For those who want to experience Ararat, but still want the creature comforts of home, consider glamping for your trip. The Dyrt can help find the best glamping in and around Ararat, VA. Whether you're looking for a quiet location in the woods or a site closer to all the action, The Dyrt makes it easy to find the perfect glamping spot.
► Tent and trailer camping
The lower slopes of Pilot Mountain house the family camping area where 42 campsites for tents and trailers are scattered among oaks and hickories.
Each site has a tent pad, table, and fire pit/grill. Drinking water is available throughout the campground, and two bathhouses with hot showers are located nearby.
Some campsites can accommodate RVs. There are no hookups or dump station provided. Please visit the reservations website for more information about the driveway length of each campsite.
The campground host sells firewood. Gathering wood in the park is prohibited.
No more than six people are allowed to occupy a campsite. The camping area is open from March 15 to November 30.
Please review the important information below regarding check in.
► Paddle-in camping
Two paddle-in campsites are located at the Ivy Bluffs access on the south bank of Yadkin River. Reservations are required to use these campsites.
There is no water or toilet facilities at these campsites. You must bring your own water and pack out all trash and waste.
Camping is allowed only in designated areas. Camping is prohibited on the Yadkin River Islands.
The nearest boat access upstream from the campsite is located at the Shoals fishing and boating access, at 4454 Shoals Road, East Bend, NC 27018. The paddle from this access is about 1 mile. As of March 15, 2021, the next downstream boat access at Donnaha Park is closed until Fall 2023. Please plan accordingly.
$15 - $26 / night
$23 / night
Nestled between the beautiful Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains (just one mile off the highway), this KOA Holiday caters to everyone, from families looking for a memorable destination to travelers looking for a quiet location after a day on the road. Check out the improved big rig friendly RV sites, Camping Cabins, Deluxe Cabins and Tent sites. Enjoy the pool with double water slide, fully stocked camp store, gaga ball, mini golf, corn hole, playground, mining sluice, court games, and our catch-and-release fishing pond.
This campground's Bowling and Family Fun Center is home to indoor batting cage, arcade games, pool tables, skee ball, outdoor mini golf, and the AOK Cafe, which features made to order pizza, wings, and doughnuts! The Bowling and Family Fun Center Pavilion hosts summer weekend activities that include a ride on the KOA Express train, an authentic 1924 fire truck, wagon rides, tie-dye/crafts and a candy hunt (kids 12 & under). This KOA Holiday has brought a new addition to The Fun Center; a first of its kind: a six-lane BOWLING ALLEY complete with automatic scoring for your enjoyment. Nearby, explore the Blue Ridge Parkway, animal park, wineries, antique malls, and the Town of Wytheville's historic attractions and restaurants (some will even deliver to your site).
$50 - $170 / night
Ideal for swimming, camping, hiking and picnicking, Claytor Lake is known for sport fishing and boating. The park has a full-service marina with docking slips, supplies, fuel, boat rentals and refreshments. Three lodges and 15 cabins overlook the 4,500-acre lake, offering visitors a scenic retreat. There are 103 campsites, 39 offering electric and water hookups. The park also offers 4 yurts (no electricity).
Motorcycle Traffic Only
Motorcycling and Camping are natural companions. Maximize your love of motorcycle travel and the great outdoors at Willville Bikecamp. Nestled in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, Willville is a destination, a meeting point, a base camp to explore the great Blue Ridge Parkway, or a place just to rest and relax. Motorcycle camping at Willville is ideal for a weekend run or an extended getaway.
Bunkhouse and Camping cabin including a private bike shelter now available.
Ideally located less than one mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Willville is set in an area that offers some of the best roads and scenery for the ultimate motorcycling experience.
The secluded campground sits within a 26 acre wooded park providing privacy from the main road while still offering easy access. The campground is designed for motorcycle traffic only, however, there is ample parking outside the campground (within the park) for those who wish to trailer their motorcycles.
Once in the campground, a sparkling mountain creek borders most of the shaded campsites. Individual grassy camping areas offer a comfortable and convenient location for tent setup. The sites also provide picnic tables and a nice level surface for those motorcyclists pulling trailers.
