Best Tent Camping near Mineral, VA

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.

Stayed in tent site 005, and while it wasn’t the smallest of the tent sites or least private, if was very close to the main look road and every car entering the camp loop passes right by the site up the hill within eyesight. Camp store didn’t allow dogs, and I didn’t feel good leaving my dog unattended in the park (which is their rule) I didn’t get to visit the store. One good thing was the view from the amphitheater

Beautiful part of the SNP. I was unfortunately tent camping next to a loud RV, but that was my fault for booking the wrong site! Lovely hikes nearby.

Reservations are made through the National parks service "recreation.gov" website. Arrived for tent camping for 2 nights and found that my original planned site wasn't very hospitable to tent camping due to the slope, Conferred with park ranger who easily changed my site to a better one with no fee. My stay was quiet and the bathrooms were clean and well stocked. This is a great base camp for getting out to hike the Appalachian trail and the local water falls in the area. Firewood and some camping supplies can be obtained onsite and there is a park wayside store and cafeteria a short distance away (i highly recommend the honey breaded chicken).

It’s has small sites, great for tent camping, but not great for a fifth wheel. Bath houses are available and a small amp store.great for overnight camping and some bear coolers are available.

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.

Tent-camped here with a group of friends, and the site was plenty large enough for 2 tents, a makeshift tarp shelter, and vehicle. We ended up getting rained out, unfortunately, but not before we got to do a little hiking and relaxing by the fire :) Beautiful area, with lots of great hiking trails right near the campground.

Beautiful spot on to of a bald. Good amount of tree coverage from rain/other groups. Some of the tent sites are close to neighbors, but we made friends! No more than 5 minute walk to bathrooms and water source. Would highly recommend!

Pros: Location. This campground puts your right in the middle of Shenandoah with multiple beautiful hikes only minutes away. Wildlife is abundant, you will see deer and bears. Weather is lovely not too hot during the day and campfire cool at night. The camp hosts and park rangers were friendly and helpful without being around too much.

Cons: Campsite are very close together, little to no brush between campsites, and tent sites are laid out poorly with some site only having access to the parking lot or facilities by walking through other sites. Normally I don't mind noise at a camp site, but this was particularly bad. Due to the lack of brush, you could hear zippers and gravel crunching all night. Additionally, tent sites are small but have a gravel pad for the tents, the issue was the gravel was poorly maintained, consisted of large chunks of rock and were steeply inclined making it hard to layout a tent so everyone inside is at least somewhat comfortable.

Stayed for 3 nights and thoroughly enjoyed it. Each campsite included a fire pit and a picnic table. The tent sites also had bear boxes to store your foods. Place was very clean and quiet. I would definitely recommend this place for anyone who is interested.

Jake from the Dyrt here!  Casa Vargas offers secluded RV & Tent sites near the famous Skyline Drive that offers great views of the Shenandoah Mountains.  Make this your homebase for a weekend to explore the area, and make sure to post some pictures and leave a review on the Dyrt!

Reservations are made through the National parks service "recreation.gov" website. Arrived for tent camping for 1 nights, park ranger met me at the entrance to ensure i could find my site. My stay was quiet and the bathrooms were clean and well stocked with HOT water in the private showers. This is a great base camp for getting out to hike the various trails in Prince William Forrest. Firewood is gather your own from fallen limbs in the park.

We were there during a heat wave so there were bugs but being from Georgia the heat was bearable. Speaking of bears- there were lots of siting and they take food clean up seriously. You can be fined for leaving food out. The site was a tent site with lots of shade and not too close to others. Lots of deer walking through and room to hang hammocks and chill lut

Best campground in Shennandoah. my boyfriend and I drove in and had a mix up with our reservation (over booked) and the staff accommodated us. We used this campground as a prep for backcountry, and there are about 20 miles of trails in the area, including the AT. we loved it! I HIGHLY suggest making a reservation well ahead of time, especially for tent sites. They have some really secluded sites.

We visited in early June. It's a large campground, with a mix of tent campers and rv's. When we arrived, we opted for the more secluded tent camping sites towards the back of the campground. While we were happy with our chosen site, what we should have done was snagged one of the spots on the western edge of the campground, which backs up against the AT and an incredible view of the sunset. Even if you don't opt for one of those sites, do yourself a favor and head over there in the evening to watch the sun go down.

I love loft mountain. after two years of tent camping, upgraded to see teardrop this year. I always meet great people there and the staff is wonderful (Paula and Lori shout out)

There is no wifi and very little cellular coverage, but we've employed a cellular amplifier and now work remote there often. coupled with a hotspot and wifi extender, or entire campsite is covered. if you need cellular, go to the amphitheater and you'll be able to get connected. g loop, reservations required, also has service is you get the top spots.

We drove into the park for this campground because it seemed to have “walk in” tent camping that was more secluded than typical sites. When we got here, we found out that those sites are actually open fields with little to no privacy while, ironically, the pull through sites at this campground have tons of vegetation and are super private. Great bathroom facilities and we loved our quiet site. Drove south to the 9.8 mi Rip Rap/AT/Wildcat loop. Awesome hike with a great swimming hole about halfway. If you’re comfortable with a strenuous hike, don’t miss it!!!!

We tent camped in site #1 on Oct 7th, 2023. The online booking was easy enough through TheDyrt.com. Finding the place isn't trivial.

The campsite/farm is known as Labyrinths, Trails and Solitude...or ImaniWorks: Human Rights& Sustainable Living...Google struggled to find both of them. The address is 19362 Constitution Hwy, Orange, VA 22960

Head out of Orange, Virginia on the 20 East (Constitution Hwy), just as you pass the Orange County Airport on the left you'll pass Porter Road on the right. The next house after Porter Road, is the turn in to the Farm/Campsite (on the right side of the road).

