Best Tent Camping near Little Switzerland, NC

My teen daughter and I had a last minute midweek opportunity to go tent camping and they were so accommodating and friendly here. Beautiful riverfront grassy tent sites are serene and peaceful. Highly recommended

We really like camping there. We tent camp and it is clean and has a handful of things for the kids. The only down side is that the tent sites are road side…so when the campers pull in and out you hear them hitting the gas. Every now and again people will peel out on the road. 😕 Otherwise 👍🏻 and enjoy the friendly staff, CLEAN bathrooms and campground.

We stayed at Tent Site #3 in late May and early June. We have stayed at the campground twice before. We love coming back here because of the great amenities, location, and access to activities. 

1. The amenities are great for the kind of tent camping we like to do: electric & water at each site, central bath house with individual bath suites that are cleaned regularly, and a dish washing station. 

2. The location is excellent - you can get to downtown Asheville in 10 minutes! 

3. The views are amazing - so many mountains and the French Broad River!

Our pup loved the trails at the campground. I would recommend you not picking tent site #3 (the picnic table was not level) or #4 because they are right across from each other and there isn't a lot of privacy between the two. I would definitely pick tent site #2 if you want to be closer to the bath house or #5 if you want to be farthest away from the other sites.

Remote, quiet family friendly campground. It is a basic campground with both tent sites and hook-ups. We enjoy tent camping here on the large field where fireflies light up the night sky! There are sites that are close to water so you can fall asleep listening to the gurgle of the creek - and sites near the woods. The bathhouse includes toilets and sinks with a hand dryer. You can drive to the falls or drive to the visitor center and hike to the falls - a great campground!

We camped in this quiet and comfortable campground for 4 nights. We really appreciated the warm shower rooms, large, clean and private. Though we have a 28’ Open Range with shower and septic hookup, we preferred the shower rooms. There is a beautiful area for tent camping with lovely tent sites. And some were occupied by campers who braved a couple of below freezing nights and the first snowfall. The owners are so friendly and helpful you feel like a long-time neighbor. Fully functional septic, electricity and water. Well maintained.

I have going to this site BEFORE it was a state park.  They developed it has a tent camping and put in two outhouses (pit toilets).  It was easy to go camp without reservations anytime.   The they installed the nice bathrooms and two RV sites.  Good Luck making a reservation.  It stays booked.  The campground has a creek running beside it.  It is stocked with trout a few times each year.  You MUST have all of your NC Licenses.  Be sure to pay attention to what season it is and what bait you can use.  Hiking is great.  Beautiful waterfall.   NO PHONE reception.  My wife loves it.  There are 16 tent sites with no power and two RV sites with power.  We love it.

This campground is beautiful, peaceful, and scenic! If you are looking for somewhere that isn't super crowded but has a lot to offer at a great price, this is it! Located on the beautiful Blue Ridge Park in between Little Switzerland and Craggy Gardens/Mt Mitchell area at Milepost 339.5. Far enough away to be in nature and Crabtree Falls but also around 20ish minutes to a Walmart and other great stuff. RV sites, tent sites, flushing toilets, fire rings, picnic tables, clean bathrooms, etc. National Park Service operated campground as well which is a plus. Had a great time,we  will be back!

Sites #1-40 are for tent camping and the rest are for RVs. We camped with tents in the RV section because it was all that was available. It was definitely tough to find places to put our tents in our site (86), but the designated tent sites were large and flat. It was pretty crowded while we were there and campsites are close together.

The campground has lots of amenities—a pool, amphitheater, camp store with firewood and ice for sale, flush toilets, laundry machines, etc. They put on lots of fun activities like group hikes and educational talks. We went to the see the live music at the amphitheater Saturday night and it was charming. There are lots of hiking trails you can walk to, but we didn‘t have time to check them out.

The highlight of the trip was hiking the grassy balds starting at Carver’s Gap. Get there early! Parking was tricky when we got there at 9:30am and impossible when we left around 2pm. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. Overall a nice weekend in Roan Mountain State Park!

Nice, quaint campground off the BRP, near Little Switzerland {which offers the lovely Little Switzerland Cafe, open 11am to 4pm, with an adjacent general store, next to that is a cool eclectic bookstore with art, coffee & treats.}

Campground is non electric, no showers - flush toilets. The bathroom is usually rather unkempt - but tolerable.

Rv loop, tent loop - one car per tent sight. Extra cars must park in the overflow.

There’s a picnic area to the right and up a ways as you exit the campground. It’s lovely and offers a bit of a look out.

There’s an open area in the tent site loop with inner and outer sites, the outer ones seem more private.

Small picnic table and fire ring at sites, across to water.

Dog friendly, alcohol prohibited. $20 a day.

Be warned: Tent pads are small.. and you must keep tents on the pad so if you have a large family sized tent the pad may not accommodate.

You can hike to the stunning Crabtree Falls from the campground.. it’s about 45 mins to an hr round trip.

Walmart is in nearby Spruce Pine for fuel and supplies as well as a farm stand & BK.

NC Gem museum is closeby as well as Grassy Creek Falls, one of my favorite waterfalls.

Roaring Fork Falls is close, off the 80.

There’s plenty of look outs on the BRP..

It’s definitely worth a stop.

