Big Creek Horse Camp
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 9 of the next 9 nights read 15:57 UTC
- A night
- $36From, per site
- Sites
- 5All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
The only horse camp in the Great Smoky Mountains with potable water and flushing toilets! Pack up your horses for a getaway at Big Creek Horse Camp, located on far northeastern side of Smoky Mountains National Park, approximately 16 miles from Newport, Tennessee. This campsite sits along the gently rolling waters of Big Creek and offers miles of horse trails with breathtaking scenic backdrops. You MUST have a HORSE to camp in Big Creek Horse Camp! Keep reading
Recreation
The rolling terrain surrounding the campsite makes for some of the best horseback riding trails in the park. Numerous trails are accessible from Big Creek and for riders looking for a little hiking, the Appalachian Trail can be easily reached via the 2.1 mile Chestnut Branch Trail, located within walking distance from the camp. Day Use horse area- so invite your horse riding friends and family for a fun day even if they don't want to camp with you. Campers can also enjoy high-quality backcountry fishing in the cool waters of the countless streams that snake through the mountains, with Rainbow and Brook trout available in abundance, particularly during spring months.
Facilities
Big Creek Horse Camp is fairly primitive, providing only the basic amenities, but an unforgettable outdoors experience. The sites are large and the facility does offer flush toilets, drinking water and plenty of shade. Since horses are not permitted in the camping area, horse stalls and hitching rails are provided to guests. There are no hookups or showers at the campground, but water is available from the campground spigot. You MUST have a HORSE to camp in Big Creek Horse Camp!
Natural Features
At a 1,700 foot elevation, Big Creek provides a moderate climate, characterized by mild winters and hot, humid summers. The camp is surrounded by picturesque mountain ranges and pristine mountain streams. Nearby Mouse Creek Falls, a 35 foot waterfall forming at the confluence of Mouse Creek and Big Creek, is reachable by horseback or on foot via the Big Creek trailhead located on-site. The beautiful falls splits over moss covered rocks and falls about 20 ft. before pooling and falling another 15 ft. into Big Creek. The falls can be reached via the Big Creek Trail, which is covered in wildflowers during spring months.
Nearby Attractions
The Big Creek Group Campground is located nearby, with plenty of space for larger groups. Full service grocery stores and medical facilities are located 16 miles away in Newport, Tennessee. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (865) 487-2683.
What the agency tells you
Notice: There is ongoing construction near Exit 451. Big Creek Campground is accessed only via the Waterville Road exit. How to Reach the Campground: All I‑40 eastbound and westbound exit and entrance ramps for Exit 451 are open. When traveling eastbound toward Asheville, be aware that the temporary exit for Big Creek occurs about ½ mile before the usual Exit 451 location. GPS will incorrectly announce the exit as being 1 mile ahead, which may cause visitors to miss the temporary exit sign and assume the exit is closed. If the exit is passed, the next available exit is roughly 7 miles away in Clyde, NC to turn around. The “closure” being reported via some GPS units is a construction-related reroute of the ramps.
2026 Trail Damage Closures: Big Creek closed from Mouse Creek Falls to Swallow Fork Trail (First 2 miles are open). Swallow Fork, Gunter Fork, & Caldwell Fork are closed. The bridge north of backcountry campsite 37 is out. Enloe Creek, Hyatt Ridge, Camel Gap, Pretty Hollow Gap, Hemphill Bald, Rough Fork & the Lower Mount Cammerer Trails are closed to Equestrian traffic.
A valid parking tag is required for any vehicle parking for more than 15 minutes in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Front country campers parked at their designated campsite will not be required to have a parking tag. If they park elsewhere in the park, a parking tag will be required. Please note that parking tags will be required for vehicles in excess of what is allowable for each campsite.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Over the last 10 years, an average of 339 negative human-bear encounters have been reported each year; many more go unreported. Visitors should be aware that high bear activity can occur in any area, and that your safety is not guaranteed. To increase your odds for a safe visit, please follow best practices for living and recreating in bear habitat. Stay alert and be prepared to react appropriately during possible encounters, and always report any unusual bear interactions as soon as possible.
Caution: Bear Habitat! Bears and other wildlife frequent the area. All food and equipment used to prepare and store food (even when empty, and even if certified as bear resistant) must be kept in a sealed vehicle or camping unit of solid, non-pliable material AT ALL TIMES when not in use. All scented items, as well as all water containers MUST be stored. Dispose of garbage promptly in dumpsters provided. Unattended or improperly stored coolers, food and/or scented items may be impounded by campground staff. Violators are subject to fines.
