Briar Bottom Group Campground
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- Sites
- 6All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 14 – October 30Open April 14 through October 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Briar Bottom Group Campground is the perfect getaway for visitors to enjoy mountain scenery and easy access to hiking trails. The campground sits at the base of Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River, in Pisgah National Forest. Keep reading
Recreation
With the South Toe River located near 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 up Mt. Mitchell. The adjacent Black Mountain Campground has a playing field, volleyball courts and horseshoe pit available.
Facilities
The facility has six separate campsites; each can accommodate up to 30 people. Sites are organized around a single loop with individual parking spurs, providing plenty of space for tents. The campground is equipped with flush toilets and campers can use showers at the adjacent Black Mountain Campground. A campground host is available for visitor assistance.
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. The lush forest in this part of the Appalachian Mountains 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
This is a tent-only campground; no wheeled camping units or RVs permitted
Campground open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.; notify campground of late arrivals by calling 828-675-5616
Campers must enter through Black Mountain Campground to reach this facility
Everything else this campground posts · 5
No public address systems are allowed
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
This campground is managed by the Cradle of Forestry In America Interpretive Association
Click here to learn more about the National Forests in North Carolina
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 6 · 6 tent-only, 6 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 6
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…tents. The campground is equipped with flush toilets and campers can use showers at the adjacent Black…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “The campground is equipped with flush toilets and campers can use showers at the adjacent Black Mountain Campground.”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Biking
- Climbing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Ranger programs
- Water sports
Full this Saturdayread 16:20 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 15:21 UTC. See them
OpenBookedClosedNot reservable
Every one of the 6 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 5 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:20 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 · 12
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 · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 15:21 UTC
- Lake Powhatan GlampingPisgah National Game Refuge · 30 mi · 1 of 23 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:20 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
6 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 6 mapped sitesAll 6 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 6 of the 6 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 6 of the 6 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| ASH | ASH | group tent only area nonelectric | yes | 248 ft | 380 ftSouth Toe River | 1,687 ft | $125 |
| DOGW | DOGWOOD | group tent only area nonelectric | yes | 192 ft | 168 ftSouth Toe River | 2,183 ft | $125 |
| LAUR | LAUREL | group tent only area nonelectric | yes | 164 ft | 68 ftSouth Toe River | 2,539 ft | $125 |
| MAPL | MAPLE | group tent only area nonelectric | yes | 192 ft | 114 ftSouth Toe River | 2,017 ft | $125 |
| POPL | POPLAR | group tent only area nonelectric | yes | 164 ft | 194 ftSouth Toe River | 2,556 ft | $125 |
| ROAK | RED OAK | group tent only area nonelectric | yes | 248 ft | 371 ftSouth Toe River | 1,856 ft | $125 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Black Mountain 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 toward 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. Campers must enter through the main gate at Black Mountain Campground to get to Briar Bottom.
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 · 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
Briar Bottom Group 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 →
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 Briar Bottom Group Campground, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
Dear Chuck Edwards, I’m a constituent in North Carolina’s 11th district. I tried to camp at Briar Bottom Group Campground, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Briar Bottom Group Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 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. Briar Bottom Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Briar Bottom Group Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest 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 Briar Bottom Group Campground (Pisgah National Forest, 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 Briar Bottom Group Campground, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
Dear Ted Budd, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Briar Bottom Group Campground, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Briar Bottom Group Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 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. Briar Bottom Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Briar Bottom Group Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest 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 Briar Bottom Group Campground (Pisgah National Forest, 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 Briar Bottom Group Campground, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
Dear Thom Tillis, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Briar Bottom Group Campground, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Briar Bottom Group Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 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. Briar Bottom Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Briar Bottom Group Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest 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 Briar Bottom Group Campground (Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina) via campanac.com