The best TENT SITES camping near
Franklin , NORTH CAROLINA

We loved our time here. It was fun hiking to the vineyard and to Carter Falls. Very clean and nice place to stay

Great spot, really calm and quiet and right on the lake. Perfect for non-partying types (no alcohol allowed). Showers, bathrooms, trash, fire pit, and grill all available. The host was professional and kind to us, even brought us some extra fire wood.

Overall this is on the keeper list. I found this campsite on line looking for places to stay while hiking sections of the MST. Took a shot and was very pleased with the result.

The first thing to note is that there are new, larger, spaces in the works closer to the entrance with (what looks to me like) sewer hookups. It is good to know that the owners are making improvements and it might be different when you get here.

I stayed in the wooded lots and these are definitely for tents or small trailers. The spots are nice, if not perfectly level and a little close together. Of course that is really only a problem if you have noisy neighbors, which I didn't. The campground looked full over the weekend but wasn't overly noisy. I attribute that also to the beautiful large open fields where all the all the children ran free.

The bath house was very similar to the standard state park setup. It is a cinder block building with a few shower stalls, toilet stalls and sinks with mirrors. Not fancy but definitely clean and functional.

I would definitely come back again and I recommend this camp ground.

If you can get past the fact that the building with the camp store looks like something out of Hoarders, there's piles of stuff stacked up all over inside & out & abandoned boats you'll find that this is North Carolina's Crystal Lake. The pool & water slide have been neglected sitting unused for many years & a haunting reminder of better days. It's creepy, run down, a lawsuit waiting to happen & either needs an overhaul or they need to close. The upper campground looks like it's mostly full timers & getting a rig up there would be a challenge to say the least. The ones that are occupied have stuff piled up outside it & that's also where you find the cabins but considering the state of disrepair the rest of the place is in I'd be worried about falling through the floor. There's an old abandoned camper that's obviously been neglected from the 60's & I didn't even want to know what was waiting on the other side of the bathroom door up there. The lower campground was close to deserted complete with a old van & hippie, a pop-up camper with tent & another pop-up camper with a tarp over it. The only way to distinguish between the overgrown grass & the campsites are the pole with a number on it. If you have more than 2 people you have to put picnic tables together & the fire rings are car rims without the tire. The shower house is cinder block tombs with rotting bedroom doors & the bathroom is several porta potties sitting around. In the back part of the lower campground there was an old building half enclosed/half open & stuff piled up around it. The only good thing about here is the waterfall. I don't make a habit of writing reviews this negative but this place should come with a warning label.

We only stayed for 1 night as we were passing through, but we plan to return one day.

Positives are it’s a newer campground, nice and shaded, full hookups (w,e,s), lots were wide, Easy to get in and out of, plenty to do within the park (hiking, fishing, kayak/canoe, etc), has a nice dog park, hosts were very welcoming and kind, VERY clean.

Negatives are unlevel lots (we had to lower ours by over 4” and still weren’t level, but couldn’t adjust anymore), sites aren’t exactly private - but there was a bit of space between sites.

Great spot there’s some open areas to camp before you get to the water. You need a truck or something big to get down to the water unless the re-did the road. There’s a few campsites surrounded by trees but also a large open area that can hold multiple vehicles

Spent two nights at Site 67. Nice large site with no other sites behind it and nice distance to neighbors on either side. Camp ground host and park rangers very welcoming and helpful. Wood $5 a bundle from camp host. Self check-in board at camp host site. Completely full Saturday night in September, but lots of empty sites on Sunday night.

Awesome location, very remote and the sites are Huge so no need to worry about a neighbor being close. I stayed at site 11 easy access to the water and great views. Lost of fishing and hiking paths close by. Great camp overall. Highly recommend.

We stayed in one of their cabins for one night and came away with head to toe bites. The owners have been informed, but have not responded in any way.

Love this campground and the owner is very friendly. The online booking is still being tweaked a bit. Beautiful views of Pilot Knob. Great hospitality.