Best Campgrounds in Virginia

The Blue Ridge Parkway is currently closed just south of the Peaks of Otter area. Traffic is being detoured just behind the campground. This was the 4th of July weekend so may be u usual, but the traffic was all day and night. There was a lot of commotion at 4 am—hikers in the parking lot to make the summit for dawn. Many sites were tiered—I had steps or the worn path down to the actual site from where I parked. The sites were spacious and well kept. Gravel tent site —common in the area but I’m not a fan. There were sites open on the holiday weekend….no wonder. Beautiful area. I’ll go back to the lodge (been there a few times) but I’ll camp somewhere else.

If you love trash along the "lake" you would love the rustic spots! The “lake” more like a stagnate pod that smells like a swamp. During our familys "week visit", cut short by about 5 days because this camp is infested with bugs and wolves. Mr. Wolf came right on up to try and eat my dogs food. Really no one was out at all this camp sounded and was dead. No kids playing at the playground or riding bikes like family campground have. You rarely saw another person except for staff on gulf carts. This lake they have? Not even a lake it's a swamp. If you let go of your dogs leash by accident and they run into the forest your shoes will be gone u will have multiple cuts and will take a 30 minute shower trying to get the mud off. The water is mud brown and has trash along the edges. Not a place I will bring my family back.

The only good thing was the pool

Terrible experience. Very, very noisy. So loud couldn't sleep. Just wanted to rest for a night. Was awakened by extremely rude staff when I just wanted to rest. All those bad reviews are true. Never had such a bad experience. As I was filling the fresh water for travel it overflowed and revealed the huge amount of septic black water which really smelled. Looked pretty but that revealed their true nature, turd with a ribbon on it. The staff was so rude and really had a mean demeanor, just as other reviews have stated. I will never stay there and though I usually only give good reviews, I felt compelled to warn others. This place has park nazis in golf carts that harass people. I saw it happen to others who cut their stay short. No wonder the park was almost empty.

After several nights of not sleeping at a busy campground at another national park, I was prepared for no sleep here. But that was not the case.

Though this campground is HUGE, the sites are not piled on top of each other. Our site, B112, was surrounded by shrubs under the canopy of trees which provided tons of privacy. Plus the accessible site across from us was empty during our whole stay, which added to the privacy.

The bathroom was a nice short walk away, but the proximity did have some drawbacks. The vent sounds like a diesel truck idling nonstop. At night people using flashlights and headlamps walking away from the bathroom shine them into your tent. The smell sometimes wafted over as well.

The bugs when we got here were kinda crazy. They don’t bite but they swarm your head and try to enter every orifice for some reason. A head net was helpful to get the tent and screen room set up.

Though there is privacy and it was fairly quiet in the afternoon, at night it can get loud with kids running around and being noisy.

Like all huge, busy campgrounds, it gets very Smoky in the evenings.

No cell service. We went to the visitor center and connected to the WiFi if we needed to do something online. The camp store has a lot of stuff! The showers are $5 for 10 minutes. Kind of a steep price. Make sure you test that it works BEFORE you get set up and get naked. My first quarter got jammed and I had to redress and pack up to move to a different one.

You will definitely see deer in the campground as they walk through and browse the understory. They are unafraid of humans unless directly approached (I did not do this, but I watched someone’s child do it).

And finally, the fireflies are spectacular. At dusk, the ground shimmers, and then after they disperse, you will still see them flit by the tent throughout the night.