It's quite beautiful and our hosts were great. Nice campsite. Lot's of birds singing.

I wish we could have stayed longer, the hiking and free firewood would have been great to take advantage of, but we were just overnighting.

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.

Liked this campground a lot, while not as intimate as Lewis Mountain, with a couple hundred sites you can luck out. While there are awesome "hike in" tent sites some of them are a little hard to determine if someone's already down there occupying them (See photo) and you may have to basically walk through someone else's site to get to yours. Saying that a lot of these sites are actually pretty nicely spaced out from each other, especially the pull through and back-in. There was a nice amount of Ranger presence as you saw them drive through every so often, so most people seemed to be following the "rules" pretty well. (or at least i didn't witness anything like at Lewis mountain)

We were a little worried before we went through after reading some recent reviews where people were complaining about super high grass and ticks, but we found neither of these to be an issue during our visit.

You will want to make sure and know where the bathhouses are ahead of time if you think you might head there after dark as they are all a little hidden away and so you will want to make sure you know where you're going initially. Although once you find it they are nicely maintained and very clean despite the large number of people using them.

Depending on where you are, the campstore can be a nice long hike in of itself. This is the only location with showers (pay) and while there are a good number, can still get pretty busy with the large number of possible campers.

Like the other campgrounds you have "easy" access to the AT, but unlike the other sites, you kind of have to walk through the "hike in" tent sites which some people might not mind doing, but I felt bad.....

My partner and our two dogs camped here for a weekend in a tent. Some of the sites are much better than others, a lot are closer together than I'd like. It is a really excellent spot to camp at in the summer as the temperatures are much cooler on the mountain. The bathrooms near the sites do not have showers. The showers are coin operated, pretty far away (we drove) and are only open for very limited hours. Overall, a great spot if you get the right campsite but overpriced. The price to camp, the firewood and the ice are all expensive. The tent sites have a fire ring with a grate. There is no grill so be sure to bring a camp stove, no one wants to have to start three fires a day just to eat.

The listing made this place sound really exciting and convenient. When we arrived the store/clubhouse/bunkhouse? Was very cute and friendly, once we visited the camping area we were quickly disappointed. It was essentially a 500’x500’ field with little to no trees, hills, anything except buildings. We went on a windy weekend and do more tent camping, and quickly realized this kind of exposure is not what we wanted. I think the current campsite layout would be appropriate for those with trailers/campers with indoor space stopping though. I wouldn’t consider this much of a campsite, more of a field to park and sleep. We were very exited for our trip out here, and ended up going to Elizabeth furnace an hour away and got a much more private/established campsite, that was also free.

We stayed in October in the middle of the week and had a section of the tent camping all to ourselves. Our site was a walk in so there was a bear locker that was extremely helpful to keep our stuff dry with the rain. We read that there were spectacular views, but the views were little peeps of mountain between all of the trees. There were a handful of sites that had a little better view, but I was expecting it to look like an overlook and was disappointed. The bathrooms were immaculate for a campground as well as the laundry facility(great when you have wet gear!). The campstore was well stocked with food to cook, beer/wine, souvenirs, and camp gear. There is also a wayside by the entrance to the campground that has another store and lunch counter.

Big Meadows was the second stop at the halfway point on our tour of Shenandoah National Park. First stop was Mathews Arm which is about 1/4 of the way on Skyline Drive (north to south). After Big Meadows, we stopped at Loft Mountain. These parks are well spaced for viewing and hiking in between each campground.

I'm a big fan of campgrounds in national parks. Why do I like this one?

• Simplicity, i.e. no frills but all the basic needs are available

• This one (and the others in Shenandoah) have generator-free areas.

• First-come, first-served sites: About 20% of the 230+ sites can't be reserved.

• The $20 price is a bargain and our Lifetime Senior Pass cuts the fee in half.

• Hiking: Don't miss the Rose River hike and all the cascading waterfalls. You can start near the campground with a trip to Dark Hollow Falls and continue with the Rose River Loop. Pick up the info sheet on the Big Meadows Area hikes at one of the Visitor Centers. The hiking maps are excellent.

• Steven Mather, the first director of the NPS, wanted to create a park in the eastern US that is like the western parks. This park and its campgrounds have that vibe.

The Sites

• Sites are all back in, i.e. no pull throughs.

• Non-reservable sites: Some tent sites, all of C and all of I. Check the photo of the site map.

• Walk-to tent sites: It's not a long walk to your site from a designated parking spot. There are food storage boxes at most sites so you don't have to move food back to your car. These sites are more secluded than the regular sites.

• Generator-free zone: See the site map photo that shows all walk-to tent sites, all of B and part of A in the generator-free zone.

• Choosing a site: Arrive early if you don't have a reservation. Some of the non-reservation sites will be claimed by people staying multiple nights. If you want to be in the generator-free zone, you should probably reserve a site. We were able to get one without a reservation but it was on a weekday in October. If you don't mind having a generator near you, I thought the sites on the outside of E were nice because there is no one behind you.

• Some sites have food storage lockers. Google reviews indicate park rangers insist you keep all food in a locker, camper or vehicle, and you can be fined if you don't. Apparently, bears recognize coolers so you should cover them up in vehicles. (I also heard this at Rocky Mountain NP.) 

Amenities

• Restrooms with a utility sink outside some of them. Potable water and trash/recycling stations are spread throughout the park. These are all shown on the site map photo.

• Showers in a central area: $1.75 for 5.25 minutes. Yes, that's what it is! You can do it! These are the classiest showers I've seen in a national park.

• Laundry facility

• Campstore with ice, wood and some food

• Dump station