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U.S. Forest Service · Uwharrie National Forest · NC

Art Lilley Campground

First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.

This is how it should work.

Get directions
Right now
OpenThe agency lists it open
Season
April 1 – December 15Open April 1 through December 15
Drawn from the record · 850 ft · 90% tree cover · Yadkin River within reach · Bortle 4 sky
850 ftElevation
4,303 ftWater · Yadkin River
1.6 miE of Badin, NC
90%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 74th darkest of 84 in NC
Open April 1 through December 15Today

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

The off-highway vehicle (OHV) trail system in the Uwharrie offers a variety of topography and scenery. All trails are designated for all off-highway vehicles and marked with orange diamonds. Stay on the designated trail system to help prevent soil erosion and creek sedimentation, which occur as a result of illegal trail use. FS roads cannot be used as trail connectors, but all vehicles operating on the road system must be "street legal" meaning that the vehicles are fully licensed, inspected and registered. Persons violating these regulations will be fined according to the law. Keep reading

NCDOT approved helmets and eye protection are required. The trail system is subject to a seasonal closure during the winter months (from Dec. 15 - April 1) in order to prevent unacceptable soil erosion and stream sedimentation. Trail passes are also required for all vehicles on the OHV trails. Dispersed camping is allowed around this area. Also RV's and campers are allowed in the area, there are no hook ups or water available on site, but there is a vault toilet available.

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Vault Toilets
“…water available on site, but there is a vault toilet available.”
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Creek
OHV riding
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026
Official page: Art Lilley Campground →

Nothing to book, just show up

One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.

recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.

BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe agency’s record
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Directions
Every line of the receipt · 3

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

rules read Sep 7, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this

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Getting there

the map and the coordinate
Coordinate35.40811, -80.07369
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight51°Light Rain78% rain
Saturday59°Light Rain then Mostly Cloudy88% rain
Saturday Night38°Clear
Sunday59°Sunny

NWS forecast for Badin, NC

Source: National Weather Service, RAH forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 50°F, day 73°F.

Coldest night of the open season: typical December night 34°F. Bring the bag rated for it.

100°32°20°

Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season

A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.

Measured at: ALBEMARLE, NC (USC00310090), 7 miles away and 240 ft lower
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it

Who answers for this land

Mark Harris, official portrait

Art Lilley Campground is in North Carolina’s 8th congressional district. Its representative, Mark Harris (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it open right now.
Season: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 1.2 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 84 rated federal campgrounds in North Carolina · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026