Best Cabin Camping near Red Oak, VA

Cabins are small but we made it work for our family of 7. We had a blast it was the weekend prior Labor Day we fished saw old friends in Virginia and had a wonderful time. The stuff was amazing

Love this park. I stayed in cabin #4 twice in the last year and had a great time! The park offers several activities: hiking, biking, fishing, wildlife viewing, boating (if you bring your own boat), stargazing (the park has been recognized as International Dark sky and there are two telescopes that can be checked out for free at the visitor’s center). The staff is very polite and the gift shop is great! While staying there I saw a skunk, a groundhog, several deer and a great variety of birds. We enjoyed gorgeous sunsets from a little beach area near the cabins. The cabins are rustic (they date back to 1936) but very cozy and clean.

This is a great location right on Lake Gaston. You can rent a cabin pitch a tent or park in RV

Tucked away in the lush, verdant forests north of Raleigh, here at Bullocksville Park, you’ll discover camping and cabin grounds that are just a short hike from the nearby Lake Kerr, but far enough away from any roadside noisy traffic. 

This is a complete natural respite that is incredibly quiet(save the roar of noise from nature!). The grounds themselves are laid out superbly, from 3-4 independent campground sites(in fact, some are across the road from whence you arrived) with blended options for both RV’s and real campers who use tents. 

There are a number of amenities and diversions, such as boat ramps for motored-boats, kayaking, canoeing, as well as playgrounds for the kiddos, a big gathering hall that can be rented, several picnic areas and shelters along with countless hiking trails. For anyone visiting North Carolina or for nearby residents who just want to get away from the concrete jungle, then Bullocksville Park is definitely worth a look. 

I will end on this point - I have not come across any such amazing camping gem in all of North Carolina than this splendid campground at Bullocksville.  You'll be lucky (and hopefully very grateful) for getting a piece of land here in front of this gorgeous lake if you book well in advance.

Happy Camping!

We stayed in Cabin #3 and it was perfect. It’s a 3BR/2BA spacious cabin, wooded and lakeside. Great sunsets and nice big deck (some areas of the porch are covered, and have rocking chairs). Kitchen is equipped with microwave, toaster, coffee pot, water glasses, coffee mugs, plates, bowls, utensils, can opener, etc. If you have the space to pack them, I recommend bringing a couple of your own pots and pans; limited options there. Bring your own dish towels, dish rags, linens (including pillowcase if you don’t have room to pack your own pillow), towels/wash rags, etc. We loved the coziness of this cabin without the cramped feeling. High ceilings, open floor plan, and fireplace were lovely. The bundle of complimentary wood was very nice. 🪵🔥

Next time we tent camp we will definitely stay in Campground C where the sites are RIGHT on the water. Check out spaces 25-31, my personal faves. Since with these sites you’re kind of out in the open, I wouldn’t book these in the heat of the summer. The wooded sites in Campground B looked really nice and well-spaced. It was closed about halfway in, so we couldn’t see all of the sites. It looks like some of them might be wooded with water views. Would be nice and shady🌲

We hiked the Plantation Trail, a large historical site that was once a homestead. Mellow, family-friendly walk with a cemetery, historical markers, and an old chimney. Lots of old growth - from the gigantic boxwoods (hundreds of years old) to the wild daffodils growing in the woods. 🌼🌳

On our last day, we paddled around Bugg’s Lake. Used the boat launch near the office - nice place to put in. The whole trip we saw lots of birds, squirrels, deer, and raccoons. Occoneechee is a spacious park with lots of day-use facilities. Would be a great place for socially distant outdoor gatherings 💚. Lots more trails to visit when we come back! 🛶🥾

Oh, and the campground has a few yurts that have excellent “backyard” wooded views! There’s also a good bit of space between them. Lots of porch space, too. 🛖

We stayed here for a week while we were both working. It was our first time using our Thousand Trails membership and it was pretty fun! I don't think I've ever stayed at an RV resort like this where you have a lot of people who have pretty permanent type places. It seemed like people view their RVs here like their weekend cabin and they just leave them here and come and go. 

The lake was beautiful and every morning we would take our chairs down by the lake to have our morning coffee and watch the mist and the fish. There was a little shop where we could get supplies, food, coffee, etc. We pretty much had the showers and bathrooms to ourselves since everyone has them in their RVs. Was also nice to do a load of laundry. 

It was a lot of fun to walk around the campground and look at people's set ups (also a little eerie since very few people were there since the season was winding down) and a full loop of the campground was about 2/12 miles...not a bad walk!

This is a thousand trails RV resort. the road to the campground is fine. The campground is an older one and bigger rigs will find it a bit of a challenge to get into areas, especially the area where there is just water and electric. That is another issue, most of the park is water and electric. Lucky for us we usually come into this park early in the season or latter. 

