Goose Creek State Park Campground

A friend and I spent a wonderful weekend with our dogs at Goose Creek State Park. We camped there for 2 nights and enjoyed every bit of it. The campground has no showers or hot water. It didn't bother us. The campsites are very private and spacious. We walked from the campground to the beach with no problems. There are also a lot of trails around to hike and explore. The only thing you need to be aware of are, the ticks, mosquito's and bugs. We definitely would camp there again.

What a gem in beautiful nature.

Here some pictures from earlier this year. My fiance loves it there! 

Very picturesque! 

Goose Creek has good campsites scattered about in a stand of long leaf pine. The sites are spacious, well equipped and well spaced (private). There are several water stations and composting toilets (no showers). 

There are plenty of good hiking trails as well. 

A wonderful spot. 

This place is a gem of a state park!!!! 

Since it's not right next to the coast it's relatively quiet and not crowded. I went here on the tail end of a mid September weekend and found the entire campground to myself! That is unheard of on the West Coast! There is a beautiful sound access. 

This is boutique car camping! There are only 14 camping spots all nicely spaced from each other and in a wooded location. Sites 11-14 are around a little peninsula on the sound so all have some water view. There are a handful of water spouts around the campground, and each site has a parking spot, campsite, table and a lamp hanger. The lamp hanger took me a while to figure out since we don't have these on the west coast it is a suspended hook that looks a bit medieval on first glance.  

Bring your paddle boards or canoe to float around the sound. There is a great outline of a 3 mile canoe trail mapped out by the put in. (see my photos) 

Ohhhh and it goes without saying near the North Carolina sound BRING BUG SPRAY. This is serious deet country. 

Hidden Gem with trails and sound access

Awesome weekend here. Camp sites were nice and Rangers easily accessible. Swim area was a little rough but the hiking trails and access to the river for kayaks and fishing was nice!

Beautiful

The camp sites are well maintained with a picnic table and fire pit area. Small gravel used on a dedicated tent area. We had a second larger tent on the site too. Bathroom near camp site. Wildlife walks right by, several deer on our trip. Took kayaks and paddle boards with us and put right in at the dock. Good places to explore around on the water. I had several 13 year olds for a birthday trip and they had fun. A separate beach area if you like for swimming. Ranger was very nice and kept a check periodically. Definitely recommend it for overnight or a few nights.

Great place for a weekend 

Great private campsite

Great sites right on the water . Will need bug spray. 

Great sites on the water

If you have a chance, definitely check out Goose Creek State Park. My husband, son, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and myself stayed at the park this past weekend, and we had a wonderful time. We stayed at campsite 11, and we had plenty of room for our two tents, two vehicles, a pup, a toddler, and the supplied picnic table, fire pit, and additional charcoal grill. The one negative about spot 11 is there’s a hiking trail that run directly behind the campsite, so it feels like people are constantly walking through your campsite. Spots 1-10 were definitely a bit smaller, and spots 11-14 are larger. If we were to stay again, I believe we’d try to stay at site 13.

The fishing dock is quite small, but it was fun to fish from with a few people. Be sure to bring bug spray! The worst for me was the biting flies. There is one outhouse-type bathroom near the dock with a spigot and dumpster nearby. There are about 10 steps leading up to the one-person, non-flushing bathroom.

There’s a wood station at the campground that uses the honor system. It’s $5 per bundle. We visited the visitors center in the hopes that they would have live bait for sell, but they sell nothing of the sort (no ice, bait, fishing rods, etc). So bring everything you need other than wood!

Overall, I’d give the campground 4.5/5, and I certainly recommend it! Try to stay in sites 11-14 if possible.

Definitely a campground to visit at least once!

Booked a tent site and later a cabin as well since we were unsure about the weather. The tent sites were nicely situated and far apart from each other. The vault toilet was very clean. The site is peaceful and since the weather was pretty bad, it was quiet and only a few sites were occupied. 

  

The cabins are new and clean, with AC/heat and electricity and a nice outdoor setup with a grill and fire pit aside each one. They are located in the cleared RV park, not the woods, so don't expect to feel like you are staying in nature if you book a cabin. The shower facilities are very nice too. Overall, cabins are a great option if the weather is bad or you don't want to stay in a tent. 

  

Plan for bugs - ticks and mosquitoes are a given in the summer. Also, the swimming beach is closed as of May 2020.

Nice spot in eastern NC

This campground is nestled in the tall North Carolina pines. There isn’t much shade though because the branches are mainly at the top. The camp sites are long and have plenty of room between camp sites. The campground has been recently redone and includes some cute cabins. We went on a boardwalk hike there. It said that red wolves and bear live on the area. We only saw deer.

