Black Mountain Campground
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:44 UTC
- A night
- $28–$56When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 41In the agency’s record
- Season
- April 15 – October 30Open April 15 through October 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Black Mountain Campground sits in the shadow of Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak in the eastern U.S. and borders the South Toe River. Black Mountain is a mecca for the outdoor enthusiast. Keep reading
Recreation
With the South Toe River located adjacent to the campground, visitors will have no shortage of things to do, including picnicking, day hiking, scenic driving and trout fishing. Hikers will be pleased with a variety of trails from which to choose, including a leisurely half-mile walk through the forest or a challenging 5.6-mile hike to Mt. Mitchell.
Facilities
The campground offers 37 primitive campsites with 3 campsites with electric hookups. The campsites are equipped with picnic tables, tent pads, lantern posts and campfire rings with grills. The facility provides hot showers and restrooms with flush toilets. Campers can purchase firewood, ice, tee shirts and souvenirs.
Natural Features
The campground sits at an elevation of 3,040 feet. The 6,684-foot Mt. Mitchell towers over the area, with several other high peaks of the Black Mountains nearby. This lush Appalachian forest is rich with wildlife, plants and scenery.
Nearby Attractions
Groups can easily head out for a day of scenic driving along Blue Ridge Parkway or hiking in Mount Mitchell State Park.
What the agency tells you
Generators may be used up to 4 hours per day between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
First-come, first-served sites available and sites available for advanced reservation are available.
Cell service is limited, texting might be a possibility.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
This facility is located within a bear sanctuary; keep all food out of site in containers or locked inside a hard-sided vehicle, secure trash in provided bins and remove all food from area after eating.
Click here to learn more about the National Forests in North Carolina
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 41 · 9 tent-only
- Hookups
- 3 electric, 1 water, 2 sewer
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…The facility provides hot showers and restrooms with flush toilets. Campers can purchase firewood, ice, tee shirts and…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “The facility provides hot showers and restrooms with flush toilets.”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Biking
- Climbing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Ranger programs
- Swimming
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:44 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
OpenBookedClosed
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Black Mountain Campground closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Briar Bottom Group CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 0.0 mi · 6 sites
- Carolina Hemlocks Rec AreaPisgah National Forest · 3.7 mi · 35 sites
- Mortimer CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 31 mi · 17 sites
- North Mills RiverPisgah National Forest · 34 mi · 29 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 16:44 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
41 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 36 mapped sitesAll 41 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. 37 of the 41 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| River | 001 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 27 ft | $28–$56 | |
| River | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 32 ft | 36 ft | $28 | |
| River | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 31 ft | $28 | |
| River | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 28 ft | $28 | |
| River | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 61 ft | 21 ft | $28 | |
| River | 006 | tent only nonelectric | 49 ft | 60 ft | $28 | |
| River | 007 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 70 ftSouth Toe River | $28–$56 | |
| River | 008 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 76 ft | $28–$56 | |
| River | 009 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 81 ft | $28–$56 | |
| River | 010 | standard electric | 42 ft | 88 ft | $35 | |
| River | 011 | tent only nonelectric | 42 ft | 91 ft | $28 | |
| River | 012 | tent only nonelectric | 53 ft | 89 ft | $28 | |
| River | 013 | type not stated | ||||
| River | 014 | type not stated | ||||
| River | 015 | type not stated | ||||
| River | 016 | type not stated | ||||
| River | 017 | standard nonelectric | $28–$56 | |||
| Upper | 018 | standard electric | 30 amp | 148 ft | 234 ft | $35 |
| Upper | 020 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 211 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 021 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 247 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 022 | standard nonelectric | 71 ft | 284 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 023 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 314 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 024 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 352 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 025 | standard electric | 30 amp | 83 ft | 396 ft | $35 |
| Upper | 027 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 525 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 028 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 513 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 029 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 523 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 030 | standard nonelectric | 54 ft | 444 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 031 | tent only nonelectric | 55 ft | 443 ft | $28 | |
| Upper | 032 | standard nonelectric | 54 ft | 390 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 033 | tent only nonelectric | 54 ft | 381 ft | $28 | |
| Upper | 034 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 322 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 035 | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 265 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 036 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 302 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 037 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 283 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 038 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 265 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 039 | standard nonelectric | 82 ft | 204 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 040 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 166 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 041 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 230 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 042 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 172 ft | $28–$56 | |
| Upper | 043 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 174 ft | $28–$56 |
25 of 41 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Briar Bottom Group CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 0.0 mi
Carolina Hemlocks Rec AreaPisgah National Forest · 3.7 miCurtis Creek CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 4.5 mi
Curtis Creek Campground (NC)5.4 mi
Crabtree Falls CampgroundBlue Ridge Parkway · 5.9 mi
Linville Falls CampgroundBlue Ridge Parkway · 22 miFrom Asheville, North Carolina, take I-26 west to exit 9 onto 19 east towards Burnsville. Follow 19 to Micaville and turn right onto Highway 80. Continue south approximately 12-14 miles to Mount Mitchell Golf Course. Turn right on South Toe River Road and follow signs to Black Mountain Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Montreat, NC
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 65°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical April night 40°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Black Mountain Campground 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 →