  There is an area near the lake that has pull thru sites with WES setups 200 to 323 ( some small cabins and tiny houses are included in this number set ), I believe there is 31 total, all 50 amp, 22 are pull thru.

The camp sites from #1 thru 174 are 30 and 50 amp setups and the area is tight to maneuver thru you are definitely going to work at getting bigger rigs in and also, leveling is a bit challenging in some spots. But 90% are in partial shaded areas making it a comfortable feel once settled in.

  Our ATT and T-Mobile hotspots worked as did the cell service ok. Most of the amenities were closed as it was early in the season. I will say, the laundry is small for this big of a campground. They were also doing work on the office but that is supposed to be completed soon. All in all, the views of the Lake are spectacular and there is plenty to see and do during the peak season for families.

They have a separate dump station as well as a dumpster area as you first enter the park.

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 💜

We so enjoyed camping here. The swimming area is so amazing. Great area for the kids to enjoy a safe and fun swimming experience. 

They have boat rentals and a fishing pier. The camp sites are of nice size and are mostly well shaded. They have a large playground for the kids and the roads are good for bike riding . We hiked some of the trails, there is beautiful nature thT surrounds you. Close to the High Bridge and different Daily excursions.

Was a pretty nice lake to visit once, but I never felt like I was out in the wilderness with the large freeways so close. Still, there were pretty coves to explore on the HUGE lake, and the campsites were very green and scenic - if a bit too close together. I liked hiking the trails, some of which had interesting historical markers. Renting a kayak took a lot longer than I'd expected, just because the rental office seemed understaffed to me. Would have loved this park if it were just a bit more off the beaten path, so to speak.

It's a campground if you arent looking for big views or to get away from it all, it's a bit noisy. The bathrooms were not very tidy and at any point seemed like there was debris or water laying around every time I went in. The picnic area is basically bare earth with little attention paid to basic things like erosion, with gullies running all over. The staff seemed flustered whenever I asked a question (when are programs, is there a list?) and seemed to spend a lot of time doing...nothing. The programs themselves were a little limited and the rangers we saw seemed distracted and didnt seem that kid oriented, which I thought was strange.

My gkids and I stayed here one night because they wanted to earn a winter camping badge and it was so worth it! We were there on a beautiful chilly clear night and the sky and stars were amazing! If you love stargazing this is the park for you. It is an International Dark Sky Park. There is a large open field by the park check in and store. The park offers rentals of telescopes too. They also have a nature learning lab, some cool animals, and a fantastic gift shop. This was our first time here and we are definitely going back. Since we only stayed one night we didn't get to explore the park much but it looks fantastic and we can't wait to go back some time this summer. The gkids brought their bikes and loved riding around the park. It was rather empty since it was still technically winter. The showers were hot and the bathrooms were clean. The rangers were nice and helpful. I can't wait to see this park in the summer in all of its lush and leafy splendor.

Campground Review

The staff at this campground really went above and beyond to make sure I had all the correct information needed for my stay. They truly run like a well-oiled machine. They are the reason for the 3-stars. This was actually my second time at the park, but I didn't remember that until after I'd arrived and things started looking familiar. I should have known something was up if I didn't remember being here.

The campground itself is not my style. The sites were packed in close together and most of the tent only sites were tiny! There's even one site that wraps around a second site. After picking out my (first) site, I parked my car, looked around, and realized that there wouldn't be room for my both my tent and my friend's tent. I moved to the next site, put up my tent, and started looking for a place for my hammock. We're in the woods, it shouldn't be that hard. There were zero trees behind the second site. So, I moved again. Third time is a charm, right? We were able to get both tents up and found a place for both hammocks in between our site and the next. To give an idea of how close some of the sites are, the wood barrier around my site was only two feet away from the next site's barrier. I go camping to get away, not hang out with the neighbors.

The regulator on my lucky stove broke, so we cooked everything over a campfire. State Parks don't allow you to bring outside firewood (it's a good rule of thumb), so we bought their wood. All they had was huge pieces of fresh pine. I didn't bring a hatchet since I shouldn't need one for car camping. Luckily I had my Leatherman. More on that later.

The swimming lake is a good size. There is a concession stand, a beach with lifeguard, and a rental station for paddle boats. There were people in the water all weekend enjoying the awesome weather.

The lake trail passes right through the beach, then into the woods. The trail goes from sidewalk, to gravel, to jagged stones, to dirt, then blacktop. The last part of the trail is actually on an unmarked two-lane road over the spillway. All-in-all not the relaxing hike I had hoped for.

My take on this park is that it is best for families who love the water and want to go swimming every day. It does not have good hiking trails, or good camping - not the kind I'm looking for anyway.

