Best Equestrian Camping near Stony Point, NC

I took my horses and grandson to camp in the equestrian campsite. The bathrooms are very clean with AC. There a beautiful creek you can ride your horses in or just play if you want.

There are multiple campgrounds here. I stayed in the drive up campground for people without horses. There is also equestrian camping and campsites one can hike to. My experience was the campsites were a little close to each other and, since it's a small loop, they fill up fast. I prefer more space and privacy when camping. My tent pad was a little uneven as well. There is a lot of good hiking in the park and horse back riding for those with horses. I'd like to try the back country camping at some point.

Quiet, small, shady spots. Level tent pads. Obligatory fire ring and table. Small clean facilities. Hot showers. Beautiful but crowded trails. There are equestrian trails and camping facilities. Dogs welcome. Ice cold creeps and lovely waterfalls.

We came here as our second ever camping trip and it wasn’t exactly what we were expecting but it was definitely an adventure. It was beautiful and quiet and relaxing. The only thing we were not happy about is the insane amount of bugs in the bathroom. But, ya know North Carolina summers.

Julian Price Park is a beautiful campground just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. We enjoy this campground on the weekends throughout the fall and spring as it is less occupied. Reservations can be made on-line or walk up to the small building in the front of the loop. The campsites are separated into several loops. One loop is closer to the lake, the other loop has more availability and quite a range of campsites.

Bathrooms are available here (upgrades coming soon!) as well as drinking water.

I saw state park and was excited about the potential of another great site in North Carolina. I was not disappointed in that it offered amazing hiking. But signs clearly depicted it to be a day use only facility which was a little bit of a bummer.

I spent the afternoon hiking on a trail which was marked moderate but I’d honestly say was more strenuous. Lots of people come to do the Tower hike here!!

When I pulled out I saw even more signs just further reminding me of the day use …. for camping it’s a 1 (which is what matters on this site) however for the activities it is a 4. I found it to be a good compromise to give it a 3 overall because I did like the site, just wish it had organized camping because limited information was available about permits for potential back country camping like I had seen on here.

I went back and forth on whether I should give this rating two stars or three. In the end, I chose three stars because the mountain itself is so amazing. Geologically this was great place to visit and the trails were well marked and maintained. Beautiful hike. The campground was beautiful but the facilities were run down and dirty. It had, by far, the nastiest park/campground facilities I’ve seen in Kentucky, North Carolina or Virginia this year. I know this park is mobbed on the weekends, but I checked in on a Tuesday and stayed for two nights. The facilities, including the campground bathhouse and the park’s “comfort stations” were dirty, smelly and had bugs in them. The trash in the bathhouse was not emptied in the two days I was there. There was not a single exterior light to the bathhouse, not even something as reasonable as a motion sensor light that would be more energy efficient than a constant lighting option.
Compared to New River State Park, despite the giant Stone Mountain, this was the bottom of the barrel.

This is a great place to camp. It is somewhat close to Charlotte, but is little known. There are extensive hiking trails. The grade of the trails is from easy to hard. They have a 70 foot waterfall that has a stairway along the side of it. This has car camping, backpack camping, horse and bike camping. You can even fish there if you have a license.

South Mountain State Park, NC From I-40 Exit 104, you twist and turn, up and down but keep a sharp eye for the small, brown State Park signs or you’ll pass your right hand turns. 

The South Mountain Visitors Center is very spacious and attractive but doesn’t offer a great deal. There is a cool 3D topo map display of the state park. At present, this is a 23,000 acre State Park...and ever acquiring more land. 

The family campground is a short distance further inside the park on the left side(approx 2 miles) marked by a small brown sign...and is situated at 1400 ft elevation. 

The campground is tiny and narrow, running between a creek and the state park roadway. The sounds of the creek melodious, the road traffic noise-not so much. I would definitely advise selecting the creek side campsites as they lay deeper in the wood line out of sight of the roadway and have the creek noise to cover roadway noise.(note: the roadway dead ends at the trailhead/picnic area, so the only traffic are day visitors and park staff) Be forewarned, Cell service is nonexistent. Your site will have a WiFi password for internet at the Visitors Center, but you need to be at or in the building for it to work. 

PROS:

•Small campground with few amenities

•Mountain/creek location

•Nice modern facilities

•Water

•Adjoining trail network

•No cell service

•80’ Waterfall•Interpretive Hemlock Nature Trail

•Beautiful Day Use picnic area 

CONS:

•Road noise for sites 10-14, during working hours and day use hours.

