The best camping near
W. Kerr Scott Dam & Reservoir, NORTH CAROLINA

Clean full hookup sites. Level, easy access. Close to Mount Airy. Only one bathroom but it’s clean and has clean showers. No real activities on site.

This site has a 38 foot pull through parking pad with a large patio and nice fire pit. It is dry camping with a Porta potty on the propety. The best part is this site is right by the river. Great place to get away and enjoy the sights and sounds of good ol nature.

This is one of my favorite campgrounds.  Family and friends try to go several times a year.  Due to its popularity, make sure you make reservations n advance. 

Paved roads and sites. Both 30 and 50 amp service along with water.  There is a dump station as you exit the camping area. 

Park is well maintained, bathhouses are clean with LOTS of hot water.  Water pressure is not as good as it used to be.  WIFI can be spotty to weak.

Gorgeous campgrounds w lakeside Mountain View. Spacious campsites and moderate hiking trails around the lake.

We stopped at this site on a spur of the moment trip and we absolutely love it. The owners are very friendly and showed us the best lot to pick. Prices are fair and the amenities were nice and clean. We stayed on the lot near the running stream with a waterfall and had a nice time sleeping to the sound of water. We highly recommend this site if you plan on doing any traveling to Boone or the surrounding area and don’t want to deal with swarms of other people.

There are approximately 4 primitive sites here. It is located behind the Flat Rock Ridge Trailhead. You can drive your vehicle (4wd not required) up to the sites. A river/creek is beside the campsites, so water could be filtered. There are no amenities. You will find rock campfire circles, but that's about it. The area immediately around the sites have been picked relatively clean of firewood, so that might be a bit of a journey.

Access: I've read a lot about the road leading into this campground/trailhead area. There are two different ways to access it from what I can tell. I came in from the north (despite coming from I-40). Googlemaps took me all the way up Hwy 181 to Gingercake Rd, in the Gingercake residential neighborhood. From there, it is about 7 miles to the Table Rock Picnic Area. Approximately 5 miles of that is compacted gravel/dirt road. I did this in a Honda Accord. You DO NOT need an SUV or 4wd to do this route. You do need patience however. There are some spots where rocks are sticking up and if you don't have tires designed for SUV's, you could risk a puncture. There are some potholes to dodge and some washed out areas. All of this can easily be navigated. I saw a Prius that had made it up. Again, I did this with an Accord with zero issues. The last two miles is a relatively steep paved road. The alternative route up (which you pass on the way to how I went) is about 13 miles off of Hwy 181. I think this is the way that many people go and review that it is very rough. It brings you up to the Picnic Area from the south. The two ways merge just before the paved portion.

I should note that there are campsites all the way up once you hit the dirt portion of the road. Several of those campsites would be good options getting to the northern portion of the gorge. 

At the Picnic Area, there is plenty of parking, a bathroom and well, a picnic area with tables and grills. To the right is the trail to Table Rock and beyond up to Hawksbill. There are no campsites, at least not to the point where you go up to Table Rock. To the left is the picnic area and then the campsite area. I would estimate there are at least ten spots where a tent could be pitched with an accompanying fire ring (made of rocks). This is on the ridge heading up to The Chimneys. I was there in winter and there were still at least four sites taken, so in summer I imagine you would have any privacy for what that's worth.

I stayed at the site further up on the right (they aren't numbered). This was the last spot before you really hit the trail (which by the way is immediate world-class views. I don't know if it was just in my head or not, but the winds were extremely high that night and it felt like some of the sites a little way down the hill closer to the parking lot (maybe 100 yards) had less wind. Not sure if that was real or not, but you may consider that a lower spot. All of the sites are between 100-400 yards from the parking lot. So no need if you decide to bring more than you might need. 

Overall, can't recommend this location enough. Bring what you need though. There are not facilities and the nearest anything is essentially an hour away in Morganton.

This campground is off the beaten path, literally. It is out in the country, and without a GPS, I would have had a difficult time finding it. I had written the directions down from the website, but at night, it takes some maneuvering to look at directions and find country road signs in the dark. The campground is close to its namesake town of Hiddenite, which is a famous gem mining area known for gemstones such as hiddenite (spodumene), emeralds, sapphires, etc. I didn’t realize when I got to the campground that it also was a place for people to come watch their Christmas lights display. All of the mobile homes and RVs were lit for a beautiful display. When I first tried to book a reservation, I had to fill out an online request. After two days, I hadn’t heard back and I was going in that direction on my way home. I decided to take a chance. I stopped at the entry to what I think was the campground/Christmas lights display entrance. After a few minutes, a gentleman came out to ask me if he could help me. I told him I had contacted the campground two days ago, and after that I followed his golf cart to where he showed me a few places I could park my teardrop for the night. It had water, electricity, and sewer, as most of the sites do, and it was close to the creek. It had rained quite a bit a few days ago, so the grassy site was soft with ruts. They do allow tent camping, which is good to know for future reference. It appeared to me that most of the other campers here were permanent residents. When I went to the bath house, I was told the ladies’ bathroom was not working, so if I hear a woman in there I would know why. Most of the campers, however, would be using the facilities in their own RVs/trailers. During the summer, the bath house wouldn’t be so bad, but it was cold and there was no heat. The concrete walls made it feel even colder. There was hot water, however, but I chose not to take a shower there since I was only three hours from home and I would be leaving the next morning. The floor needed sweeping and somebody left beard hair all over the one sink. The host was very nice, and the campground served my needs for an overnight stay. There are a swimming pool and a playground for children. The road coming into the campground is dirt as was the road within the campground. There are shady spots in the campground with pull-through and back-in sites. Although the Christmas lights were on until I went to sleep, it didn’t seem to bother me that much, and other than the synchronized Christmas music, it was quiet. It would be interesting to see how the campground is during the summer.

We were told by a ranger we talked with earlier in the day that this campground might be closed for the season but the gates were open, so we checked it out and saw a sign saying that it would close for the season on November 4 so we were good!

There are two different campgrounds– one for tents and one for RVs. Normally, we can stay in tent sites with our 17-foot campervan but not at Doughton, as the tent pads are a distance away from where you park and there are not suitable pads where you could park and camp. Also, there was not a soul in the tent section. The RV section is across the street (on the Blue Ridge Parkway) and it was about 2/3rds full. No hookups and the bathrooms were reasonable Two toilet stalls, two sinks, no showers but don’t forget to bring your flashlight; there were no lights and it was dark even during the day when it was cloudy/foggy. 

Each site has two pads– I’m assuming one is if you have a trailer or 5th wheel and one to park your car. However, even though there are two, they are not long, so bringing a large 5th wheel might be problematic, and a large Class A would definitely be challenged. 

Even though many of the sites were occupied, it was very quiet. I’m assuming a Monday night in late October meant there were no children. Can’t beat the value for$10 (with a senior pass).

They have a large pool during the warm season as well as a playground and a small lake to go fishing on