## Overview

 North Bend Park is located on John H. Kerr Reservoir, a 50,000-acre lake that extends 39 miles up the wooded, cove-studded shoreline of the Roanoke River in Virginia and North Carolina. North Bend is the largest park on Kerr Lake and is located near Kerr Dam and the Corps Visitor Assistance Center. \_\_\_\_ Kerr Reservoir, also known as Buggs Island Lake, was created with the construction of the John H. Kerr Dam in 1952. Its 800 miles of wooded shoreline stretch across six counties and two states and offer countless recreation opportunities for visitors. 
## Recreation

 Public lands around the lake are open to hunting with appropriate state licenses. Game species include whitetail deer, wild turkey, bobwhite quail, mourning dove, gray squirrel, cottontail rabbit, fox and raccoon. Resident waterfowl species include wood duck, black duck, mallard and Canadian geese. \_\_\_\_ There are 26 Wildlife Management Areas around the lake that provide year-round opportunities for hiking, wildlife viewing, birding and more. Buggs Island, located immediately below the dam, attracts migrating bald eagles in the winter and osprey in the summer, as well as gulls, great blue herons, waterfowl and the occasional river otter.\_\_ \_\_\_\_ Several trails are available for hiking and biking. The 1.5-mile Liberty Nature Trail and 5.5-mile Robert Munford Trail both offer hikes within a short drive from the campground. \_\_\_\_ The lake is widely known for fishing, with large-mouth bass, striped bass, crappie and flathead catfish available. Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources regulate hunting and fishing on the Virginia side of Kerr Lake. 
## Facilities

 Visitors to North Bend Park will enjoy the lakeside views and wildlife watching. North Bend Park has a large day use area with picnic shelters and a swim beach, 3 boat launching ramps, an amphitheater, a disc golf course and a paved 1.5 mile bicycle trail. The OSAGE Picnic shelter is the only shelter that can be reserved. The shelter in the day use area is open to the public.\_\_ 
## Natural Features

 North Bend Park is forested and offers plenty of shade. The shelter is shaded and near an accessible fishing pier and restrooms. Wildlife viewing is popular just below Kerr Dam, where waterfowl and Bald Eagles can be observed year around. This area, called Tailrace Park, has a wheelchair accessible canoe/kayak launch into the river, and is part of the Virginia Blueways Trail. 
## Nearby Attractions

 About a half-mile away, at the intersection of Mays Chapel Road and State Route 4, visitors will find the Joseph S.J. Tanner II Environmental Education Center. The center has interpretive programs and exhibits for the public from Memorial Day through Labor Day, on Saturdays and Sundays. \_\_\_\_ Gas, groceries, firewood and restaurants are located within 2 miles and also within 20 minutes in Boydton and South Hill, Virginia.

COE John H Kerr Reservoir North Bend Park

Camped at site 91.  Close to restrooms and walkable distance to showers.  Beach area is clean and they provide a few life vest. Playground by showers is handy with kids.  Shaded and clean sites. Highly recommend. 

Great Family Campground

We had contacted the campground(CG) prior to our Monday arrival and found the park had plenty of first-come-first-serve sites as they do not take reservations until 1 Apr. Our GPS plus nav app routes varied coming in from North Carolina, but all the roads we traveled were RV friendly. When we arrived the gate host told us to go pick a site and come back to check in. They also stated that the water was off so fill up with potable water at the dump station. We headed into Area 2 sites 78-103. We had wanted the double site, 93, but workers were spraying a Roundup mixture and didn’t recommend we stay in that site for a while. So we picked site 95. Back-in was easy and we hooked into the 50 AMP with no problem. The next day, we moved to double site 93 and still got the Access Pass discount so it was only$20 per night. They will only let stay without a buddy during offseason. In addition, this site is marked for a 30’ rig, like a lot of others in the CG, but they can easily take longer rigs. Recommend big riggers call and talk to a hosts before reserving a site. Some sites are either long enough for a boat or there are spots along the road to park a boat. Along with the two sites we stayed in, here are other recommendations that will handle larger rigs. The sites 84 through 99 plus 103 are good sized. In the adjacent loop, 136 is a spacious, long easy back-in and near the water. W&amp;E sites out in D loop would be 221 that’s spacious plus near water, 229 back-in on water and 232 was a huge site, back-in near water. We've stayed in a lot of COEs and this was a good one as well. However, sites in all areas are nearby each other. The shower house was open but not the interior restrooms. We got 3 bars each Verizon and AT&amp;T plus a wide variety of OTA channels. You are in a forest setting and we didn’t see a good site for satellite. There’s a really nice paved bike/walking trail that connects the front gate area all the way back to the D area. Great areas and sites for tent campers or boondockers. Recommend Castle's Butcher Shop in Chase City about 25 mins from the campground. Nice butcher shop and small grocery. Very helpful staff, plus they will custom cut your steaks. We also found Chase City had the best price on diesel at the time.

Nice COE

One of the best laid out campgrounds ever!  Great sites on the lake. Big, flat and just perfect. It’s a big campground so it was fun biking around. There isn’t much else there though. We had to go about 2 miles to a convenience store for wood. The damn is cool to see. 