This is not a campground this is an adventure park that has a campground. They have everything from primitive dispersed tent camping to RV site hook ups all the way up to a $600 per night cabin. They have excellent off road trails for stock trucks up to rock crawling rigs. They have a basic general store near the tent camping area that is decently stocked (yet overpriced) and they have food trucks that are sometimes open sometimes aren’t. The bathrooms are maintained and spacious enough that they don’t feel over crowded. They also have a shooting range on site so if you want the true Texas Hill Country experience you should check out HFAP. Be respectful on the trails not only to other people but also by not tearing up the trails themselves.

This campground was closed for a very long time to be restored and it needed it!! Even after the long restoration it missed many key improvements. One huge over looked upgrade at every GSMNP camp site is the lack of bear boxes!!!! In the NP with the largest black bear population you would think every campsite would have a bear box to protect the bears as well as the campers. The second major miss is small bathrooms that lack showers. This campground is on the larger side with almost 70 campsites so the bathrooms get over crowded quickly. The road to get to this campsite is beautiful but very narrow with steep switchbacks so make sure your tow vehicle has enough power to get up there and your rig isn’t too long to make the turns. Over all it’s a nice campground but for being the most visited national park Great Smoky is the least equipped and the least cared for park we have ever been too.

This is a well maintained campground that is very close to town. This was 95% full of RVs and only 5% tent campers. If you are an RVer this would be a 5 star campground but as a Tent camper it is only a 3 star. As a tent camper the lack of campground showers was minus one star. They also had one of the two bathrooms permanently closed so there was only one bathroom available for the entire campground. The other is tent campers run into when we stay at an RV campground is excessive noise and light pollution. All of the RVs kept their outside LED lights on all night which made the whole campground bright as daylight. Which made it very bright and hard to sleep in a tent. Also all of the RV AC units constantly running all night really cut back on the peace and quiet camping experience minus second star. If they made it a dark sky campground where RVers were encouraged to turn off outside light when quiet hours started that would make a huge difference. Site 27 was a nice site that backed to the creek but like most of the site is catering to RVer so there was no area to set up a tent other than on the pavement.

This is the campground that has been forgotten by the National Park service. There is a narrow and washed out road to get back to the campground. There is a run down abandoned ranger station at the front of the campground that is not staffed. You would think that for how remote this campground is it would be tranquil and relaxing but that is not the case. The campsites are very close to each other and with the lack of Ranger presence or a campground host and no cell phone reception this camp ground was very loud and overcrowded even after quiet hours. We had people pull up to site 15 (just a few feet away from our tent) at midnight and took over an hour to set up camp with blazing lights and were loud. Being in the most black bear populated national park you would think each site would have a bear box but they don’t. Also the community dish washing sink was always full spiders and was not functional. The bathrooms were just one toilet and one sink with no paper towels or soap. The bathrooms and the wash sink area are in need of a major remodel. Side not e for people that use solar panels this entire campground is shaded 90% of the day which makes it cooler but it also makes it where your battery bank will not charge while you are here. This was the worst national park campground we have ever been too.

We stayed at site 1001 which was a premium location right by a bus stop and across from the meadow trading post and pool. The down side is that you are literally at the bus stop which buses run from 7am til midnight which means you can not really sleep until after midnight. It is also right on the road so there are trucks and golf carts driving and beeping all night. I loved the proximity to everything but it is very load and busy.

If you are looking for an RV park that is close to the fairgrounds for an event or close to the golf course this is a great location. It is clean with some shade trees available. Like most RV parks it is crammed in and the spots are very close together. It is within the Ladybird Johnson city park which is a plus for activities and a minus because it is very busy. This park is also directly next to the the county airport where small aircraft, private jets as well as helicopters are consistently flying in and out adding to the noise level. If you need to be close to the fair ground for an event this is perfect but if you don’t there are much better, quieter and less crowded RV park options in the area.

This is only a few feet off of HWY 16 so there is constant 70mph traffic and it can be loud. It is a small no frills campsite that accommodates tents and small RVs. There is a restaurant onsite that has live music so on weekends it gets pretty loud, crowed and stays loud late. Lately they set up REI cabin tents on wooden platforms to be reserved.

This site will take about an hour and half of driving rough backcountry roads to get to. You will need a high clearance 4x4 and you will get your paint scratched because the road is narrow. It is the last campsite on the road before the trailhead but it is still over a mile from the trail head. It is an ok site with ok views at the base of the mountains. There is absolutely zero cell phone reception on AT&T and Verizon. Because it is close to the mountains there are bear and mountain lion activity in the area and the bear box at the campsite looks like it has seen some bear action. There is no shade at this site. This is an ok site but there are much better backcountry sites in the park.

This campsite has a parking area for 2 maybe 3 vehicles and 3 small tent spots with 1 bear box that looked like it has seen a lot of bear action. It is down some really rough roads that will scratch your vehicle and even in a high clearance 4x4 it will take over an hour to get to the spot. It is one of the most remote spots in the park with absolutely no cell service on AT&T or Verizon. It is also not very close to any park attractions or trailheads. If you are looking for remote peace and quite this is the spot. We enjoyed 2 nights at this spot and because of how far into the backcountry it was we just stayed around the campsite and hiked the road. There is no shade at all so it does get hot even in January.

So Paint Gap 4 is the last campsite on the road and it is a very narrow, rocky and rough road to get back to it. You will get your vehicles paint scratched getting back there. It is in a valley between two hills which means you get shade in the morning and in the evening but it also acts like a wind tunnel and magnifies the wind blowing through the valley. There was sporadic 1 bar 3G service from AT&T that allowed you to send a text but no phone calls or app/internet usage. Verizon had zero service. The spot is not level so if you are sleeping in a RTT or a vehicle make sure you have leveling blocks so you can sleep flat. We stayed here one night and it was very peaceful and a great sunset view. The wind shook the roof top tent all night but it wasn’t horrible.

This campsite is off of Black Gap Road which is well known as the roughest unmaintained road in the park. The rangers will tell you this. You also have to be on rough dirt roads for a couple hours to even get to the site. If you want off-road adventure, don’t mind some desert pinstripes and want a great remote campsite this is it. It is big enough to for one vehicle and one tent with absolutely zero shade. It is at a trail head with an amazing up close view of elephant tusk.