Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area

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.

We stayed four days, the river was beautiful and the camp site nice. We stayed on the river side of the road and our site was layer out very strangely but it had a nice space for the fire and picnic table, our tent was partially on the asphalt driveway as there was literally no where else to put it. We enjoyed experience there. We had so much fun tubing on the river, there were several people fishing and catching trout. I recommend that if you go that you stay on the inside sites, not the ones by the river. The bathrooms were pretty bad, most days they were out of toilet paper for part of the day, they were not really clean at all. One shower out of four would stay on for 9 seconds and then you had to push the button again, that was a very frustrating shower. The second shower would stay on for more than an hour so the rest of the showers were only slightly warm. Multiple people reported that the one shower was staying on for more than an hour, the camp hosts said they were aware that there was a problem with the timer. All and all the sites are nice, the river is awesome and the bathrooms were not good.

Great spot tucked in a bend of the South Toe River.  The reservable sites are MUCH smaller than they look online, particularly site 7, which is the perfect size for a motorcycle and a one-man tent.  We reserved the site and our car was barely out of the street when parked!

We moved to site 18, which was not on the river, but delightful regardless.  If your site is not by the river, you run the risk of being near Hwy 80.  I can confirm that Hwy 80 is used 24x7 -- it's not terrible, but it's not Silent Night either.  The tent pad was slightly elevated with excellent drainage, which was a good thing or we couldn't have stayed dry for two nights.

The hosts were friendly and hard-working, getting firewood delivered and keeping the facilities clean, which was a miracle given the wet weather.  I would not drink the water without boiling it; could have been the weather during our visit, but the water was an interesting golden yellow color.

The campground is beautifully wooded, although there was a fair number of recently felled trees lying about.  The host said the forest service came in and cut them down because they were too close to the campsites.  Huh?  Regardless, they did not clear the trees away, so one has to clamber over them going from site to site.

We had planned a 4-day stay with a 15-person group spread over 5 sites.  Unfortunately, what seemed like the first hurricane of the season parked itself over the NC mountains and dumped at least 6 inches of rain in 48 hours and, since there was no improvement in the forecast and we couldn't do any of our planned activities, we made for home early.

The reservable Pavilion is beautifully situated and was a nice respite from the rain for our group one evening.  

We did visit the Penland School and had lunch at DT's in Spruce Pine -- both highly recommended.  

I plan to return at the first opportunity to enjoy Carolina Hemlocks and the surrounding area in better weather.