South Mountain State Park, NC From I-40 Exit 104, you twist and turn, up and down but keep a sharp eye for the small, brown State Park signs or you’ll pass your right hand turns.
The South Mountain Visitors Center is very spacious and attractive but doesn’t offer a great deal. There is a cool 3D topo map display of the state park. At present, this is a 23,000 acre State Park...and ever acquiring more land.
The family campground is a short distance further inside the park on the left side(approx 2 miles) marked by a small brown sign...and is situated at 1400 ft elevation.
The campground is tiny and narrow, running between a creek and the state park roadway. The sounds of the creek melodious, the road traffic noise-not so much. I would definitely advise selecting the creek side campsites as they lay deeper in the wood line out of sight of the roadway and have the creek noise to cover roadway noise.(note: the roadway dead ends at the trailhead/picnic area, so the only traffic are day visitors and park staff) Be forewarned, Cell service is nonexistent. Your site will have a WiFi password for internet at the Visitors Center, but you need to be at or in the building for it to work.
PROS:
•Small campground with few amenities
•Mountain/creek location
•Nice modern facilities
•Water
•Adjoining trail network
•No cell service
•80’ Waterfall•Interpretive Hemlock Nature Trail
•Beautiful Day Use picnic area
CONS:
•Road noise for sites 10-14, during working hours and day use hours.
•No cell service
Site 13 backs up toward the roadway, and without much understory, passing traffic is very visible and noisy(the high shoals falls and trail network are popular day use attractions). On the sites between the campground roadway and the State Park roadway, you are much closer than the website maps post, and without understory vegetation, you have direct visibility of several neighbors and normal conversations can be heard. Night noise restrictions, on our visit, were observed so it wasn’t an issue. My visit was Wed, Thurs. midweek Oct 7-8.
Our site was an“leveling,” octagonal, elevated, crushed gravel pad, surrounded by landscape timbers...an elevated fire ring with a swing-over, non-adjustable grate, a picnic table and metal lantern pole. It worked fine but I used a small two-man tent. Depending on wind direction, fire ring embers would present a problem for a larger tent. Our site parking area was 45’ from the raised timber to campground roadway.
The restroom/shower house is a monstrous, mountain lodge style modern facility...very clean, spacious and well-stocked.
Walking the Family Camground my future site picks would be 5 or 7. Site 5 is a park and carry but it did not appear to be more than 50’ and it sat on the creek. Site 7 is on that same small loop but had a larger rectangular raised pad, for keeping tents distanced from fire pits.
Some sites have a deep enough gravel drive for a small camper or popup. And a few have electric.
Several trails lead from the NW end of the family campground parking lot and vary in length and difficulty. Most notable is the Raven Rock Trail to the High Shoals Falls Trail, which, depending on your level of fitness could be deemed a moderate to strenuous 2.35 mile climb and descent to the upper falls and then wooden boardwalk and steep steps down to the gorgeous 80 ft High Shoals waterfall. Smaller falls and cascades continue on the descent. Our total loop mileage was 5.5 with nearly a thousand foot of elevation gain.
Park employees both at the Visitor’s Center desk and in the field were very friendly and pleasant. The NC State Park Ranger was very informative and helpful, as well as giving much appreciated suggestions for great and often lesser traveled hiking trails.
Roughly 16.5 miles of mountain bike trails intermix with hiking and equestrian trails. There is a separate equestrian campground between the Visitors Center and the Family Campground. Note: there are several backcountry backpack-in campsite areas(Upper Falls Campsites offer picnic tables, fire ring and a couple pit latrines).
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