Crabtree Falls Campground
- Right now
- ClosedThe agency’s own sentence, quoted below
- A night
- $30When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 84In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
What many consider to be the hidden gem of Blue Ridge Parkway campgrounds, Crabtree Falls Campground offers a quiet serenity that appeals to campers as well as wildlife. It is a magical place when mist hangs in the air, as coyote and deer tiptoe through and barred owls call out. Crabtree Falls, a spectacular 70-foot waterfall which is one of the most photographed in the area, is accessible from the campground. Keep reading
Recreation
Crabtree Falls Trail - a 3-mile loop trail considered moderate to strenuous. The trail has many wildflowers, towering trees, and lots of stairs! Crabtree Falls is a 70 -foot waterfall, plunging into a deep pool. Be sure to carry drinking water. Mount Mitchell State Park - highest peak east of the Mississippi: 15 miles south of Crabtree Falls Campground. Enjoy the observation tower with a 360-degree view or the Crest of the Black Mountains Trail and CCC-era log picnic shelters. Green Knob Lookout Tower - a restored CCC Fire Tower: 10 miles south of Crabtree Falls Campground. A half-mile climb from the Green Knob Overlook. Enjoy beautiful views of Mt Mitchell and the Black Mountain peaks. The Museum of North Carolina Minerals - at Milepost 331, about 9 miles north of Crabtree Falls Campground. The museum highlights the area's rich mineral resources and it's mining heritage. Discover hands-on, interactive exhibits that explore the creation of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the 3,000 year-old saga of mining. Overmountain Victory Trail - recognizing the Revolutionary War Overmountain Men, patriots from what is now East Tennessee, who crossed the Unaka Mountains and then fought the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina. Access the Orchard Trail portion from behind the Minerals Museum and hike about 5 miles to Lynn Gap.
Facilities
The campground offers comfortable tent or RV camping, with the convenience of flush toilets, dump station, and drinking water. Grills/fire rings and picnic tables at each site create a perfect environment for family barbeques or late-night marshmallow roasting. In addition to the 27 sites available for advance reservations, 54 campsites are available on a first come, first served basis. Availability of first come, first served sites cannot be tracked through Recreation.gov. These sites must be booked in person at the campground kiosk.
Natural Features
Named for the crabapple trees which once polka-dotted the countryside with their brilliant pink blossoms, the 253-acre Crabtree Falls Recreation Area in North Carolina contains meadows which still speak of the area's long history as a farming community. Bursting with wildflowers (including hawthorne, beard tongue, mountain laurel and gentian) in the spring, the meadows abut towering hardwood forests of oak, birch, and hickory, and are often dotted with thickets of rhododendrons. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic byway that follows the high crests of the central and southern Appalachians for 469 miles--from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina. The Parkway offers many natural attractions and recreational opportunities for visitors.
Nearby Attractions
Orchard at Altapass: Started after the Revolutionary War, this orchard has a long and interesting history.
What the agency tells you
- Firewood Regulation: Only heat-treated firewood bundled in its original packaging and bearing a certification seal from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) or a state department of agriculture may be brought onto the Parkway. Campers may still collect dead and down wood in the immediate vicinity of campgrounds and picnic areas. This rule is strictly enforced! - 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. - Some campsites at this facility are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Status of these sites is not available online. - There are no showers. No electric, water, or sewer hook-ups are available. - All tents must be placed on prepared pads where provided. - Only one tent is allowed per site unless there is adequate space on the provided tent pad. Sites are for use by parties not to exceed six people unless specifically designated as Group Camping. - Hammock camping is permitted, but campers must abide by posted regulations. - Vehicles are to be parked on the pavement of an assigned site or in designated parking areas. A maximum of two vehicles may be parked in each site (i.e. trailer and car, two cars, two motorcycles). Most sites are limited to only one vehicle. - Generator use is prohibited from 9:00 pm to 8:00 am. - CAUTION: Bears frequent the area. Be aware! Keep a clean camp and store all food or scented items in your car or provided food lockers. DO NOT HANG TRASH FROM THE LANTERN POST!
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 84
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 55 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed at 81 of 84 sites
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets - seasonal
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Stay limit
- 30 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Meadow
- Birding
- Hiking
- Ranger programs
- Picnicking
- Stargazing
- Wildlife viewing
- Tree cover
- 83%
- Night sky · 45th darkest of 84 in NC
- Bortle 4
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:48 UTC
Due to impacts for Hurricane Helene, Crabtree Falls Campground will be closed to all camping in 2026.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 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 · 4
What the agency said · 1
Due to impacts for Hurricane Helene, Crabtree Falls Campground will be closed to all camping in 2026. Due to impacts from Hurricane Helene - Closed for 2026.
