Camping near Tusquitee National Forest, NC

Dog friendly and beautiful views from most of the sites. Plenty of hikes nearby too. Hot showers and clean bathrooms!

Has a bathroom, picnic tables, fire ring and grill. No water this time of year but the lake can be accessed at the nearby boat ramp. Beautiful lake and forest. Have the place to myself for the most part at this time of year. Often in the 30s at night but nice in daytime

Staff is awesome. Any trailer longer than 25 feet is tight getting to back sites

We booked Turkey Creek Campground through their website after finding them on TheDyrt—super easy and completely contactless, which was a great start.

The location? Magical. Nestled in a quiet valley surrounded by mountains and trees in the Nantahala National Forest, just south of the Smokies. If you know, you know—the area where the forest and mountains meet is ethereal.

We showed up a little early for check-in and met Rick, the owner and host. Let me tell you, this man radiates good vibes. He’s funny, welcoming, and you can immediately tell he loves what he does. We were tent camping in the off-season and had plenty of sites to choose from—Rick let us drive around to pick our favorite. We landed on Site 18 (highly recommend!) but sites 22, 8, and 9 also stood out.

The roads are well-maintained gravel. The entrance is a steep gravel hill, but our 2WD Camry handled it just fine.

The clubhouse/office? ADORABLE. Airy, bright, and Rick sells a few camping essentials and some Turkey Creek merch (super soft shirts, FYI) inside, and a single-serve coffee machine ready to go—a lifesaver for our chilly March mornings. There’s also ice and firewood available for a small fee.

Behind the clubhouse, a covered wooden deck with bistro tables and rocking chairs overlooks the campground. It rained during our stay, and sitting out there, listening to the rain with a cup of Joe? Perfection.

The sites: Clean, well-maintained, and thoughtfully placed. Our tent site sat along a babbling creek that lulled us to sleep at night—absolute A+. Every site has an in-ground rock firepit and wooden picnic table, with a mix of tent, RV, and van sites spread across 10 acres, a handful of which are creekside like ours was.

And the bathhouses… Y'ALL. Located under the clubhouse, they have hot water (😍), rain showerheads, and are hands-down the cleanest campground facilities I’ve ever seen. I felt safe and comfortable showering here.

Bonus: There’s a ¾-mile hike to Fontana Lake right from the campground. Heads up—it can be marshy or underwater in spots, so wear hiking boots or waders. In March, the lake is so low we could walk on the lakebed and even found what might be an old homestead foundation from before the dam was built in the ‘40s! Mind-blowing to think that spot is 50+ feet underwater in the summer.

Bottom line: Turkey Creek is the best campground we’ve ever stayed at. Rick puts his heart into this place, and it shows. If you’re thinking about booking, DO IT. It’s already fully booked for major summer holidays—and it’s only March! Get on the cancellation list if you have to, because it’s 1000% worth it. Rick owns two other campground's too, one in Indiana and one in Illinois, which I assume are both equally as stunning and clean.

We immediately confirmed another weekend in 2 weeks, and absolutely plan to be back in summer... If we can even get a spot 😭

If you like primitive camping versus all that campground nonsense this is a great area. Bring everything as there’s nothing around to purchase stuff, you’re literally out in the forest. There’s maybe 10 ish spots along the river, first come first serve. The Appalachian Trail is very close by for some good hiking. The dirt roads to get there are somewhat rough. It’s much easier on your vehicle if you come from the west. Luv sleeping with the sound of the river and hanging out in a hammock! Enjoy

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.

This shelter is a two-room rock shelter at the top of blood mountain. Just behind the shelter is a great spot for a nice view and milestone photo.

Beautiful, peaceful, and relaxing. The campground and facilities were  very clean and well kept. Carter, the owner, is great. He was very helpful and accommodating. We will be back!

We have a 27' airstream and there are a couple campsites that are hard to get into. Number 18 does not look hard, but the layout is very difficult to get into. The bend halfway into the campground would be extremely difficult with much bigger than 27' camper. This is a great campground though. It was January and basically had the place to ourselves.

Great spot in a beautiful area. Good sized lots. Really cool coffee shop right outside the campground for people that like that kind of thing.

