Best Glamping near Great Smoky Mountains National Park, NC

yea technically you are just outside of the great smoky mountain national park, but its so much fun here. Great spot to be on the NC side of the smokies. Hot showers and a big variety of camping options. Hook ups, tents whatever you need! Small enough to be quaint and quiet! Reserve early!

Pluses: Nice, clean, updated facility with excellent amenities including heated lazy river. Good location for commercial stuff in PF, Dollywood, getting to several areas in different direction of Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

Minuses: Lots of add in costs to use some amenities like pedal carts, no balls for games. WiFi was horrible all 3 days there You are packed in with other RVs everywhere.

Rustic camping, with tons of wildlife in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Well cared for, nice staff. Beautiful hiking trails, convenient store with bike rentals and wildlife watching. Remember to keep your food well locked, this is black bear territory, and since many people can't follow simple directions, and do feed the wildlife, the black bears in the smokies are not afraid of people, and associate them with food. There is some nose pollution from the generators. No electricity, no showers, no cell service, perfect for a weekend getaway into the wild.

Elkmont is a huge campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

They have plenty of sites for tents and RVs. There is a camp store, showers, and restrooms. They provide potable water access. Some sites do have electric hookups for medical needs, which are also handicap accessible. Most site are primitive sites with no water or electric hookup available. Some loops do allow the use of generators during certain hours. Pets are allowed in the campground, but not on the trails.

This campground has great access to hiking and fishing, as well as wildlife viewing.

We spent our weekend trip hiking and enjoying the butterflies that fill the park in September.

This campsite is in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and is one of the biggest and busiest.

Yay: this is a fairly typical big national park campground in many ways. There is a camp store with firewood (you are required to buy it from an authorized location!). Nice roomy campsites with a lot of plant cover letting you feel like you have a private area. You can hike some trail from right on site. Rangers have almost nightly programming for all ages.

Nay: given the traffic it is well maintained but can still be a little behind in restroom cleanliness. We’ve stayed here many times and how clean the campsite and bathrooms/facilities are can vary a lot. The staff are all excellent though and are happy to hop to it and solve any issues you may have with the facilities. Also bring tons of bug spray! No showers.

Surprise: cool little ghost town nearby for neat photos. Many sites are along an adorable creek (B-teens for example).

This campsite is in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and is one of the biggest and busiest. It’s a little more RV-friendly than Elkmont it seems, but we like them both a lot.

Yay: this is a fairly typical big national park campground in many ways. There is a camp store with firewood (you are required to buy it from an authorized location!). Nice roomy campsites, but not as much plant cover as at Elkmont in my experience. You can hike some trail from right on site. Rangers have almost nightly programming for all ages. Love the tent only areas.

Nay: given the traffic it is well maintained but can still be a little behind in restroom cleanliness. We’ve stayed here many times and how clean the campsite and bathrooms/facilities are can vary a lot. The staff are all excellent though and are happy to hop to it and solve any issues you may have with the facilities. Also bring tons of bug spray! No showers.

Surprise: This is a better campground if you have people in your group that are not as mobile or into hiking, as you can drive the Cades Cove scenic drive.

As the most visited national park by far, it’s not always easy to find peace in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. And Elkmont Campground -- the park’s largest at 220 campsites -- may not seem like the ideal place to try to find that peace, but somehow, we did.

We visited the Smokies in November, after the fall colors had peaked and long after summer travelers had crowded the trails and campgrounds. Sometimes, visiting during the off-season is all it takes to have an ideal national park experience.

Our campsite at Elkmont was huge! We had ample space for our tent and shade tent, which we set up over the provided picnic table. Our site backed up to the Little River, providing idyllic camping backdrop noise. The campground provided basic amenities like running water and flush toilets.

The only downside to our time in the Smokies was the rain. During our five days there, it rained almost every day. We attempted a three-day hike along the AT, but decided to come back after two. We skipped the park’s highest point at Clingman’s Dome, because we never had a clear day.

But we managed to enjoy our time in plenty of other ways. We enjoyed our time in Cades Cove and Abrams Falls with almost no other visitors, and we loved hiking to Ramsay Cascades and Grotto Falls, two fine misty-day activities.

