Located in Gates County 10 miles south of North Carolina's northeastern border with Virginia, Merchants Millpond State Park centers on a 760-acre millpond more than 190 years old. Hiking the surrounding trails or paddling the placid, shallow waters of the pond offer a great way to explore this wetland environment. Old-growth cypress trees adorned with Spanish moss create an "enchanted forest," particularly at Lassiter Swamp. Visitors have even spotted the American alligator here, at the northernmost point of its range.

Merchants Millpond State Park Campground

Merchants Millpond is a great state park if you want to explore a different kind of ecosystem.  The heart of the park lies in its swamps filled with cypress trees and cypress stumps.  There are several camping areas of different kinds.  You can canoe in to one of their primitive campsites, which is on an island in the swamp.  There are other hike-in primitive sites, group camping sites, and there are also the family camping sites.   I stayed at the family camping site and decided to set up my hammock instead of a tent.  If you stay at Merchants Millpond, make sure you take and use insect repellent and lots of it.  I had the biggest problem with mosquitoes and ticks.  If you stay in a hammock, make sure it has mosquito netting.  The family camping sites have tent pads, lantern poles, and fire rings.  The bath house is centrally located within a short walking distance of all of the campsites.  The showers have hot water, but the bath house itself looks outdated.  The canoe-in site that I explored only has a pit toilet, but it did have fire rings and picnic tables.  You can hike to the island by way of a wooden bridge across the swamp, but it is mainly for those who want to canoe in.  If you can go off trail, you can see lots of wildlife.  I had the opportunity to do so since I was invited to participate in a search and rescue exercise.  I only saw one snake, which is unusual not to see more, but I also saw a deer and couple of turtles.  There is a bicycle trail, but the one I hiked on the most was the Lassiter Trail, which has a few wooden bridges and opportunities to experience the eastern woodlands and great views of the swampy millpond.  Fortunately, I did not run into any bears or alligators, which are common in this area.  The visitors center is large and modern, and there is a meeting facility.  The person that I talked to at the visitors center was pleasant and was able to answer my questions.  The staff is great to work with, and I know this because I volunteered to teach camping skills to 4H kids a couple of years ago at this state park.  Overall, it’s a great state park, but it lacks the amenities of modern RV parks.

Campground with a Different Ecosystem--Woods and Swamp

The sites are on the small side, especially the tent pad. The sites have good separation between them and don't feel crowded at all. Very well maintained. Very helpful rangers that stopped by daily to welcome us and to collect trash. 

Site number 5

The 12 trips in 12 months’ progress well. February’s outing was Merchants Mill Pond. What a great place. It probably helps that the bath house had just been redone with fresh paint. But that wasn’t the only thing. The park staff was friendly and the camp sites are nice and spaced well apart. Each site had a fire pit, tent site and picnic table. I am not sure that all the tent spaces were leveled, but if you pay attention when you set your tent up you should be fine.  

I happened to be a glorious weekend in February and the temperatures were good enough for a hike in shorts and tee shirts. The trails were well maintained and it was a day well spent on the Lassiter Trail. The park also rents kayaks and there are marked water trails as well. Next trip will include a boat ride and a search for alligators (from a safe distance).

Good hikes, good campground and evenings by the campfire. Definitely on the places to return to list.



These February days are why we live in the south...

Our first time to Merchants Millpond State Park was awesome and we're already planning on coming back. We did the canoe-in camping and brought out Hobie kayaks (beware if you bring them our mirage drive seemed to find every downed tree or cypress knob under the water 😜) Buoys marked the different routes to the different areas of the park. Easy to follow. Sites are well maintained and not right on top of each other. All had firepits, grills, and a picnic table. There's a pit toilet towards the back to serve all of the canoe campsites. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I mean, it's a pit toilet but you can tell they kept it up nicely. Extra TP, hand sanitizer, etc. Tons of wildlife to see. Turtles, gators, snakes. Not a place I'd go in the summer because I'd imagine you'd get carried away by bugs but definitely a place to check out in spring or fall. 

Loved this place! 