Product Review

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time - today I am testing the Leatherman Charge ALX. First, let me say this thing is AWESOME! I used it numerous times this weekend. It's fair to say that everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The regulator on my propane stove started acting wonky. I would be in the middle of cooking and the flame would go out. The only way to light it is to lift the grate in order to get the firestarter close to the burner. The cast iron grate was already scalding, so I used my Leatherman needle-nose pliers to lift it up. Voila! After relighting the grill the fourth time, we gave up on it and decided to build a fire.

The pine logs were HUGE! Plus, there was very little kindling in the campground to use as a firestarter. We found some large branches and used the handy saw on my Leather Charge ALX to cut them up into fire-sized pieces. The sawing took way less time than I would expect for a hand-sized tool! Then, I used the straight-blade knife to shave off some bark for a little fire-starter. This blade is sharp! We had a fire going in no time.

I used the knife to cut paracord for hanging my hammock, slicing my ribeye, and even used the diamond file to fix a broken nail. Hey, a girl's gotta have good nails even in the woods.

Now that I'm back home, I reach for the Leatherman any time something needs fixing. I don't have to lug a tool box around the house and yard to fix things. Everything I need is all in one amazing pocket-sized tool. This thing is the best!

This campground is one of the two listed at Falls Lake State Recreation Area, and I chose it because of its good reviews. The“primitive” area is Loop C, which means it does not have water or electricity at the sites. However, the sites do have picnic tables and lantern hangers. There are no designated tent pads, but you are instructed to set your tent up on the gravel. Unfortunately, the campground has flooding problems in the Loop C sites when it rains, and it started raining after I set up my tent. After thirty minutes of rain, my tent was standing in at least an inch of water, and there was nowhere else to move it. I ended up abandoning my tent to stay in the back of my SUV. The next morning, I looked at the other sites in Loop C, and they were also flat, which meant that it didn’t matter which site I chose. That is one of only two drawbacks that I saw in this campground. The other drawback was the nose from jets overhead from the RDU International Airport. It wasn’t noticeable at night(that may have been because of the pouring rain and the thunder), but during the morning, it was constant. My advice is not to stay in Loop C if it is going to rain. A raised tent pad would have prevented my tent from being flooded. The bath house is especially nice for a state park(state recreation area). The shower doors are a little narrow, except for the handicapped shower, but there is hot water. There are electrical outlets in the bath house as well, which I used to charge my cell phone. Other features about this campground include swimming beaches, a marina, canoe/kayak rentals, at least two fishing piers, a couple of playgrounds, and a store. The Mountains to Sea Trail passes through this park, and there are several other short trails as well. Overall, this campground is pretty good if you are in an RV or if you are in a tent and it is not going to rain.

Spent 4 nights here (during a heat wave, no less) and really enjoyed it. Campsites are large and not right on top of each other, and especially if you can book one of the campsites that are on the water, they really do have beautiful views (see pictures).

Pros: 

Kid-friendly. We spent an afternoon at the splash pad, which is a great way to cool off in the summer and free once you're in the park. I never felt unsafe with my kids running around up to the bath-house or the loop, felt very secluded and safe.

Lake is scenic, we saw fireflies at dusk, it was a great setting for a camping trip.

Everything seems pretty well-maintained. Bathrooms are aging but were cleaned at least once a day, it was fine. There is firewood at every bathhouse you can take on the honor system and pay for via cashbox, which is nice. Campsites are clean and well-maintained.

Lots of lake recreation options (boat rental, fishing, etc.) in or near the park. 

Cons:

Maybe it was just our campsite, which backed up to a large wooded area, but they were the most aggressive squirrels I've ever come across. If we went to the bathroom for five minutes and left food on the table, the squirrels would be there eating it when we came back. And would hover at the edge of the campsite or get into the car if the hatchback was open.

Camp store is....fine, pretty minimal in terms of provisions. But not a big deal because Clarksville is five minutes or so away and has plenty of stores.

Tents pads are all gravel. Didn't bother us but definitely would not want to tent camp here if you didn't have a good high-quality sleeping pad.

The biggest con was that there is no swimming area/beach in the park. You can try to wade in from the campsite but that generally requires scaling up/down some fairly treacherous rocks, and navigating driftwood and rocks in the water. We drove a few minutes away outside the park to find one, but would be really nice to have some kind of little swimming area inside the park, very strange to me they don't have one.

But all in all a lovely place for a camping trip, we all had a great time.

We camped here again at Staunton River State Park, this time we stayed in site 21, which is an electric site near the bathrooms/showers and one of the best for viewing stars. There is little tree cover and a sort of field behind the campsite where you can set up your telescope and see the stars really well. We were also able to rent one of the telescopes they have at the Visitors center (for free!) and use it throughout the stay.