•No cell service 

Site 13 backs up toward the roadway, and without much understory, passing traffic is very visible and noisy(the high shoals falls and trail network are popular day use attractions). On the sites between the campground roadway and the State Park roadway, you are much closer than the website maps post, and without understory vegetation, you have direct visibility of several neighbors and normal conversations can be heard. Night noise restrictions, on our visit, were observed so it wasn’t an issue. My visit was Wed, Thurs. midweek Oct 7-8. 

Our site was an“leveling,” octagonal, elevated, crushed gravel pad, surrounded by landscape timbers...an elevated fire ring with a swing-over, non-adjustable grate, a picnic table and metal lantern pole. It worked fine but I used a small two-man tent. Depending on wind direction, fire ring embers would present a problem for a larger tent. Our site parking area was 45’ from the raised timber to campground roadway. 

The restroom/shower house is a monstrous, mountain lodge style modern facility...very clean, spacious and well-stocked. 

Walking the Family Camground my future site picks would be 5 or 7. Site 5 is a park and carry but it did not appear to be more than 50’ and it sat on the creek. Site 7 is on that same small loop but had a larger rectangular raised pad, for keeping tents distanced from fire pits. 

Some sites have a deep enough gravel drive for a small camper or popup. And a few have electric. 

Several trails lead from the NW end of the family campground parking lot and vary in length and difficulty. Most notable is the Raven Rock Trail to the High Shoals Falls Trail, which, depending on your level of fitness could be deemed a moderate to strenuous 2.35 mile climb and descent to the upper falls and then wooden boardwalk and steep steps down to the gorgeous 80 ft High Shoals waterfall. Smaller falls and cascades continue on the descent. Our total loop mileage was 5.5 with nearly a thousand foot of elevation gain. 

Park employees both at the Visitor’s Center desk and in the field were very friendly and pleasant. The NC State Park Ranger was very informative and helpful, as well as giving much appreciated suggestions for great and often lesser traveled hiking trails. 

Roughly 16.5 miles of mountain bike trails intermix with hiking and equestrian trails. There is a separate equestrian campground between the Visitors Center and the Family Campground. Note: there are several backcountry backpack-in campsite areas(Upper Falls Campsites offer picnic tables, fire ring and a couple pit latrines).

Julian Price Campground is part of the Julian Price Memorial Park, which is along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the northern part of North Carolina. I have heard about this park for many years, so I wanted to finally camp there. It is an older park, and it shows. We stayed at site A4, and I chose this site for a few reasons. It was close to the lake, but unfortunately, we couldn’t see the lake from the site. Many of the sites in the A loop are reservable, and they have been reserved for several weeks(maybe months) in advance. They are the best sites as far as seeing the lake and sometimes because they are larger. The worst part I discovered about sites in the A loop is that you can hear traffic from the Blue Ridge Parkway all day long except for two to three hours in the middle of the night(about 1:30 to 4:30). On average, you can count on about twenty-five vehicles every five minutes(I know because I counted). It doesn’t help that the parkway is under construction and the road is gravel, which makes the sounds of vehicles even louder. The restrooms in A loop are old and need updating. There are no showers in A loop. The only showers are between B and D loops, which are on the other side of the Blue Ridge Parkway. On the positive side, the showers in a new bath house, and they are private shower/restroom units. We rode through all of the loops to see what the other sites were like, and some of the sites are seldom used if the picnic tables and surrounding vegetation is any indication. Some of the picnic tables are covered in moss. Those were mostly in the sites that were small or sloped. For that reason, it is a good idea to look at the photos on the website for each site before reserving. Many of the sites are walk-in sites and you can set up before the 3:00 time for reservable sites. As far as activities, there is no swimming, but fishing is allowed. There is also a boat ramp, and you can rent canoes, kayaks, and SUPs. The lake is hatchery supported, and I did witness someone catching a fish as we walked along the lake trail. While we were in this area, we saw several small deer, including one that came through our campsite. Our campsite was spacious, and it had a concrete picnic table, a fire ring, a lantern pole, and a tent pad. The tent pad needed some maintenance since the dirt had washed onto it and made it slightly sloped. Not until later did I discover that there was a tall dead tree next to our tent. Only the top part was dead, but it could be a potential danger. The site next to ours was sectioned off because of a dead tree. If you are staying in A loop, I give it two stars, especially since the sites and bath house need maintenance, and because of the road noise. If you are staying in B or D loop, I would give it three or four stars. The sites in E loop are mainly for RVs and have less shade. One section in the A loop also is an open field and has limited shade. Overall, it’s not a bad choice for a campground, but it needs updating. What it has going for it is location. It is along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Cone Memorial Park is down the road, which is a great destination in itself. There are lots of hiking trails and the beauty of the mountains is spectacular.