You can read much more about our five days in the park on our blog: Switchback Kids (Great Smoky Mountains)

When you first get to the campground, you may think it is the typical national park campground, and it is in a several ways. However, this campground has a little-known area that many people ignore. First of all, the campsite we stayed in was spacious and had a fire ring. It didn’t have electricity and water, but it was large enough for my best friend to put up his monster tent.  The bath house does not have showers, but they are more than adequate for primitive camping. The campground is located in an area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that has the Little River through it, so you have the sounds of the creek at night. You can gather wood for your campfire, but you cannot transport firewood into the campground unless it has been certified and sealed in plastic. If you are not tubing or fishing in the river, you can travel a few miles to explore Cades Cove. However, next to the campground, there is the little-known area I mentioned earlier. I found it fascinating and lots of fun to explore. It is a ghost town, which began as a logging town. In the early 1900s, it became a resort, and from what I understand, many of the residents were from eastern Tennessee. Some of the buildings have been restored, but most of them are deteriorating quickly. We were able to go inside most of the buildings, but you have to be careful. You are not allowed to go into the some of them, which have signs and are dangerous. However, just to walk down the streets among the buildings is a beautiful sight, especially in the fall. The last thing I heard is that they are going to raze most of the buildings. Overall, Elkmont Campground is a peaceful place to stay with a lot of history. It is also close to another popular area of the national park--Cades Cove. My advice would be to plan ahead since this campground can fill up during peak season. It is the largest campground of the Smokies, if I understood correctly, but campers come from all over the United States to stay here.

it's a bbit claustrophobic, each site being quite close to the other. We were tent ccamping, and iit appears that most of the sites are a better desiggned for RV camping. Being as close as it is to great Smoky Mountains National Park, it was predictably absoolutely full the entire week we were there, so  one's enjoyment may have a lot to do with who your next-door neighbors are, especially when you are tent camping and don't have the advantage of your own personal sound dampening and air conditioning. But if you want to be close to the national park, this is a great pick, as you are just a couple miles from the beginning off the Townsend entrance to the park.

When we were there, they had also installed a couple of restored teardrop traailers from what appeared to be the 1960s. On our last night, we decided to switch from tent camping to   renting one of the teardrops, which was quite small but quite fun, quite kitschy, restored to match the era.  

In spite of the fact that the camp is located right along a busy highway, the noise level was not too big of a problem since the campsites are not dirrectly next to the highway but  rather back in further, with some of  the more coveted spots being right next to the river. Even  if your camp spot is not on the river, there are two or three places to access it, making it possible to cool down onn a hot muggy summer day by wading in the very cold stream, or even tubing down to your campsite by having someone drop you upstream. I don't think they rent tubes at the campground but there are several places within walking distance that do.

The restrooms were quite nice for campsite restrooms — three or four private showers in each restroom, sinks with mirrors, etc. They keep out non-guests by having the restrooms accessible with a key code lock.

The pool looks nice and is well maintained, but we did not use it. There is also a big pavilion used by some church group every Sunday morning, offering worship services to vacationers, and dooing Sunday school crafts with the little kids.

Campground Review- Cades Cove is one of the most scenic areas in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The 11 mile loop through Cades Cove is beautiful and full of wildlife. The road is paved, and is closed to car traffic on Saturday’s and Wednesday’s until 10am, so it is great to take a bike, or go on foot and explore! We always see lots of deer, turkeys, and sometimes bears and coyotes. Abrams Falls is a popular hike, it’s roughly 5 miles round trip, is moderately difficult, and has a beautiful waterfall at the end, but beware of swimming there, several deaths have occurred at Abrams Falls, even from strong swimmers.

The Campground at Cades Cove is heavily wooded, with lots of sites, none of them have electricity hook ups, but the B loop allows generators, the C loop does not allow them. The sites are fairly close, but each site has plenty of room to not feel cramped.
The restrooms do not have showers, but do have flush toilets, and were well maintained and clean. The campground has a nice store that has the approved heat treated firewood, ice, souvenirs, ice cream, and other things you might need. I believe you can rent bikes there too. This area is extremely crowded during summer and peak seasons, so plan accordingly!