We were looking for a reasonably quick (one overnight) camping trip that was different, but within a 2ish hour drive. Someone had once mentioned MMSP and so we decided to reserve 2 sites, and overnight canoes. It was everything we hoped for. The visitor's center was surprisingly modern. The check in process was seamless, the ranger gave us some great tips. Canoes are self service (you have to get them off the rack, get paddles and lifejackets yourself). Put in is easy, and they use a buoy system to help navigate to the canoe-in campsites. The cypress trees, swamp flora and fauna are amazing. One of my kids caught a gar, we saw a bald eagle's nest, snakes, frogs, turtles, and lily pads everywhere. Our campsites were not directly on the water. At first we were a little bummed the water front weren't available but it worked out for the best. Our sites were more private, a shorter walk to the pit toilet, and the trees provided a slight buffer from the tremendous sounds of the frogs at night!

Step Back in Time

This cypress pond is a great place for anyone! They have a family campsite loop with a nice bathhouse in the middle, they have group walk-in and canoe in campsite and well as family canoe in. They have a fishing area and a on site canoe rental. The Millpond itself is huge!! They use a buoy navigational system on the water. No swimming though due to the huge Alligators that live there. Overall this is an affordable and momentous getaway that I visit every chance I get.

Beautiful Hidden Gem!!

Campsites are nice but be careful the wooden borders is included in dimensions. Nice bathrooms with hot showers. Over 5 miles of easy hiking good for everyone. Gas station right outside visitor center entrance in case you forget anything. Not very many people here so its nice and quiet. 

Not bad 

My group and I stayed at the Benett’s creek high ground primitive camp sites 1-3. 
It was a 4.5 mile paddle to the site, then roughly 1.5 down to the dock with a staged vehicle. 
The only complaint is the houses near the sites had a dog that barked all night. Super annoying. 

Awesome canoe camping

This park was great but do recognize that is a true swamp. Alligators included. The water there does not move therefore is not recommended for filtering for consumption. The campsights are pretty close together so don't expect privacy on a busy weekend. The scenery is TOP KNOTCH! Absolutely beautiful in the lake which is not well marked due to limited visibility in the swampy environment.  Lots of underwater obstructions so use caution. U DO NOT want to end up in that water. 

It's A Swamp

I enjoyed my stay at this beautiful park. Couple of suggestions, when I went they were not renting canoes so doing any pre trip planning wasn't easy. The kayak/canoe round was not easy to navigate so bring your 3rd party map/GPS. The maps they provide are almost useless because it outlines the terrain but because it's a swamp the terrain changes with the water level. Islands can appear out of nowhere. The campsite was clean and enjoyable. I would go again.

Alot extra time to find your camp

Great campground. Very quiet and each tent site is very far from one another. You could have music or a generator going and not disturb your neighbor 

Close escape

We tented here and really liked the campground. We stayed in the family campground since we had a vehicle. There are float-in and hike in spots we did not investigate. Our site was clean and separated well. The bathhouse was nice and warm and clean. The rangers were very nice. This has a much better swamp experience than the Great Dismal Swamp.

Quiet an calm

The campsites are great with ample room for privacy, and easily accessible to the restrooms and trails around the pond. The visitor center is fantastic and offers canoe rentals as well as a spot to unload your own canoe or kayak. 

I would recommend visiting in the cooler months of spring or fall. In April, the site was probably only 25% occupied and it’s still cool enough not to be bothered by mosquitoes.

Taking a canoe or kayak out to explore the pond and swamps is a must and total unique experience. Turtles, birds, cypress trees, and alligators. 




Amazing experience 

Stayed a few nights leading up to Memorial day. Our site was a good size, and tent pad was nice. Lovely shaded site, and large picnic table. Did not have to use our popup shade. Downside were the large gravel throughout the site - tough for small dogs and crawlers. Nice 0.7 walk from the campsite to the visitor center to rent canoes! Just a short drive to some other trails. Enjoyed the Cyprus Point trail which you access at the boat ramp section of the park. If you canoe long enough, you'll come across two alligators who live in the pond.

Wonderfully Shaded

In the middle of nowhere, but it was peaceful and everyone was friendly. The trail system was magical. We hiked early in the am and it was such a therapeutic hike through the forest and swamp. Stayed in our Tepui tent and had a great time.

Quiet beautiful campgrounds

We went for Valentine's Day weekend. Only a couple of other people were there, and we hardly saw them. We used site 11. I still think it's the best one, it's the largest, right next to the main trail head, &amp; bath house trail right ahead of the site. The bath house was real nice. They had heaters running and they were so toasty, also very clean. Trails were nice too, we used our ebikes on the bike trail. 