This campground DOES have bears who visit the campground for food. There are no bear boxes provided and the property manager, Jason, will assure you it’s your fault if they come into your campsite and you left something out that is square in shape. Anything square apparently, so store everything in your car. He also does NOT want this information shared. He accused my family of chasing away business when we were honest about having seen bears but in fact had encouraged the fellow camper’s they were safe. 

Tent Campsites leave a lot to be desired.

Campground is well maintained and view from BATHHOUSE is beautiful, but not from tent sites. 

Bathrooms leave a lot to be desired. Old, Stained and Mildewed, low lighting and poor ventilation. 

Note: We left out a cube shaped plastic water jug and lost our tent as a result. We didn’t even complain to management or say a word, but still were treated horribly because when asked, we were honest and told a fellow camper the truth about bears destroying our campsite because of the cube shaped waterjug. We assured them it was our fault. Still the property manager accused us of driving away business. Very Rude. Never listened to us. We packed up and left a day early as that is not the kind of place we wanted to be, or people we wanted to be around.

Bear Den Family Campground is a great place to camp right off The Blue Ridge Parkway. The drive is so scenic, offering arguably some of the best mountain views of the smokies. The surrounding area is just beautiful, lots of hiking opportunities, or just sightseeing. We found a winery nearby, Linville Falls Winery, and it was amazing. We also visited a town called Little Switzerland, and it was so neat! The campground was very clean and well maintained, and is pretty large, with amazing tent sites, as well as rv sites. There’s a small lake for fishing (posted-no license required), and also has a roped off swimming area. There’s a camp store, however it was closed due to COVID-19, but we were able to grab some firewood and ice and they just charged my card. I also saw a few playgrounds, a basketball court, and an event shelter. The tent loop was very impressive, the sites were spacious and secluded, with lots of trees between, and mostly all would be good for a rooftop tent, or hammock camping. The hookup sites were nice, most I saw looked mostly level. Bear Den is a great place, we look forward to returning!

Mount Mitchell State Park, highest peak east of the Mississippi...6,684ft elevation... is located on The Blue Ridge Parkway, but it is still a bit of a climb (for foot or vehicle traffic) to get to the summit. https://www.ncparks.gov/mount-mitchell-state-park

Getting here the day after the solar eclipse, it was still pretty busy...and if you are traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway...speed is only 45 mph, so do your calculations. There are only nine, yes, count them...nine tent camping sites. So reservations are a must if you want a site! The campground is open from May 1 to Oct 31...but if you walk-in to the sites, as in via the trails, you can rent a site amost all year.

Tent sites are small, but nice. You get a timber lined tent pad, a crushed limestone area with picnic table, wooden lantern post, and a fire ring with flip grate...and a bear secure food storage bin. There are flush toilets between sites 3 and 7... and two water spigots nearby.

If campsites are full and you desire to hike the trails, you can register your vehicle with office, leave it there in the parking lot and locate a place to make camp along the trails. There are also several free roadside sites marked with a brown plastic post with a small tent emblem on them. Ordinarily these are along a stream where you can gather water (filter it!)...but it is primitive (LNT!).

The park has a restaurant, a museum, gift shop and an observation tower at the summit. Pretty cool that the observation tower is ADA...but steep.

Check weather reports. These mountains make their own weather. And remember, for every 1,000 feet of elevation gain, temperature decreases by 3 degrees (roughly...there is constant debate). So pack wisely. Surprisingly, though reports called for rain...we saw none.

Great hiking and long mountain views are one of the draws. The walk up the Observation trail is paved but steep, so give yourself some time if you are wanting to capture the sunset. If hiking, there are a myriad of sites that offer maps, levels of difficulty and recommendations. Did I mention that if you are planning to hike for the day...plan and pack for weather?

A worthwhile place to pitch your tent, but there are also several other campgrounds at lower elevations that also have great trails and more amenities.

Love tent camping here, awesome views and great prices

This is a great family owned camp ground everyone is very friendly but would love to see larger tent camping sites

I'd have given RM a 5 star review except for the RV sites are small and so close together. We have a small camper, 15" including the tongue and I felt the site too small. The tent sites are lovely., large and more private. Next time we''ll see if we can get a tent site since our camper is so small. No hook ups on the tent sites, but hey we're camping. The staff was friendly and extremely accommodating. We had some severe weather during our visit. 45mph, horizontal rain and a power outage. The staff was right out after the storm to clean up and help out. Our traveling companions were in a tent and their site was in standing water. The staff hauled in gravel and made an elevated pad as well as helping to move the tent. Great service! The area is spectacular and has something for everyone.

The campground is situated on a mountainside overlooking the French Broad river. Most of the sites are for RVs but they do have an assortment of tent sites. The premium RV sites have the awesome views. The tent site we stayed at had a nice carpet of grass and a good deal of space to spread out. Overall the campground was clean, quiet and a great place to chill out after a long day of hiking, rafting or whatever.

We have tent camped and RV camped here. Great site with lots of space and kept up well. Views are great and area is beautiful.

Beautiful RV sites in wooded area along Catawba Creek. Old Fort, NC and Falls nearby. Nice bathhouse, pump-out nearby. Diverse tent camping also available. Don’t let full time rv’s scare you. New RV site down from the entrance.