The large 770 square foot bathhouse facilities include six sinks, six showers and six toilets to get everyone off to an early start, with plenty of pressure and hot water. A spacious pavillion is available for group gatherings and cookouts.
At Willville you can chose a walk through the peaceful park, visit with the other campers or simply just relax. Plus, for exciting road trips and breath-taking scenery, don't forget about all of our fantastic roads for motorcycling.
At night gather at the group campfire to meet new friends and share your motorcycle adventures. Local attractions include Mabry's Mill, Chateau Morrisette Winery, Villa Appalachia Winery, Poor Farmer's Market, Tuggles Gap, live musicians at Floyd General Store, Virginia International Raceway, home of the AMA Superbike Nationals, the Floyd World Music Festival and many more points of interest.
Campground is open from Mid-April through October.
Willville is ideally located at the midpoint of The Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive combined. Plan a trip to Willville and maximize your Blue Ridge experience.
$150 - $200 / night
$30 / night
Salthouse Branch Campground is nestled on the shores of Philpott Lake in the rugged foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. The park is located in a rural and sparsely populated part of Franklin County near the small community of Henry. Philpott Lake's clear water and natural shoreline make it a unique place for visitors to enjoy boating, fishing, hiking, picnicking and camping. Click here for the Philpott Lake Virtual Tour: https://corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil/visitors/virtual/philpott/tour.html
The lake provides visitors with great boating and swimming opportunities. Anglers enjoy fishing for large and smallmouth bass, walleye, bluegill, crappie and catfish. A 1/2-mile nature loop and a 1/2-mile interpretive trail are available in the campground. Many additional miles of hiking and biking trails surround Philpott Lake, allowing visitors to get out and explore this scenic area.
Philpott Lake covers 2,900 acres and has 100 miles of shoreline. The lake's steep, rocky banks meet beautiful mixed forests of oak, maple, hickory, pine and cedar. Wildlife is abundant throughout the area. Deer, turkeys, squirrels, raccoons, and a variety of songbirds and waterfowl are commonly viewed.
The lake is adjacent to Fairystone State Park and Fairystone Farms Wildlife Management Area, which includes 5,300 acres of public recreational lands.
$52 / night
Scout
This campground is right by a highway so traffic noise is high but the views are nice. I was excited to have a lake view spot with electric but my 25 foot cord was not long enough so make sure you have atleast 50 feet. Also there was dog poo right by the electrical unit. The bathrooms are pretty far and you can also see a house very close to the site. The spot is nice on a platform with a grill and your own little beach area but it's not that private and that traffic noise was pretty disappointing
ScoutFrom the first over the phone to the in person at the office, to even extending my stay by a day. I simply felt welcomed and wanted. Definitely would suggest! Definitely coming back!
Scout
I stayed on the “not great for kids” side. Camp host said the other part of the park was better for families and had easier trail inclines. I loved my spot. It was quieter than I expected given how close the camp sites were to each other.
GuideBeen eating mules on the interstate. This place beats the heck out of a Cracker Barrel. Called a couple of hours out. Got a primo site ( B-13) 30 amp. Full hookups This site is level. Note there is no late checking after 7:30 pm. Stormy night coming. Safe and sound here
Traveler
Best campground I’ve stayed at on a bike. Very welcoming, quiet and peaceful. Few small town stores about a mile away including gas. Nice bath houses with shower. We had a fire every night and good conversation. Great stop, 10/10 I will make a point to be back!
Scout
Dyrt says $40-$42. Price now is $56. Decent place. Easy on off off IH77. Prefer this to most KOA’s for value. Nice, tree filled sites, clean and well lighted shower rooms, rural setting, but near a city. Definitely would recommend.
Legend
We’ve camped at Stone Mountain multiple times over the years. We tent-camped when my boys were small. Most recently in our RV (3-4 times in the past three years). It is a great park. The hiking is excellent. The campsites are large and spacious. The park is well-kept. Make sure you hike to the top. The views are great, and you can spend time at the Homestead farm in the valley below.
We camped here this past weekend and enjoyed it once again. We were at site 56. It is an excellent site on the stream, with no site immediately next to you, so there is lots of privacy. The firepit, picnic table, water, and electricity are all great. We had limited cell service for AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. We could send and receive text messages, but coverage was very spotty.
We will be back again in the Fall.
