Best Campgrounds near Waynesville, NC

This campground is basic at most. The sites are decent as far as cleanliness and space. It's a rather small campground so you are right on top of your neighbor's and the campground hosts, who in my opinion were nosey and invasive. The "lake" they advertise to be a mere walking distance away, is a very very long trail that you become kind of stuck on due to lack of information. You kind of just start on a little trail that ends up being a 10 minute walk uphill through the woods. It would be completely worth it if it led to a lake to cool off in , but instead you are led to a crappy pond that looks like it's in someone's backyard and convinced that this wasn't the right place I frantically began searching in any and every direction for any sign of this lake we came for, only to be filled with disappointment and then immediate dread knowing you had to trek back to camp . My kids whined and complained the entire walk to the pond and then refused to get in it. I can't say I blamed them

First of all, GSMNP is amazing and blew us away. And the river running along the campground was great. We even had elk walk through one morning.

However this campground is way too cramped and too loud. The sites are on top of each other. Two nights our neighbors were starting up their fire with some device that made it roar several feet tall. The first time we actually thought our tent was on fire because their pit is so close to our tent pad and it was so bright lol.

Oh and about the fires, if you’re sensitive to smoke, avoid this one. The loop is in sort of a bowl and without wind all of the smoke from all the fires just sits there. I ended up wearing a mask most of one evening.

There is no enforcement of quiet hours at this campground. Every night people nearby (two separate groups covering all nights at two different sites) were talking loudly for much of the night. I’m a light sleeper and with ear plugs and my phone blasting white noise next to my ears, I still didn’t get any sleep.

I know it sounds like I’m just a whiner and shouldn’t be camping, but we camp a lot… not for the “camping experience” but just because we travel a lot and it’s cheaper and I do enjoy being in nature. I do fine at most campgrounds but this one was just too crowded for me.

I will say, though, that this side of the park was quieter than the other and I liked the Cherokee vibe more than the Las Vegas - style Gatlinburg.

Highlight hike was Alum Cave. Super cool!

The higher number loop across the street is better for a more quiet experience. Still a very short walk over to the river or the showers. Showers are free for campers and average cleanliness for a campground.

The check-in office is in a weird, poorly signed place that we actually found accidentally when walking to the swimming hole in the river. It’s behind the bathroom and shower building.

Found a water snake with fishing hook stuck in its abdomen and pulling out the muscle as it was stuck in sticks and a toy boat in the river. Tried to free it but it got away with the hook still in it. Be responsible, fishermen.

On our second night, the host was blaring music in their camper that we could hear several sites away. I found that to be extremely strange.

The area seems to be very slowly recovering from the hurricane. It’s a bit sobering. I feel for these people.

We couldn’t hike the trail we were hoping for due to hurricane damage, so we drove to Grandfather Mountain SP and did a really fun hike there (to Calloway Peak). We stopped at Cellucci’s Italian Restaurant in Pineola and the food and service were amazing.

To be clear, there is only one site that you can drive to. (Site 14) When it says the sites are “walk-in”, it does not mean you can drive near your site and walk over into it. It means you have to park in a parking lot and haul your stuff up to 200 or 300 yards away along a trail over bridge. That being said, it is a lovely little campground. Very pretty right along the creek. Also hiking trails in the area. Be cautious though we had two local people in the area talk to us about people stealing things there and how there used to be a real homeless problem where a church about 30 miles away started dropping off homeless people they were tired of dealing with… typical 🙄. We did not see anything too shady during our visit, however. Just be cautious. The camp host was very nice and helpful. The bathhouse had one shower per side and on a scale of 1 to 10 for cleanliness, I would give it a 6.