Best Campgrounds near Pall Mall, TN

We were told the river float would last 1.5 to 2 hours, but it ended up being less than an hour. The life jackets smelled terrible and were clearly dirty, and the rafts weren’t much better. To even get to the river, we had to walk through tall, uncut weeds— a serious problem for someone like me who is highly allergic to poison ivy. The path down to the water was muddy, slippery, and unsafe. Both my mom and I almost fell just trying to get in. The entrance was located behind a sketchy, run-down mall, which felt completely inappropriate and unprofessional. It honestly seemed more like we were sneaking into a forgotten alleyway than starting a paid river float. While the dirty water isn’t something they can control, the poor condition of their gear made everything worse. When we called to complain, they basically brushed us off and said,“Well, you already did the float.” What were we supposed to do— stop halfway and hike out of the river? They did offer us another trip, but why would we want to go through that experience again? This was an extremely poorly run operation with zero concern for safety, cleanliness, or customer experience. I absolutely would not recommend this to anyone.

This is my second time at this campground, because I love how the campsites, As many of them as possible, have great views of the water, and a lot of them are right on the water. I also appreciate that while there is an RV section of the campground, there is a whole island of just tent camping, that has a whole different vibe. So if your tent camper or RV camper, you will find your place. The staff is also extremely welcoming: I ended up switching sites for a period of my stay to be closer to the water, and they were more than happy to help with that.

Staff was great! Fellow campers could have been better people. Way to many KAREN'S. We have 4 dogs. We did everything possible to keep them quiet. Including buying muzzles. We worked with the rangers and staff to get the furtherest away from people. Because of barking. The closest people was a block away. The other campers complained!! Maybe the complaining people should have bought ear plugs!! We did everything possible in concirsation of other campers. The night ranger was not friendly at all. 10 pm he pulled up to tell us to make sure we keep our dogs quiet and to keep the fire down. At that time 10pm everyone was in bed. No one had a fire the whole 6 days we were here. It was like building a fire was illegal. That's how the ranger made me feel about a fire in the fire pit.

My son and I have been twice. The first trip was marred by car issues, but the second trip, we were able to actually camp in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. 

We parked at the Twin Arches Loop National Recreation Trail head, then made our way down into the valley to view the two gorgeous and huge arches there.

As the sun was setting, we found a good place to set up our hammock gear a little ways off of the trail, then we fixed our supper at a nearby over hang, and finally snuggled in for a wonderfully cold night (late march). There was ice on the trees in the shade of some of the overhangs.

It is a nice hike, plenty of interesting areas to set up camp. Fair warning, some of the "stairs" down into the canyon are steep so be prepared.

Make sure you have your permit with you while camping and have a wonderful time in this beautiful valley.