Serene 

Goose Creek State Park campground is one of the newer state parks in North Carolina. The RV part of the park has a great layout with large sites. The park is very flat with full hookups and a large patio/picnic area. They also have cabins.

  

We stayed at one of the full hook up RV sites with our Riverside Retro 199FKS and it actually looked small in the site. We had more than enough room.

  

You are far enough away from Washington, NC that you don't get great cell coverage so, it is almost like going off the grid. I think I had service if I sat outside with my left leg propped up (just kidding). 

  

Since this park is so new, there are not many trees or vegetation to provide privacy between sites. I think this park will be great once the plants grow in - don't skip for this reason - still go, just know that you won't have a lot of privacy.

Great and New Campground

We did primitive camping, and they were way nice, very spread out and the kids brought their bikes and that's what they did most of the time, and we felt like it was safe enough for them to go bike riding. There was a place where we could put off on a kayak or go fishing

They have little cabins that are not too expensive either that have air and heating, if we go in the summer again we will probably do those


The only thing we mentioned was it would not be very fun if you went with a group because the places were so spread out and where not big enough to have more than one tent each


The bathrooms did not have running water, but they do a composting type of toilet and it did not stink at all and they were always very clean. 

Great trip despite the flat tire!

Primitive camping

Very well maintained. Stayed at primitive site 11 to be close to the water but it's a little too close to another site (luckily I was the only one in the circle of sites). I'll probably choose a lower number next time. Bathroom was clean. It was very quiet the night I stayed. Absolutely perfect! I'll definitely be back!!!

I'll definitely be back

This was my first trip to Goose Creek State Park, but it certainly won’t be the last. We stayed in the new RV campground, and it couldn’t have been more perfect. Large sites, a fire pit, and because we were there off season — very few fellow campers! 

The staff was super nice, the restrooms were very clean and quite new. The trails were well maintained and well marked.  Some features were closed due to Covid restrictions (the swim beach for example), but it didn’t lessen the experience at all.


Beauty in the Quiet

Not only is this campground surrounded by tall pines and beautiful lakes it is spotless. 
The campsites are well spaced and give a bit of a community feel with cabins near by the bath house, which also is incredible!!! Heated bathrooms are a plus in our book! Highly recommend 👍🏼

Very cool campground!

This campground was opened in 2019 so everything is very new.  The sites are spread very far apart.   There are no trees for shade and this campground may become hot in the summertime.  Each site is separated by waist heigh field grass.  The sites have course gravel for the RV pad and finer gravel for the “tent pad” / picnic table area.  We were in a tent that connects to the back of our Honda Odyssey and I used two tarps to protect the tent flooring even on the finer gravel.  Cell signal is almost nonexistent except for possibly AT&amp;T which a neighboring camper told me.  

I would recommend this campground except maybe not so much in the summer months 

Nature and Privacy 

They have a cabin that is fully handicapped! It has a paved sidewalk to the bathrooms and they will allow you to drive your “person” down the access path to the water way!! My daughter loved it and we will be back! Even the picnic table has a cut out for a wheelchair! 

Handicap Accessible !!

Very small campground. We had an issue with the 50amp service. But they fixed it. The water pressure is low. Plenty of space between camp sites. Very very quiet!!!

Piece & Quiet

We drove up to check the park out to see if it would be worth a trip to camp. We will definitely be making a trip there. The camp ground was nice and very clean. The sights are all gravel with full hook ups. But loop around the sight is paved. There are some cabins as well with a bath house.  The tent sights are completely secluded drive in with some on the water. All the roads are paved and nice. Except the road back to the tents is dirt but very well kept. If navigating the tent spot the road may be tight for larger trucks. I have a F-150 that was fine but anything larger than a half ton truck it may get tight. 

Activities:
There is a nature center at the entrance of the park. 
A ton of trails with trail heads everywhere. 
A swim beach (we didn’t walk to). 
A place to launch Kayaks as well.

****Careful****
There is four foot tall vegetation between the sites and they are spread out. When I was there a random fire started where myself and another camper fought it for 30 mins and my wife drove around getting campers to evacuate until the fire department came. Just be mindful if your smoker and any fires you may have while camping.  If you were camping there March 5th, 2023 and came back to your house unhooked from your trailer, I’m sorry but I used it to contain the fire instead of burning your 5th wheel down. I didn’t hook it up because I was dragging it through fire and didn’t know if you would want it hooked up.