TravelerThe campground, paths, and bathrooms were very clean. Beautiful views at Rock Falls. If we didn't have our dogs with us we would have done hikes longer than 4 miles.
Guide
Saw $44 per night on website. Was charged $54 when I showed up.
Ranger
Our favorite KOA yet. Beautiful campground, nestled into forest with pines, deciduous trees, and native Rhododendron. Beautiful. Clean sites and facilities. Just off 77 not far from Roanoke. Would stay here again!
ScoutBusy but we spent a very quiet night and woke up to local livestock out the window. Glad we tried it!
Got propane and had easy access to highway in the morning.
Will be back
ScoutImpressive small campground with clean and well appointed sites. The elevated fire pits are level and easy to use for cooking or just a campfire. Bathrooms are clean and functional. Personal highlights was the view in late fall and the close proximity to the hiking trails up Pilot Mtn. Tent pad was level and large. Good bouldering and climbing Parking at Sites 23,25,26 is pretty level for a truck or camper van
Traveler
We loved our stay.
TravelerThis campground is well-maintained and in a beautiful location.It’s a pretty clean place with a friendly and personable staff.
Scout
Nice and clean area as far as tent camping, beautiful area all and all. Would return for sure.
TravelerFirst time visiting and camping, really enjoyed how clean and quiet the campground was. Campsite itself was perfect, close to hiking and easily accessible. Definitely will return!
ScoutPros, It’s a beautiful place. Easy access to car, good space for tents. Flat tent pads, great shade, super clean facilities. The host is absolutely amazing. Great.
Cons, not great around our fire pit, you can’t really sit around the fire pit because it’s not leveled, chars just fall. Not great if you don’t get a level spot if you have small children. It’s very rocky and small children will fall often. Not fun as a parent. A big con if you absolutely cannot deal with spiders. Ok. So this one might be a bit dramatic to some, however, if you don’t love bugs, be warned that there are hundreds of daddy long legs, just so so so many. And they get everywhere. We don’t mind bugs. We understand camping in tents will be bug heaven. We just didn’t expect to see hundreds. You have been warned. Site 14
LegendNice campground, no electric or water at the sites. Rocky, shaded sites, with nice bathrooms and showers.
Only stayed for one night, but will come back here when I have some more time.
Guide
Overnight stop on our trip south. We got in early enough that we were able to get a game of bowling in before they closed. The pizza was good too. We had a nice pull through.
TravelerAs far as the sites goes, ours was okay, but a lot of the sights were not level. All the sites to the left of the pond had the tongue on the ground and the rear jacks had pretty extreme crib blocks just to get the jacks to stabilize. The landscaping was not very well taken care of and the sites really need gravel. It was a muddy mess when it rained. On a positive note each site had a concrete pad.
The pool was extremely cold and had a lot of algae around the rim, but it does have the slide which my daughter enjoyed. The bowling alley had I think 6 lanes and it was pretty good. The putt putt golf is in rough shape so we didn’t even do it.
The staff that I dealt with were definitely odd. They weren't friendly at all, but rather very straight forward and weird. Altogether, I won’t stay here again. I will try on up the road at Fancy Gap or Mayberry on our travels through 77/74.
TravelerI typically steer clear of KOA's because most of the sites are super close together. This KOA is different! There is a row towards the front that are pretty close together, but I think they use those for one-nighters. We were in a tent and loved our spot. The staff was UNBELIEVABLY awesome and nice. They have a pool, a pond, a playground, a dog park, and a great camp store. The bathrooms and laundry room are exceptionally clean. If you order ice or firewood, they bring it to your site. They also have food you can order and they will bring it to your site. I am sure there are many things I am forgetting, but this is a must stay and we will be back.
