Branch Pond — James River State Park

Private, flat, and well maintained sites with great facilities, hiking/biking trails, and floating opportunities make this campground a good one to visit with family and friends!

First of all, the ranger over the campgrounds is awesome. He’s really, really nice. Secondly, this campground will always be a favorite for us. It’s pretty, it’s quaint, doesn’t get just a ton of traffic, and it’s clean!

Branch Pond campsite provides for so much more privacy than Canoe Landing. The sites are larger too! My only complaint, which is 100% personal, is that there was a train that came through about 2 times a night. I’m a light sleeper and heard it coming miles away. Other than that, I enjoyed my visit AND LOVED THE DARK SKY FOR STARGAZING!

We stayed at site L12 on the Long Arm Campground #2. The paddle in was ok but there was some boat traffic. The site was very nice, however, it would be better to choose a site from 14 or higher. Sites 11, 12, and 13 are nice but the landing is in a shallow algae filled cove. Not ideal for swimming. I've seen complaints about the tent pads holding water but since there are plenty of trees for hammocks, we did not use a tent.

We stayed in Long Arm paddle-in area 2. Park staff was not very helpful at all when we first arrived, but despite the attitude and the terrible rainy weather, we found our site fairly easily. As other reviews here and elsewhere mention, the tent pads don’t drain well and huge puddles develop- some sites were completely overtaken by a full inch of water. Thankfully the rain stopped on our first night, but it could definitely ruin a trip. The privy was nice to have, but I could smell it at every campsite and that definitely bothered me. Overall a decent weekend, but my suspicions that I am just not a Lake Person were confirmed.

This was a great weekend trip. Camp sites were large and had enough privacy! Very clean bathrooms and showers! Would highly recommend.

Camp here hike up stream then just sit back and float back to your site all to yourself

This campground is good for horse back riding (have stables you can rent) or tubing down the James River (have tubes you can rent). They'll take you to the drop off and you can float down. Have to be 6 or older (we had a 4 yr old), the grass at all sites was 6-10" high making it not fun for anyone, esp. kids (we have 2). They were mowing on the day we left.

As far as the tent sites by the river it's a good 50 to 75 feet from the campsite to your vehicle. There is not really good access to the river from camp sites except for two of them. There is plenty of room at the campsite and some trees for shade. Unless you are bringing horses and staying there, the showers and nice bathrooms are a drive away. Tent sites have permanent holes in the ground and no running water. if you know what you getting into it would be OK.

Paved roads with level dirt/gravel wooded sites having W/E (50A). Located in the middle of nowhere off of narrow Virginia secondary roads, we were surprised to get good Verizon reception. We stayed on site 15 which is a long pull-thru. As with other VA State Parks, we picked our site once we arrived. Very wooded so the rooftop dish didn't work. Also several nice cabins (houses really) in the park and separate camping for horse lovers. Like other VA state parks, there are very nice hiking trails here so I took advantage of them. There is a canoe livery on site where you can rent a kayak/canoe and they also have a shuttle service from one end of the park to the other where there is a nice boat landing. Maybe next time because the James River looked so inviting. We enjoyed a visit to the Visitor Center which has nice displays about the history of the area.