Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $28From, per site
- Sites
- 35All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 15 – October 30Open April 15 through October 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Carolina Hemlocks Recreation Area sits in the scenic mountains of Pisgah National Forest. This is a great place for small to medium-sized groups to swim, fish, tube, hike, camp, picnic and simply relax in the cool shade of the forest. Keep reading
Recreation
The river provides endless hours of fun for families and water enthusiasts, including swimming and tubing. Anglers can also try their luck for trout and smallmouth bass from the shore. Picnickers will enjoy relaxing in the shaded picnic shelter set amidst the deep woods. After eating, visitors can take a leisurely walk along a one-mile trail or get a workout on a 3.8-mile trail.
Facilities
Carolina Hemlocks Recreation Area offers 35 primitive campsites, sites 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, souvenirs.
Natural Features
As the name suggests, Carolina Hemlocks Recreation Area is shaded by a thick hemlock forest with a mix of deciduous trees and rhododendrons. The facility is adjacent to the South Toe River and sits at an elevation of 2,900 feet.
Nearby Attractions
Visitors can enjoy scenic driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway or hiking in Mount Mitchell State Park.
What the agency tells you
The electricity at the pavilion is currently not working. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Campground open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.; notify campground of late arrivals by calling (828) 675-5509.
Generators may be used up to four hours per day between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
First-come, first-served campsites are available.
Cell service is limited, texting might be a possibility.
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
- 35
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 34 of 35 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…The facility provides hot showers and restrooms with flush toilets. Campers can purchase firewood, ice, tee shirts,…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “The facility provides hot showers and restrooms with flush toilets.”
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Biking
- Climbing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Ranger programs
- Picnicking
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Night sky · 39th darkest of 84 in NC
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:25 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
Every one of the 21 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 14 are free on Thu, Oct 22. read 16:25 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $28 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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:25 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
39 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 39 mapped sitesAll 39 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 35 of the 39 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 01 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 71 ft | 168 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 02 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 63 ft | 126 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 03 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 63 ft | 179 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 04 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 59 ft | 141 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 05 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 59 ft | 196 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 06 | standard nonelectric | 62 ft | 148 ft | $28 | |||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 07 | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 172 ft | $28 | |||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 08 | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 231 ft | $28 | |||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 09 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 211 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 12 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 38 ft | 157 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 13 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 88 ft | 85 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 14 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 38 ft | 180 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 15 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 74 ft | 214 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 16 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 63 ft | 301 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 17 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 63 ft | 338 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 18 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 367 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 19 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 414 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 20 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 94 ft | 339 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 21 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 69 ft | 569 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 22 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 69 ft | 512 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 23 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 55 ft | 452 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 24 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 55 ft | 482 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 25 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 50 ft | 374 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 26 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 50 ft | 394 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 27 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 65 ft | 277 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 28 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 65 ft | 332 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 29 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 115 ft | 295 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 30 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 77 ft | 425 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 31 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 77 ft | 485 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 32 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 72 ft | 575 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 33 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 72 ft | 550 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 34 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 103 ft | 473 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 35 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 103 ft | 445 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 36 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 68 ft | 529 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | 37 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 68 ft | 587 ft | $28 | ||
| CAROLINA HEMLOCKS REC AREA | Pavilion Carolina Hemlock | day use | 15 amp | yes | 27 ft | 47 ft | ||
| GROUP PAVILLION | GP1AM | day use | 15 amp | yes | 27 ft | 55 ft | $70 | |
| GROUP PAVILLION | GP1PM | day use | 15 amp | yes | 28 ft | 75 ft | $70 | |
| GROUP PAVILLION | GRP1 | day use | 15 amp | yes | 28 ft | 52 ft | $70 |
The agency files 4 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 39 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Crabtree Falls CampgroundBlue Ridge Parkway · 3.3 mi
Briar Bottom Group CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 3.7 mi
Black Mountain CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 3.7 miCurtis Creek CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 7.9 mi
Curtis Creek Campground (NC)8.9 mi
Linville Falls CampgroundBlue Ridge Parkway · 19 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. Follow 80 south approximately 8 miles to the Carolina Hemlocks Recreation Area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Burnsville, 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
Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area 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 Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
Dear Chuck Edwards, I’m a constituent in North Carolina’s 11th district. I tried to camp at Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 35 sites at Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 21 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. Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area. 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 Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area (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 Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
Dear Ted Budd, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 35 sites at Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 21 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. Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area. 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 Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area (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 Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
Dear Thom Tillis, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 35 sites at Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 21 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. Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area. 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 Carolina Hemlocks Rec Area (Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina) via campanac.com