Scout
We have been happy members of Thousand Trails for several years and have created several friend groups of whom I hope would verify my claim as accurate. My husband, Paul(OP), has always had the heart of a servant and has helped many throughout Lake Myers and Forest Lake. He enjoys playing cork hole and building campfires. We have so many wonderful friends at the campgrounds that we hang out with even when we don’t have our camper in. It has always been a source of stress relief and relaxation for us. We have never been ones to instigate gossip or spread it. We sit quietly to ourselves or with friends, play corn hole and enjoy the fire, food& friendships. Our dog LOVES to exercise on the golf cart trails! Last YEAR, one of the teen boys that lives in the campground full time came to our site and invited our 16 y/o(at the time) son to join him and a gang of other kids that found a villa unlocked. The private investigator we hired found out that the number of kids involved goes into the double digits. We advised Susan, the manager, of the identity of as many involved as we could. Our son was not involved in the actual damage and nothing further was said to us by Susan or any other representative of Lake Myers, Thousand Trails or Encore. Charges were attempted against our son alone, but when our attorney advised that all kids involved or none(some parents had already paid restitution… I offered but was not responded to) were to be charged then charges were dropped. We have been camping every 2 weeks in and one week out at Forest Lake with no problems at all until recently when my husband couldn’t get logged into our account to make his payment. I tried as well and couldn’t get logged in. Turns out that our entire national membership has been canceled by the Lake Myers manager with the reasoning of“unsupervised child”. That is totally falsified. How many of you see Mon or Dad following their older kids around? Our son had never cause any trouble. Funny, the kid that lives there who coaxed our son to the villas still lives there on site because his mom works for a prominent attorney that I guess Lake Myers is afraid of.(Well, mine is good too!) Ban our son from Lake Myers? Fine… but ban all the ones involved, don’t do it out of retaliation against us because you lack evidence. Want to ban our whole innocent family from Lake Myers? Fine… but ban all the families of those involved. If your going to accept money of one mom to let her stay because she works for an attorney, then the offer needs to be given to all. But why cancel our whole family national membership? THAT is excessive and we will be filing a lawsuit if it’s not fixed asap. We just bought a brand spanking new camper, new golf cart, paid membership fees(I want refunded if our membership is not going to be honored due to a dishonorable and unethical manager with no factual evidence and can apparently be paid off). Seriously! Existing campers can’t complain publicly about anything at the campground without the fear of their memberships being terminated for it. This is morally wrong. I have contacted membership services just to be told they can’t do anything. I call BS. This needs a fair resolution immediately.
LegendAwesome place! Campgrounds were nice and spaced out, well maintained...we were right by a small stream that you could hear...stone loop mountain trail is incredible! Long and strenuous but all ages were hiking it...homestead was so neat to walk around at the base of the mountain. Only negative is there showers. Very frustrating....you have to push the shower head to get water...great way to conserve but it gave you no time to enjoy the water. Made it hard to shower and it came out blasting all over the place....only complaint :)
RangerThere are a lot of good things to say about this campground and one negative. We stayed in a camper cabin to break up a long drive and the mattress was so thin that we could easily feel the metal frame through the "mattress" (really a thin pallet--hence the 3 stars, rather than 5). This KOA really needs to upgrade their mattresses, especially if they're charging such a high price for a cabin without a bathroom. Now onto the good stuff: it's a clean campground with a nice pool area and good camp store. The bowling alley was great and the on-site cafe has really good pizza. Tent campers have good options: I liked the 3 sites near the camp store because they were grassy and roomy enough for both tent and canopy. Other tent sites at the back of the campground were smaller, level, and had gravel pads. RV sites to either side of the fishing pond were mostly level and looked easier to navigate than the ones at the back of the campground; however, RV sites at the back had more shade. Had the bed been comfortable, I would have given this place 5 stars. I would be happy to return again (but this time as a tent camper).
GuideCool mountain breeze and cold water…wonderful visit and close to BRPkwy and Mt Airy
TravelerWe had a good experience overall at this campground. The people were friendly and the staff was accommodating. Definitely not the campground to book if you are looking to enjoy the surroundings/scenery as things are very packed in. Close enough to Winston-Salem to do day trips though.
ScoutThis was a nice, standard campground with a trail to the top of the mountain right in the campground loop. Bathrooms could use a good scrub, and the water took a good 5+ minutes to heat up. Overall a nice weekend trip location.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular glamping campsite near Ararat, VA?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Ararat, VA is Pilot Mountain State Park Campground — Pilot Mountain State Park with a 4.5-star rating from 36 reviews.
What is the best site to find glamping camping near Ararat, VA?
TheDyrt.com has all 25 glamping camping locations near Ararat, VA, with real photos and reviews from campers.