It's a good place during the winter it gets a little cold because you're next to the water stream there's no service I have AT&T. But there is multiple sites. I camped out in my truck bed. I cannot see any RVs fitting in there unless it's a small trailer vans preferably or pop-up tents. Did not see a dedicated box to drop in money but it does say $12

The park is nice with plenty of amenities. I had two complaints. We stayed creekside at site 24. The site had about a 5 inch difference shopping towards the road. I used rocker blocks maxed out (about 4 inches in height) and still was not level. Secondly with the site, there is a telephone pole that is a bit too close on the exit side. Singing out as far as I could, i barely missed sideswiping my camper when pulling out. The online pictures looked like it was a fairly private spot, but no. Just out of frame was the campground host site who happened to be flying a very offensive flag. I decided to avoid her. Lastly, gravel from most of the sites was washed out into the road. That could, and should have been cleaned up.

Large campground but had level, shaded, and private camp sites. Flush toilets clean but no showers. Traffic was a beast but there were good hiking trails from campground. I was on a loop that allowed generators but very few were in use. Nice creek runs through campground. Campground fairly close to visitor center and nearby hiking trails but wickedly crowded. Very strict rules regarding food storage and park has managed to control bears and raccoons. Dump station on site.

Approx 20 miles from main visitor center. The scenic drive increases congestion and traffic. Camp store is near campsites. Also a ranger station. Several hiking trails are accessible from campground. All driveways shaded, paved, and level. Very pleasant place. Only negative is the requirement to check in between 9-10:00 am the following day if one arrived later than check in time, which caused me to change hiking plans.

As our Brinkley G3500 is 13’ 8” high, we routed to miss a 13’ 7” bridge on a small portion of US-76 just off of US-411. Instead of taking the left turn onto US-76, we stayed on US-411 down to GA-136. We had followed the RV Life navigation, which routed us this way to avoid the low bridge. We were the first official check in for the Brinkley rally arriving around noon. We checked in and were escorted to pull through site H-48 with FHUs in the bottom Hawk level of this large campground (CG). The pull throughs in this part of the CG were plenty long enough for our 40’ toy hauler and F450 to include being able to put the patio down. The utilities are at the middle of the pad so you can adjust according to your needs. The water pressure was good at around 50 psi. From talking to other campers in this area, some had lower water pressure and took their regulators off. There are not a lot of mature trees so satellite was not a problem. We got 4 bars on Verizon and the CG WiFi was above average for a park of this size. We were near their nice sized dog park that has separate areas for large and small dogs. Their Welcome Center with a gift shop is very nice and they have super friendly customer service. There are a lot of amenities here such as pool(soon to be a second pool for kids), pickleball, propane, laundry, and curbside trash pickup. The owners of Talona Ridge continue to take inputs from RVers on how to improve the CG. There’s a plan to expand RV sites across the street primarily for smaller rigs. This was our second rally at this location and we would definitely come back for another rally or on our own.

Stayed at an RV/tent site (they’re one in the same and all have plug ins and water). Nice bathhouse with full private bathrooms that include a toilet, sink, and shower. There are about 6 I think. Walkable to a lot of hiking.

This place is truly magical. So much effort has been put into themed cabins, unique art work, and detail. Kids and adults can spend time in a fantasy world of their choice. Kids can explore the magical grounds, play in the large creek, and get to know the resident goats, pigs, miniature horse, etc..

The sign at the road looks like it was either taken down or blew away. The pin drop doesn’t take you to the turn in on google pr Apple Maps. If you’re coming from Robbinsville it’s on your right after the pin about 1/4 mile. Then at the fork in the gravel road take a right. But all in all it’s a great place. I stayed at 7 in a van. It had level parking and I could walk down to the bank to fish and have a fire.

We tent camped on Spot 27. Nice back in RV spot with water and electric. Bathhouse is close by. Gray water dump is across the road. Originally we booked Spot 60. That’s a pull through with little room for a tent. No cell service but that’s okay as we disconnected for a while. You can get service at the top of the park. Clean bathrooms with hot showers. Trails are nicely blazed with colors that match trail map. Georgia apple farms are a short, 20-30 minutes away.