Best Tent Camping near Cumberland, VA

North Carolina certainly puts its state park system as a priority! I am very impressed. This park is beautifully maintained, has myriad opportunities for recreation, and is in a scenic setting along Lake James and the Catawba River at the base of the Blue Ridge mountains. The park is quite large, and has an extensive set of trails for mountain biking as well as hiking, and the National Intermountain Historic Hiking trail also runs through the park. Water recreation includes kayaking, canoeing and boating with rentals available right in the oark, fishing, including trout fishing on the Catawba and feeder streams to it, and just lying on their beautiful beach—yes, even in December! Ranger led park programs are offered year round, this week included a natural history boat tour in the lake, and a naturalist talk on loons. The park encompasses several peninsulas and bays on Lake James, we were at Paddy Creek where there are nice drive in tent sites, but there are also more secluded walk in or hike in tent site options. The drive-in tent campground has a year round campground host, a brand new shower house and nice bathrooms, plentiful water pumps, and each tent site has a picnic table, steel fire ring, tent pad, and a well built “Bear Box.” Yes, this is bear country! Your food needs to be locked away in a bear box or you will have visitors

We absolutely loved it! We stayed in the tent camping area. The bathrooms were the cleanest we’ve experienced at any tent camping site. It’s relatively close to the Shenandoah NP. Would recommend this place. Definitely returning.

We’ve been here twice. Once for our anniversary and we stayed in one of the cabins with our dog, and once tent camping. The cabin was reasonably priced and comfortable. They are all grouped together and could be fun for a family reunion or some larger gathering with friends. The tent camping experience was with our kids, and it was a little hard to keep them entertained. The hiking trails were a short distraction, but not long or difficult enough to wear them out.

Awesome place. Crazy raccoons.

Boat in sites. Tent camping. Reserve early, especially weekends.

Have fun!

A lot of effort was put into remodeling the bathhouses, making them surprisingly welcoming. Many variations of tent sites available and sites are easily located.

We arrived during the day just after a rain storm. We tent camped and it was pretty muddy. The sites were nice and private for tent campers. RVs was a different story. The bathroom was a good walk up the hill so bring your bikes. We would definitely go back though!

We've spent a number of nights tent camping at Christopher Run. The people who manage the site are very nice. The campground and bathrooms are kept clean. The bathrooms are even air-conditioned. Christopher Run has a boat launch as well.

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.

Tent camped at the park late October and everything was perfect. Very quiet, flat ground, so much room, the cleanest and nicest bathhouse I've ever seen, hot water included. Not to mention a very nice fire pit and picnic table at our site. Firewood and ice on site and the best of all, the full service brewery, restaurant, and concert venue all on site. 100/10 best campsite I've ever stayed at.

Tent sites are shady, although some can be VERY close to one another. There’s a nice beach area and the park seems to offer boat rentals (unsure of COVID policies at the moment, though). 🛶

The playgrounds and amenities for kids are cute, and the bathrooms are clean. The park sells wood and has a little mini outdoor library and charging station which is adorable and something I don’t see often 💜

I stay here at least once every summer. Has beautiful pool and lake, playground, arcade, and boat rentals. Fishing, hiking, basketball. Very friendly staff all the time. Close to stores and restaurants but far enough out to not hear any noise. Phone service is superb. Clean shower and restrooms. Hot water. Electric tent sites!!! Has everything I live and will continue to go here as long as I’m in the state of Va. def recommended

Bear Creek Lake is a bit off the beaten path which was one of the things I really loved about it. My kids and I camped in a tent on the Chestnut Loop, which was well shaded by trees and the bathrooms were incredibly clean. The sites are a little close to each other for my taste, but everything else was so nice I didn't let it bother me.

The lake itself is smallish, but the scenery is beautiful. We rented kayaks and the staff were all very nice and helpful. There is a small beach area for swimming, but I'm not a fan of swimming in lakes myself so I skipped visiting that area. Instead we hiked the very scenic trails around the lake, which are well marked for the most part.

In all, this was a very nice park to visit for camping, hiking and kayaking. I imagine I'll be returning again in the future.

Important RV directions!
DO NOT follow your gps. There are signs that actually say “gps navigation not recommended”. There are sharp turns, steep (15%) grades and low, narrow overpasses. Best entry is to take 64 to 151 south, then turn in Beach Grove Rd.

Newish campground.  22 ( I believe) full hook up sites, lots of tent sites.  You can walk to the brewery.  

Devils Backbone picks up hikers on the AT, brings them in for free camping and showers, also offers a hikers breakfast.  Your bar mate may be a little rank but they have some stories,

Paddys Creek Drive-in Tent Camping 

I know you can't control the weather but the night we tried to stay here, it POURED! I'll get to why it is an issue in a bit. The park and campground are one of the newest in North Carolina. The facilities are nice, new and clean. The campsites are big but on a hill with parking below the sites. The camp pad is surrounded by a wood frame. That is the catch - the wood frame! When it started to rain, the water pooled up in the camp pad area since it had no where to drain. In a matter of minutes, our tent was floating in 6 inches of water. We could have toughed it out but at this point it was early enough in the night to just pack up, mud, wet tent, wet dog and all. I would try again but I hope it doesn't rain.