We came the weekend after the fourth of July which was hot but surprisingly not too crowded. We participated in some of the parks' programs this time around and it made it such a great experience, especially for the kids. They had smores around the fire on a Friday night, where they handed out smores ingredients around a big campfire near the visitors center and you could chat with other campers. It was so nice! Then they had a outdoor movie afterwards. The next day we went to a "feed the animals" program, where the kids got to meet and help feed all the animals in the visitors center and learn more about them. There were turtles, snakes, fish! The kids loved it! We did the Junior Ranger hike and the kids all got badges. Hopefully the pool will be open next summer because it was so hot and that would have been awesome! But there is another Virginia State Park nearby, Occoneechee, that has a splash pad that we went to. Such a fun time!

Large, flat and level spots were great. The pool here is amazing and it’s a designated star watching area and they even “rent“ (no charge!) telescopes from the very nice Visitor‘s Center!

We loved everything about this park.

Clean bathrooms, friendly rangers, beautiful scenery.

The campground at Staunton River State Park has lots of shade, water and electrical hookups, level sites, are not on top of each other, and… gravel sites. I understand the reason for gravel sites, but it is NOT good for tent campers, especially for campers that do not have freestanding tents. The first two attempts at driving tent stakes in resulted in bent stakes. Even though I said the sites are not on top of each other, they are still close enough that you do not get much privacy. The noise from other campers was fairly loud. Two units(e.g., camper+ tent) are allowed, but there is little room for anything, especially since campers are supposed to keep everything within the boundaries of the“timbers.” We got one of the largest sites, and it still was crowded. There was a fire ring with a grate, a picnic table, and two lantern poles, but again, everything was tight. Fitting two vehicles within the limits was nearly impossible. I know we weren’t supposed to set anything up outside the boundaries(please forgive us), but we set up our dining canopy and hammocks outside of the timbers. Despite the campsite limits, I still think this campground and the state park were great. There were many miles of trails for biking, hiking, and horseback riding. We rode our bikes along a couple of the trails, but we had to steer around horse poop(not always successfully). The trail itself was scenic at times when we rode by the river, and it was not too difficult. There are enough“bumps” for bikers to get their heartbeats jumping, but the trails are easy and moderate. Kayaking and fishing seemed to be two of the more popular activities. There is a boat ramp, and beside the boat ramp, there were several people fishing. Many kayakers came and went as we put our kayaks into the water. The one thing kayakers have to be aware of is the presence of speed boats. We got hit by passing boaters several times. Other activities at this campground/state park are disc golf, playing on the playground, tennis, and swimming. Unfortunately, the swimming area is closed for 2020 because of the pandemic. However, several people were swimming at the boat landing. When it is open, the swimming pool area is exceptional for a state park. There is a water slide and a really nice swimming complex. Staunton River State Park is also designated as an“International Dark Sky Park.” Unfortunately, we did not take advantage of that. After biking and kayaking all day and camp cooking during the evening, we were exhausted. There is no shortage of things to do, and I wish I could have stayed at least a couple more days. Overall, the park is a fairly nice place, but if you take a tent, make sure it is a freestanding tent.

This is a pretty standard campground. Sites are extremely close together and campground is kind of tiny. One bathhouse for the whole campground. This park would probably appeal to equestrians, boaters, and RVers over tent campers. Unfortunately the promixity of other campers was stressful this weekend because of the screaming family right next to us. River views are nice. Probably won’t return.

We stayed in a tent, and enjoyed the quiet and the bird, but especially the skies. This is part of the International Dark Sky Association. We brought stargazing folding chairs (Nemo Stargaze Luxury Recliner, find on Amazon, et al) and binoculars. The campground will loan very easy-to-use telescopes, too! That was really cool. It was clean and quiet. The camp host was very nice as were the rangers and the Park Manager.

They have public star parties there, so check with the park on when they are.

My husband and I love this park. Small campground only 2 loops. We like to go during the off season when there are less families. If you like star gazing the park is one of very few that is a certified dark sky park.

We had a great weekend here. Enjoyed outdoor movie on Friday. Park rangers had great kids programs including animal feeding frenzy where we learned about snakes and turtles and we invoked in feeding. Also lots of any pelts to learn about. Park is part of international Darksky Association, great for stargazing and viewing. Telescopes for rent. Great water access for kayaking . Sites were nice and level with some having separate area for tent/camper and terrace for picnic table and fire ring.

The park doesn't offer much in the way of difficult trails. It's very geared toward recreation with a central pool and a large paved road running through the park. The trails run along the river and are easy for novice hikers. Checking into the park in the evening is a little difficult, and the instructions for leaving a few weren't easy to find. We learned that you have to leave and envelope on the visitor center door. The campgrounds aren't well lit and are a little ways into the forest so finding a spot at night is hard without your headlights on but you run the chance of disturbing other campers. The spaces had a gravel pad for tents, picnic tables, and some water sources.

The campground is well maintained and the sights are awesome. The hiking trails are also do horses and parts have been beaten down and there was a lot of horse poop in the trail. Still worth the hike to see the peaceful water though.