Product Review- *Ranger Review- Wenzel Moonshine Shade As a ranger for The Dyrt, I sometimes get cool gear to test and review, so today I’m reviewing the Moonshine Shade from Wenzel. The Shade arrived on Friday morning, the day I was heading to Cades Cove, with rain in the forecast I was so pumped I got it in time to take! I have been looking for a lightweight canopy to replace the big, bulky ez up we’ve been using, the Moonshine Shade weighs in at 14lbs, and fits in a small carrying case! The first time setting it up, it was in the rain, and I should have actually read the Instructions, instead of skimming over them! Lol. But I figured it out, and in hindsight, i made it way harder than it actually is. It is really a quick 5 minute set up, and the 9x12 area actually provides more shade than the 10x10 canopy, especially with the movable side wall.

The Moonshine Shade from Wenzel is a fantastic product, and excellent for camping, or any outdoor event! Find it here- Wenzelco.com

This campground has just about everything you could ask for.  Located close to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it is a private campground and has several types of camping opportunities.  Although most of the sites are for RVs, there are a few sites beside Deep Creek for tents.  If you have two tents, as we did, you need to make sure they are small because the tent pads are not that big.  However, it was great sleeping beside the creek away from the RVs, and it was not too far of a walk to the bath house.  If you are in an RV, there are pull-through sites and back-in sites.  This is also the first campground that I have ever seen with shelters at some of the RV sites.  As far as activities, there is plenty for the kids to do so they will not get bored.  For younger children, there are two playgrounds and a “fort.”   I can hardly wait to come here again with my grandson since I think he would especially love the fort.  The modern bath house is coupled with a laundry, and there are quite a few cabins if you don’t want to stay in a tent or an RV.  The camp store is fully stocked, and the whole campground has a quaint mountain theme.  The person I spoke to in the store spoke matter-of-factly, but she was not unfriendly.  I guess I should have bought some of the bundled firewood because we had a hard time trying to start the fire without dry wood.  We were able to miss the Memorial Day crowd since we camped there before the big rush.  Since this is also a tubing center, you can rent a tube and take it into the national park, which is about a mile down the road.  If you don’t like crowds, I suggest that you go when I did—a few weeks BEFORE Memorial Day.  Once Memorial Day comes, it will be crowded and the creek will be filled with tubers.  If you take the short drive into the national park, you will come to a parking lot, and from there, you can hike to three waterfalls close by.  The closest one from the parking lot in the national park is two-tenths of a mile, and it is an easy hike.  If you want to do some shopping or sightseeing, downtown Bryson City is a couple of miles away.  From there you can book a ride on the Smoky Mountain Railroad, or you can drive into the national park down Lake Shore Drive (a.k.a. “The Road to Nowhere”).  It is a pleasant six mile drive and has an overlook to view the beginning of Fontana Lake.

A smaller campsite but very well organized and maintained. Small lake on site. Several hiking trails nearby. You can hike a trail into the NC Arboretum. Very near Asheville and Biltmore Estates. Tent sites, RV sites and Glamping sites. Clean bathrooms and properly supervised. A hidden gem minutes from Asheville

I only stayed a night here but it was just the spot I needed to reorganize my truck and enjoy a wonderful hot shower.

Also really needed the quick swil in the lake in the evening.

This site sells ice and firewood usually (they were out of ice when I was there) and also has a number of "glamping" tents available to reserve.

Expensive but worth it. The owners are going all out with this campground. Tiny homes, glamping tents, and cabins for rent. Then there are on river and off river RV sites. The on river rv sites have a gazebo over the picnic table. Great facilities that are only being made better.

It is right before the entrance to the Smoky Mountain National Park. Townsend is called the peaceful side of the Smoky Mountains.

We did a company retreat at the Yak Eco Camp and were amazed at how private the location was. What's more, it was so expensive around town and at tourist traps, we were happy to have the property to retreat to and have an HQ for our entire group. The host mentioned many more amenities coming to the property that will surely make this the most desirable glamping spot for all mountain bikers, hikers, etc. in the area. They're adding a huge sauna, cold shower and much more to cater to all ages.