Stayed there for a weekend, great location close to Stone Mtn park. Hiked from there into the state park. Very clean kept campground and nice owner

Our group had both an RV and a large tent. The room allowed for both was very generous. The grounds and bath house were clean and well maintained. Barry the owner is very helpful and accommodating. He will deliver wood to your campsite, if you need to buy wood. Our sites were creek side. The kids enjoyed playing in the creek and on the playground. The grounds are adjacent to the Stone Mountain State Park. Very fun long weekend at a family friendly campground. Would definitely camp here again!

Sandy Creek Family Campground is located in Traphill, NC near Stone Mountain.  This is a great overflow campground from Stone Mountain.  In fact, you can even walk to the falls from this campground!  

Sandy Creek Family Campground has both tent and RV sites.  The tent sites on the tree line were our pick.  Lots of shade on a big grassy field, with both a play set for the kids and a volleyball court.  All sites had nice picnic tables (that we saw) and easily accessible water.  The bathhouse was clean and well maintained.  Extended family was staying in an RV site while we were there and they had some problems with their power staying on....

Sandy Creek Family Campground has one incredible site that has a firepit just feet from the creek!  This site was taken while we were there - but we have it in mind for our next visit!

We had the campground all to ourselves when we went which was really nice! The site we were at was pretty level, but they don’t have a specific pad they just told us to park however we wanted. The biggest negative I would say was the dump station. It was on the hill so you had to back up to it and it wasn’t easy location to do so that plus there were cigarette buds everywhere in our campsite. Other than that it was Nice! Right on the creek and there is a little path to get to the waterfalls of Stone Mountain state park! We will probably stay at the state park next time, mainly because of the dump station but we enjoyed are time there

Great sites. Clean bathrooms, close to many hiking trails and waterfalls.

Many choices of what kind of site you want and honestly it wasn’t worth the money. Very expensive to get nice level sites. If you choose one of the least expensive sites they are very bumpy and not updated and still cost a lot in my opinion. It’s nice to have things to do on site but they still require a drive and additional fee. The hike to the top of the mountain was short but intense, great view at the top. Playgrounds were beautiful for the kids!!

We enjoyed our stay at Stone Mountain, especially the hiking and camping.  We stayed on a weekend, and the campground was quiet.  The B loop is nice, with most the sites having ample spacing but not very private.  Great area for hiking and waterfalls.  Restrooms were modern and clean.

nothing special about the campground, facilities were well maintained. this state park is amazing. honestly one of my favorite places we’ve visited. the hiking is awesome. views are incredible. so glad we took this side trip from BRP. we will definitely be back!

Cute little campground. Tent only or RV sites. Upper part of loop A is nice and woodsy. We stayed at site 15, up against a wooded hillside. We had some noisy neighbors but not too bad. Bathhouse was great. Sink for dishes there and a spigot nearby the site. Can buy ice and firewood at the office.

I took a hike up the hill behind this campsite and saw several deer.

You should look at Stone Mountain falls while you’re there. It’s only a 15/20 min hike from parking lot. There are A LOT of stairs to get to the bottom of the falls, but it is very worth it!

Definitely visit the falls, it has a lot of stairs, but it is quite close/short walk, and very worth it! Also, the longer trails have amazing views, including the flora, the distant landscapes, and (chiefly) the spectacular rock formations. 

Also good facilities in general. Am going back soon with a group, to explore even more of this park. Another good thing is how easy it is to access from the Triad or Charlotte, and even from Raleigh it isn't that bad of driving time. An extra bonus is all of the wineries nearby!

Great place to spend a night. Everything open during the winter

I stayed here for three nights in early November, 2022. The camp sites are mostly level, well maintained and have tent pads, tables and fire rings. I chose a site that had water and electric hook-ups. The bathrooms were heated, clean and the men’ bathroom had two showers.