the screen house to lift a bit. If bugs are out in that weather (there were wind advisories), they probably deserve a chance for some shelter, too.

Taking it down, it easily fit back in the storage bag, with the zipper extending down one end to open the bag a bit more. Oh, and it weighs so much less than many of the canopies do, coming in around 20# and not requiring a wheeled case to lug it around. If you’re looking for a  screen house, this one has a lot going for it!

Black fly season is coming and with the Wenzel Sun Valley Screen House packed, I’m ready! MY fuller video review is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ealCyAi02HA

 I camped at this campground about fifteen to twenty years ago, and I loved the coolness of the high altitude. That has not changed. When I camped at Balsam Mountain last night, there were things I didn’t remember from my first visit long ago. Now there are tent pads, and some of them are within spitting distance of each other. Fortunately, I got a site that was a good distance away from the next site. However, the site was small and sloped. If you have a large tent, just know that you might have to stake guy lines outside of the tent pad. The picnic table was not level, and the fire pit was very close to the picnic table. That wasn’t too bad, but almost every site was such that you had to park on the campground road, except for sites 26-31. Those were tent sites in which you had to park in a designated parking area and walk in a short distance. There are no hookups at this campground, which is okay with me since I am in a tent and carry my own water, and the restrooms have no showers. The worst part about the restrooms, however, is that you have to remember to take a towel/paper towel with you, and at night, make sure to take a lantern/headlamp/flashlight to the restroom. This may be TMI, but I am glad I had tissue in my pocket. Both rolls of toilet paper were empty. The men’s urinals are placed fairly high, so if you have small children, you will definitely want to let them use the toilet in the stall. There is no electricity at the restrooms, which means there is no light—not even outside. I enjoyed the campground for it being away from towns, but it was a little crowded anyway. Beware. If you are in an RV, you will have to park it on the campground road. There are no back-in sites, nor are there any pull-through sites. The RV sites are literally on wide sections of the paved campground road. Each site does have a picnic table and a fire pit, but there are no lantern poles. I did like it that there was a separate building for washing dishes. Also be aware that the campground is in a bear habitat, and you have to take precautions. I actually saw a huge pile of bear scat(poop) on the nature trail fewer than 100 yards away from the campground. Make sure when you go that you take everything you need, including ice, kiln-dried firewood, etc. The nearest town is fifteen miles away. Finding downed wood is hard to come by. I found just enough to have about a twenty-minute fire, and bringing wood from outside the park is not allowed unless it is sealed and certified. There is one nature trail that is about a half mile long, and it takes you to Heintooga Overlook, which is at the picnic area. To me, this is the best part about the campground, although it’s not really part of the campground. There is another trail not accessible directly from the campground, and years ago, you could hike to a waterfall. That is no longer the case. The trail has been re-routed, and several people have tried to find the waterfall without any luck. I came upon a small amphitheater while I was looking for wood, not that it would interest the camping overnighter, but it is interesting. Overall, I was disappointed in the campground. I was hoping to give it at least three stars, but the fact that you have to park in the road, there are not real RV sites, the restrooms are disappointing, and the site I was on was really small, I cannot give it three stars. Some of the campers I talked to loved the campground and come back every year. For me, there are better national park campgrounds in the Smokies.

We reserved our site online, this can be done a month in advance. We were impressed with the paved parking space, picnic table, fire pit and level tent pad. It looks like these are very new. Proximity to cades cove loop was great. The souvineer shop has great gifts and a good selection of snacks and some supplies. Prices are reasonable, better than we expected. Bathroom was not the best, not very clean. The dish washing sink behind the bathroom was handy. No showers, but this is true for any camp sites in the park. Ranger station nearby is helpful to get advice and current weather reports (no phone reception in the park). Bike rentals available near the gift/snack shop too, to bike the loop. Lots of trees on our site that we used to setup a tarp to stay dry.

Smaller camp grounds, that best suited for smaller campers, or tent camping. The driveway coming into the campground is steep, so drive slow, and I would highly recommend showing up before dark, not an entrance I would want to make after dark. They have affordable firewood and ice on site, free coffee in the office, and Wi-Fi. Currently I’m using the Wi-Fi from my spot, since cellular service in this area isn’t reliable. Make sure you download a google map “offline mode” map of the area before coming, since service is limited for ATT and Verizon. If your doing tent camping, they made these elevated large squares out of crushed gravel to put your tent on, that are perfectly level, and with the gravel, should stay dry in event of rain. Some of the spots have “river” access, I would call it more of a small creek, but still nice. All the gravel roads seem to be in great condition. Washer and dryers are available, and showers and bathrooms are way better than average.

