## Overview

 Carolina Hemlocks Recreation Area sits in the scenic mountains of Pisgah National Forest. This is a great place for small to medium-sized groups to swim, fish, tube, hike, camp, picnic and simply relax in the cool shade of the forest.
## Recreation

 The river provides endless hours of fun for families and water enthusiasts, including swimming and tubing. Anglers can also try their luck for trout and smallmouth bass from the shore. Picnickers will enjoy relaxing in the shaded picnic shelter set amidst the deep woods. After eating, visitors can take a leisurely walk along a one-mile trail or get a workout on a 3.8-mile trail.
## Facilities

 Carolina Hemlocks Recreation Area offers 35 primitive campsites, sites equipped with picnic tables, tent pads, lantern posts and campfire rings with grills. The facility provides hot showers and restrooms with flush toilets. Campers can purchase firewood, ice, tee shirts, souvenirs. 
## Natural Features

 As the name suggests, Carolina Hemlocks Recreation Area is shaded by a thick hemlock forest with a mix of deciduous trees and rhododendrons. The facility is adjacent to the South Toe River and sits at an elevation of 2,900 feet. 
## Nearby Attractions

 Visitors can enjoy scenic driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway or hiking in Mount Mitchell State Park.

Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area

This campground has spacious sites that are on a first come basis. There is also a day use area with spots along the river. In the summer you can swim and tube down the river. There’s also a beautiful 1 mile river walk. The bathrooms aren’t always the best hence the reason for 4-stars.

First come, first serve Campground and day use area next to river. 

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. 

Really nice river to tube on

Sites are limited and can’t be reserved in advance.

Very clean and secluded with good river access.

We stayed at the Carolina Hemlocks campground while taking a road trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway. Very private campground that borders the South Toe River. Nice tubing put in and a great swimming spot directly in the campground. The bathrooms and shower was well taken care. Very friendly camp hosts. We stayed in site 31, which was a nice wooded private spot in the back of the campground.

Great Campground

Beautiful campground! Right by the river, which makes for wonderful sleeping at night. There is a swimming hole and a fishing hole, both well-maintained. Campground hosts were very nice. Lots of trees for some cool coverage from the sun. About a 30 minute drive from Mount Mitchell, and it's a beautiful drive on the parkway. Knocked a star because the campground hosts got a little too excited cleaning out campsites and scooped up all of our firewood and cleaned out the fire pit, even when we had already paid for our spot for Sunday night and had our tent up. It's tough to get a spot as first come first serve on the weekends, so be aware. Bathrooms and showers are kinda gross, but it is what it is and that wasn't a huge deal for us. If you like looking for wildflowers, soooo many pretty ones blooming in early May. Check the photos for all the ones we found on the campground!