Firewood Restriction: Only heat-treated firewood bundled in its original packing and bearing a certification seal from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) or a state department of agriculture may be brought into the park. This rule is strictly enforced. Campers may also collect dead and down wood in the park for campfires. Fires are allowed in fire rings only.
Firewood Vendors. Heat-treated wood is available from a growing list of private businesses in communities around the park. Please visit firewoodscout.org for a list of available vendors near the park. Concessioners at Cades Cove, Elkmont, and Smokemont will provide heat-treated wood for sale during their operating season. Certified heat-treated firewood is packaged and clearly marked with a state or federal seal.
For additional information about these firewood regulations, please visit the park website at http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/frontcountry-camping.
There are no showers or electric, water or sewer hook-ups in the park.
Quiet hours are in effect from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Generator use is prohibited between 8 PM and 8 AM
A reservation is required for all horse camps and you MUST have a horse to camp here. A maximum of 6 people and 4 horses may occupy a campsite. All horses must be accompanied by a negative Coggins test. The park stay limit is 14 consecutive days.
Stalls are provided but may not be directly next to your campsite. Check the site page for details. Horses may not be tied to trees.
A Tennessee or North Carolina fishing license is required to fish in the park. Special regulations apply in the park.
Pets are permitted but cannot be left unattended. All pets must be kept on a leash at all times. Pets are not allowed on trails.
For additional park information call 865-436-1200 or visit www.nps.gov/grsm
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 5 · 5 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…Smoky Mountains with potable water and flushing toilets! Pack up your horses for a getaway at Big Creek…”
- Showers
- None at this campground
- “There are no hookups or showers at the campground, but water is available from the campground spigot.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…camp in the Great Smoky Mountains with potable water and flushing toilets! Pack up your horses for a…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Creek
- Backpacking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Wilderness access
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 32nd darkest of 84 in NC
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 4 days ago, 19 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 15:57 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
3 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:38 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 5 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 5 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:57 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 17
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $36 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 3
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:38 UTC
- Cosby CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 5.7 mi · 1 of 124 site-nights open
- Harmon Den CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 7.3 mi · 6 of 38 site-nights open
- Smokemont CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 18 mi · 1 of 274 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:57 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
5 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 5 mapped sitesAll 5 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 5 of the 5 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Horse Camp 1-5 | 1 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 176 ft | 89 ft | $36 | |
| Horse Camp 1-5 | 2 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 176 ft | 248 ft | $36 |
| Horse Camp 1-5 | 3 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 117 ft | 219 ftBig Creek | $36 | |
| Horse Camp 1-5 | 4 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 117 ft | 228 ftBig Creek | $36 | |
| Horse Camp 1-5 | 5 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 147 ft | 247 ftBig Creek | $36 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Big Creek Group CampGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 0.2 mi
Big Creek Campground (Great Smoky Mountains National Park)Great Smoky Mountains National Park · 0.4 mi
Cosby Group CampGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 5.6 mi
Cosby CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 5.7 mi
Harmon Den CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 7.3 mi
Cataloochee Group CampGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 7.4 miThe campground is located off I-40 Exit 451 (Waterville). It sixteen miles east of Newport, TN. Follow Waterville road, crossing over the Pigeon River, past the Walters Power Generating Station and continue one mile to the 4-way intersection at Mt Sterling Gap.
Follow the signs to Big Creek.
Drive up Big Creek Park Road. Shortly after passing the Ranger Station, take the first left turn into the horse camp.
Coordinates: 35°45'15.7"N 83°06'25.8"W
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cosby, TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 70°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
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.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Big Creek Horse Camp is in North Carolina’s 11th congressional district. Its representative, Chuck Edwards (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyChuck EdwardsU.S. Representative · North Carolina’s 11th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTed BuddU.S. Senator · North Carolina
- Your senator, on the same appropriationThom TillisU.S. Senator · North Carolina
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Big Creek Horse Camp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina
Dear Chuck Edwards, I’m a constituent in North Carolina’s 11th district. I tried to camp at Big Creek Horse Camp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 5 sites at Big Creek Horse Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 5 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Big Creek Horse Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Big Creek Horse Camp. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Big Creek Horse Camp (Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Big Creek Horse Camp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina
Dear Ted Budd, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Big Creek Horse Camp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 5 sites at Big Creek Horse Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 5 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Big Creek Horse Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Big Creek Horse Camp. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Big Creek Horse Camp (Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Big Creek Horse Camp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina
Dear Thom Tillis, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Big Creek Horse Camp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 5 sites at Big Creek Horse Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 5 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Big Creek Horse Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Big Creek Horse Camp. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Big Creek Horse Camp (Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina) via campanac.com