National Park Service · the source publishes no posting date
Filed as emergency from the agency’s own words “Hurricane”. That reading is ours.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Carolina Hemlocks Rec AreaPisgah National Forest · 3.3 mi · 35 sites
- Black Mountain CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 5.9 mi · 41 sites
- Briar Bottom Group CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 5.9 mi · 6 sites
- Mortimer CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 25 mi · 17 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 16:48 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
84 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 81 mapped sitesAll 84 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. 81 of the 84 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.
| A | 1 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 78 ft | 995 ft | $30 | |
| A | 10 | rv nonelectric | 29 ft | 78 ft | 1,257 ft | $30 | |
| A | 11 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 116 ft | 1,218 ftBig Crabtree Creek | $30 | |
| A | 12 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 76 ft | 1,207 ft | $30 | |
| A | 13 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 60 ft | 1,177 ft | $30 | |
| A | 15 | rv nonelectric | 45 ft | 60 ft | 1,118 ft | $30 | |
| A | 16 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 81 ft | 1,076 ft | $30 |
| A | 17 | rv nonelectric | 55 ft | 61 ft | 921 ft | $30 | |
| A | 18 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 56 ft | 1,014 ft | $30 |
| A | 19 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 54 ft | 973 ft | $30 | |
| A | 2 | type not stated | 964 ft | ||||
| A | 20 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 54 ft | 941 ft | $30 | |
| A | 21 | rv nonelectric | 55 ft | 76 ft | 852 ft | $30 | |
| A | 22 | rv nonelectric | 40 ft | 76 ft | 879 ft | $30 | |
| A | 3 | rv nonelectric | 25 ft | 57 ft | 1,063 ft | $30 | |
| A | 4 | type not stated | 1,016 ft | ||||
| A | 5 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 57 ft | 1,097 ft | $30 | |
| A | 6 | rv nonelectric | 55 ft | 64 ft | 1,060 ft | $30 | |
| A | 7 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 103 ft | 1,241 ft | $30 | |
| A | 8 | type not stated | 28 ft | 1,192 ft | |||
| A | 9 | rv nonelectric | 28 ft | 78 ft | 1,289 ftBig Crabtree Creek | $30 | |
| B | 23 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | 666 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 24 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 632 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 25 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 661 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 26 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 599 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 27 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 560 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 28 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 618 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 29 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 521 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 30 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 494 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 31 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 489 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 33 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 540 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 34 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 469 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 35 | standard nonelectric | 63 ft | 468 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 36 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 528 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 37 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 533 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 38 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 409 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 73 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 405 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 74 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 375 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 75 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 355 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 76 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 367 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 77 | standard nonelectric | yes | 49 ft | 359 ft | $30 | |
| B | 78 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 301 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 80 | standard nonelectric | yes | 49 ft | 380 ft | $30 | |
| B | 81 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 326 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 82 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 345 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 83 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 445 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 84 | standard nonelectric | 63 ft | 422 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 85 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 462 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 88 | standard nonelectric | 110 ft | 611 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 89 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 610 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 90 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 637 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 91 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | 672 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 92 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 691 ft | $30 | ||
| B | 93 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 721 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 39 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 588 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 40 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 518 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 41 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 600 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 42 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 594 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 43 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 513 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 44 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 582 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 45 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 574 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 46 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 504 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 47 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 576 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 48 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 526 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 49 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 593 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 50 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 548 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 51 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 577 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 52 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 558 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 53 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 533 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 54 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 487 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 55 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 456 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 56 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 434 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 57 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 369 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 58 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 352 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 59 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 334 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 60 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 325 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 61 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 287 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 63 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 275 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 64 | standard nonelectric | 8 ft | 268 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 65 | standard nonelectric | 8 ft | 263 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 66 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 224 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 67 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 230 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 70 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 303 ft | $30 | ||
| C | 72 | standard nonelectric | 109 ft | 285 ft | $30 |
25 of 84 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Carolina Hemlocks Rec AreaPisgah National Forest · 3.3 mi
Black Mountain CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 5.9 mi
Briar Bottom Group CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 5.9 miCurtis Creek CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 9.0 mi
Curtis Creek Campground (NC)10 mi
Linville Falls CampgroundBlue Ridge Parkway · 16 miFrom Asheville, take the Blue Ridge Parkway north about 40 miles to Milepost 339.5.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Spruce Pine, NC
Typical weather
Typical October night 44°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 25°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
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Crabtree Falls 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 →