Foster Falls Campground — South Cumberland State Park
Stephanie J.
Reviewed Aug. 28, 2018

Loud and dirty but spacious with great hiking

Foster Falls Campground has 26 sites, most of which are very large and spacious. As is common in loop campgrounds, the sites in the center of the loop--especially sites 1-13--are very open, with little privacy between sites, although they are still shady due to the extremely tall trees. The outer loop sites have more underbrush between them providing a buffer. Sites 17-26 all have relative privacy from each other, but are smaller sites in general, although many of them have specified tent pads. The sites closest to the bathrooms all had more bugs while we were there in August, and site 16, while very large, has power lines that run into the site itself.

This is a very beautiful campground. The towering trees give most sites ample shade, and there is a lot of firewood that is easy to collect from felled trees, particularly on the back half of the loop. The front half of the loop is closest to the trail to the falls, and site 8 has a trail running directly behind it that takes you to the falls overlook, and to the trailhead to walk down to the falls themselves. Our 2 and 5 year old walked from our campsite down to the falls and back up easily, and enjoyed having a trail that led to the falls overlook for nightly post-dinner walks, and it would make a great camping base for anyone looking to hike the Fiery Gizzard Trail. The picnic tables are also very large and made it easy to prepare food and for 5 people to sit comfortably, even with our stove at one end, and the tables are on concrete slabs, which helps keep bugs crawling around your feet down a little, and makes it easier to clean up any food that falls while eating. The bathrooms were also cleaned each morning, with the trash taken out and the floor swept clean of bugs and detritus.

My biggest complaints about this site are the noise, and how much trash we saw. There is a farm nearby with a rooster that spent the better part of the day crowing, which can be distracting when you have a toddler you are trying to get to sleep, and got very repetitive for the adults as well. We could also hear 18 wheelers both nights we were there during the night. We were there on weeknights so there were very few other campers, but there was a lot of trash still evident from the weekend littered across most of the campsites, and a group that stayed our first night there left their fire ring full of paper towels and banana peels. After reporting it to a ranger, he cleaned up the paper but left the banana peels which made me wonder how strictly the campground enforces proper food storage, and the ranger said that the campers had not paid or registered--despite the fact that park vehicles drove past at least twice since that group set up camp. If kept clean, I would easily give this a 4 or 5 star rating despite the noise, but I was very disappointed in the visibility of human impact--a shame, because it is otherwise a great place, and great for families with small children.

Site8
Month of VisitSeptember
  • Review photo of Foster Falls Campground — South Cumberland State Park by Stephanie J., August 28, 2018
  • Review photo of Foster Falls Campground — South Cumberland State Park by Stephanie J., August 28, 2018
  • Review photo of Foster Falls Campground — South Cumberland State Park by Stephanie J., August 28, 2018
  • Review photo of Foster Falls Campground — South Cumberland State Park by Stephanie J., August 28, 2018
  • Review photo of Foster Falls Campground — South Cumberland State Park by Stephanie J., August 28, 2018
  • Review photo of Foster Falls Campground — South Cumberland State Park by Stephanie J., August 28, 2018
  • Review photo of Foster Falls Campground — South Cumberland State Park by Stephanie J., August 28, 2018
  • Review photo of Foster Falls Campground — South Cumberland State Park by Stephanie J., August 28, 2018
  • Review photo of Foster Falls Campground — South Cumberland State Park by Stephanie J., August 28, 2018
  • Review photo of Foster Falls Campground — South Cumberland State Park by Stephanie J., August 28, 2018