This park was well maintained, as most state parks have been.  However, the sites were a good size but were very difficult to get even a small trailer into the site due to the narrow roads.  We were tent camping, in the beginning of May, and the weather was cold and wet.  The swimming area was nice for the kids, but no lifeguard was on duty at that time.  No luck with shore fishing from everyone I talked to.  The sites were a good combination of sun and shade, great view of stars on clear nights.  Common areas can fill up with groups during the day on weekends.  Courthouse was only about 15min away and offered a very interesting visit of a historical site.   Overall, not our favorite campground, but this was mainly to the pain getting into a site.

Misty Mountain offers something for everyone - spacious, level well-maintained full hook up sites that can accommodate any size trailer or RV, more rustic tent camping sites, quiet creekside camper sites with electric and water, and both modern and rustic cabins. The camp store is well stocked and even offers a very nice wine selection, plus local canned salsa, spaghetti sauce, and pie! There are many amenities for families - a huge bouncy mat, a fishing pond, playground, large group campfire, sports area, and a nice rec room. They have free donuts and coffee on Sundays, and special events many Saturdays. The shower and laundry facility is very new with modern, clean amenities. The showers are private suites and are large and nice enough that some people with showers in their campers still choose to use the camp ones instead. The site areas closest to the camp store and recreation area are the nicest - the RV sites up the hill by the cabins are smaller and closer together. The whole facility is very well maintained and the camp hosts live on site.

For being a state park, Lake Anna is one of the best I've been to. Although we only tent camped, I noticed a lot of things about the campground that would welcome RVs as well. There were large back-in sites as well as pull-through sites. There was also a dump station. Campers can choose sites with or without electricity. This campground is ADA accessible with the lantern hangers having lower hooks for those in wheelchairs, and at least one of the cabins has a wheelchair ramp. The bath house was clean, and I especially liked the privacy of individual shower rooms. Since it is a state park, it lacks some amenities that privately owned campgrounds have, but camping in a state park is about enjoying the natural features of the park, There are opportunities for motor boating, kayaking, swimming, hiking, fishing, etc. The only downside I found was that the grass really needed mowing. Even though there had been a few rainy days, the grass at our campsite was knee high and higher.

This state park is amazing, it is close to the Richmond metro but allows an easy and wonderful retreat to nature. I was there in early June, and it wasnt crowded, though I can imagine it might be later in the summer. There are numerous camping options here, ranging from tent camping to RV’s to camper cabins to yurts, to regular full service glamping cabins, all in different sections. There is also an area set aside that could be rented for a group retreat or group summer camp, with groups of cabins around meeting space and dining hall area. The full service cabins are new and very upscale; the camper cabins are older but well maintained. The yurts are lovely too. I car camped in a standard site, all the campsites are wooded, shady, fairly private and well spaced. The park is huge and has lots of recreation, from miles of hiking and riding trails, biking and more. Very family friendly, with playgrounds, an incredible waterpark and pool, and nature programs at the visitor center. There is also a summer series of concerts etc in the park. Highly recommended!

like the campground for its amenities. pool is modern and nice with splash pad. 2 playgrounds and other things like horseshoes and corn hole areas that were under water after a previous days rain. has rv/tent sites that have power and water and some with sewer. sites are generally close together with no brush/woods or privacy. Only 2 bath houses in entire park which are quite far from wherever you camp. on the plus side the bath houses are modern and clean, but for the entire lower park area there are only 6 bathroom/shower combos which seems a little light for the at least 60 campsites. There is another bathhouse at the top of the hill for the similar number of sites up there. we are staying along the creek in the power/water rv sites with our pop up. The creek access is great for keepIng the kids busy. There are probably only a handful of other popups in the entire resort, definitely a large travel trailer/fifth wheel dominated location.

So much to say! We’ve loved our trips to Pocahontas, even in the cold months of December and March. For one, the bathrooms/showers are nice and toasty (and super clean). I was there in December for a camping and mountain biking trip with Scouts. The group site we were at was very spacious and private. There were a few RV/tent sites nearby but not very close. We felt quite secluded but it wasn’t too far to walk to the bathrooms. The bike trails were epic fun! Some areas were more challenging than others, likely because there had been a lot of rain and wet leaves on steep bike trails can be tough to avoid slipping/sliding. But we made the best of it. I returned a few months later for a NOLS Wilderness First Aid course that was held in a large dining hall on the park’s property. It couldn’t have been more perfect! We camped there and drove to the dining hall each day for class. It was very well-organized! I have fond memories of this park and look forward to returning during other times of the year for more fun things to participate in!