For tent campers, I would rate this campground with five stars. For RV campers, I would rate it with one star. There are no hookups for RV campers, but there is a place to park a small RV camper that is self-contained. I loved this campground. It is everything you need for tent camping. It is remote in the mountains of western North Carolina and has lots of shade. It has a small pond, it is quiet, and the owners are very nice. One of the owners apologized for the grass being so high, but I assured him it was all right(and it wasn’t really that high). 

There are several tent sites back in the woods, but they are spacious and not on top of each other. Some of them have access to running water, and at least one has electricity.  There is also a small cottage by the pond, and a camper that can be rented.   At night, all you will hear are crickets, the wind through the trees, birds, and frogs—just the way I like it. This campground truly is off the beaten path. 

As far as facilities, it has a shower. There is a portable toilet across the path. Although it sounds primitive, which it is, the quaintness of the shower house and the fact that it has both a shower and a portable toilet is good enough unless you are looking for luxury accommodations. This campground may be remote, but it is not far from many hiking trails and sites, including but not limited to Purchase Knob, Hemphill Bald, the old Ferguson Cabin, Cataloochee Valley, the Great Smoky Mountains, and much more. 

An additional feature is the old barn owned by the same people, which can accommodate special events, such as weddings and other venues in a beautiful rural setting. Would I recommend this campground? Absolutely!!!!… especially for tent campers.

We chose this campground specifically for the elevation, knowing we would be camping in late August and wanting an escape from the heat. It definitely delivered--at over 5300' elevation, it is much, much cooler at the campground than many of the trails lower in the Smokies. It is also extremely foggy--we did not spend much time here during the day as we were hiking, but both morning and nights we were there, clouds settled in over the entire campground, creating a very cool effect. (It also rained on us both nights, so make sure your tent is properly sealed against water!) 

We stayed in sites 38 and 39, which had been booked in advance by the friends we went with. These are very close to the entrance, to other sites, to the bathrooms, the campground hosts, and the dishwashing station, and they are right on the road. It made these sites very convenient, but not the best for us as we had 5 small children with us. The tent pad at site 38 was also a little too small for our 6 person Coleman Evanston—one corner was hanging off the wooden platform.

While our campsite was not as private as we normally would choose for ourselves, the campground itself was very quiet and very peaceful, and nowhere near full occupancy, despite the crowds on the trails below us. It is very wet, so if you want a campfire be sure to buy some of the heat-treated wood available for purchase down the mountain, and be prepared to secure anything you don't want to get wet in your cars overnight. 

My only complaint here was the interaction the campground hosts had with our children--a bear had been seen at the entrance to the campground our first night there, and one of the hosts attempted to scare one of our toddlers into staying close to her mom, which is a decision I found highly inappropriate, and the hosts in general acted annoyed anytime our children wanted to play more than a few feet away from the adults. However that is not a fault of the campground itself, and I think if we had not been so close to the host site that would not have been an issue, and would have made this a very family-friendly place to go--provided you prepare for temperatures 10-20 degrees cooler than it is at lower elevations!

**Other things of note with this campground: **

-For privacy, sites 32-37 looked to be the best, although they require a couple of steps down from the car so are not ADA compliant. These sites are very grassy, with a lot of room for kids and dogs to run around without being right on the road. Site 23 was also very private compared to the others, although small; I don’t think anything larger than a 4 person tent would fit here.

-The tent-only sites, 26-31, are clustered together and very open to each other, but offer privacy from the road and the other sites in the campground, and are considered the "walk-in" sites. The walk is very short, and I did see bear boxes to store food, as proper food storage is extremely important in the Smokies--within a few miles of the campsite we saw elk, bears, wild turkey, and deer. 

-There is a dishwashing station behind site 38, with two sinks. There was some dish soap in there on our trip, but as always, be prepared with your own, and the water was cold water only. 

-Site 38 is next to an open field rolling down the mountain; the hosts told us there is a bear family that likes to cross the campsite between sites 7 and 38, so be prepared to see one if you choose a site near this crossing!

-There is a trail along the edge of this campground that is supposed to have wonderful sunset views, although we did not get to take advantage of this due to the fog.

-Because of the high elevation, Balsam Mountain has a shorter operating season that the other GSMNP campgrounds; plan your trip accordingly. 

-There are no electric or water hook-ups here, although RVs and campers may park at the sites. 

-The bathrooms have solar-powered lights for nighttime, but they are very dim, so flashlights/headlamps are encouraged.

This location is kind of famous. You read about it in the AT books and the owner has actually written a book about all the hikers he's met that happen through his shop. Neels Gap is not only a place to throw down for some sleep (they have a campground and a hostel), but it's a total resupply stop. We stayed at Neels Gap Camp because it fit our mileage plans and it was convenient for the night and it was a great place to catch up with folks we met on the trail and meet some new ones.

The hostel here is mainly for through hikers. They charge $20/night and that includes a shower and a bed. We stayed at the campground behind the building. There's nothing wrong with the campground, other than the fact that it's on such a slant (building camps on the sides of mountains and rocks does this...) that you are going to end up sleeping on top of your tent buddy if you don't aim your tent the right direction, and there are not many pads that allow the "right direction". You are truly best off in a hammock at this campground.

There are plenty of hammock trees, and it's kind of cool that the AT goes right past the tent pads so in the morning, you can watch the hikers filter out and head north on their journey. Old faces and new faces greet you as you sip your coffee and eat your oatmeal.

There is a fire ring, and since the fire ban ends on the other side of the highway (Neels sits on the highway), we were on the right side of the road to have a fire! A welcome addition to the chilly night air. There is a fire pit made of stone and everyone shares.

There were not many good spots to hang bear bags that were away from the tents, but we found one that sufficed. They do not have a bear box (and claim that bears don't really come to this campground, but can you really tell them not to?). They do, however, have mice, and one little bugger ate into my pack and buried a peanut inside. So best to put your pack in your tent, if possible. They're cute, but not that cute.

Portable pottys were located out front of the store, and there were about 5 that were fairly clean and maintained. There is a water faucet out front with drinkable water (yay!) that didn't need to be purified and picnic tables for cooking your food. A beautiful overlook while you ate was awesome too! There is a road/highway that passes by, so there is road noise, but not unbearable. Just kind of annoying if you are used to the sounds of the woods.

The store has anything you could possibly need for re-supply, which makes it totally awesome! Gear (packs, sleeping bags, shoes, socks, etc), cooking supplies (food, stoves, fuel), books, water bottles, you name it! They also accept resupply boxes that you have mailed to yourself and a system to hand them out that seems to work really well.

Overall, not a bad spot for camping. Everything you need in one spot.

"Is there water to play in?" 

This is a question my kids ask about almost every campground we go to. Before this trip I told them, "yes!" But once we got to the Toccoa River Cove, all of us realized that "yes" really meant, "this is a phenomenal wonderland we will never want to leave." 

I want to say this is a "goldilocks" campground, but only because it has something for everyone, not because it falls into an average category. With 12 acres of woodland and the freedom to pitch a tent anywhere (provided you honor LNT principals about where to set up camp!), you can camp right next to the car, set up a camping hammock, or explore the forest and find a secluded area in the trees for a backpacking tent. There is a spring you can drink straight out of, and streams criss-crossing the entire area if you want the rugged feeling of purifying your own water. There's a large shelter stocked with a table, chairs, lanterns, and a two-burner camp stove for the glamping crowd, with plenty of floor space to throw down a sleeping bag for thru-hikers nostalgic for AT shelters. The campsite also has a huge fire ring (and a shelter with lots of cut wood), a picnic table, a bench, lots of bridges over the water, a few established trails, a privy that is obviously cleaned regularly, and most importantly, a total immersion in nature as only one group can book this site at a time. 

Things to note for planning:

-The driveway down to the shelter is very steep, and does not allow much space to turn around. RVs or larger trucks will not fit, and per the owner only one vehicle may park at the base of the driveway at a time--all others should park just past the gate once you first turn onto the driveway 

-Water is available from two natural springs, but there is no filtered or piped water

-There is no electricity at all at this site

-The closest town is Copperhill/McCaysville on the TN/GA border. You can get provisions here, or use the campsite as a basecamp to explore the breweries and restaurants the town has to offer.

-There is a community area a short drive from the campsite that offers swimming and fishing; access is included in your reservation

I cannot see any tent campers this site would not be perfect for. While there are neighboring houses so loud parties are not permitted, this site allows up to 10 guests, with plenty of room to spare if you are looking to get out with friends. Single campers or couples will appreciate the privacy, and families will find the amenities that make camping with kids easier, accompanied with the space to allow kids freedom to explore.

I feel like I am always on a quest to find a campsite that blends the ability to carry gear for every possible contingency, with the beauty and privacy of the backcountry. After staying here, I can say that quest is over. This is it.