Round Bottom Horse Camp
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 15:58 UTC
- A night
- $30When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 5In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Saddle up your horses for a camping trip in the stunning Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Located in the North Carolina portion of the park, this campsite offers miles of horse trails with a breathtaking backdrop. Whether blanketed in bright spring wildflowers or vivid fall colors, the scenery at Round Bottom never disappoints. World-renowned for its diversity of plant and animal life, the beauty of its ancient mountains and the quality of its remnants of Southern Appalachian culture, Great Smoky Mountains is America's most visited national park. You MUST have a HORSE to camp at Round Bottom Horse Camp! Keep reading
Recreation
With access to several of the Smokies' popular horseback riding trails, equestrians will never be bored. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a hiker's paradise, offering over 800 miles of maintained trails ranging from short, leg-stretchers to strenuous treks, with a number of those trails easily accessible from the picnic area. But hiking is not the only reason for visiting the Smokies: Fishing, picnicking, wildlife viewing and auto touring are also popular activities. Campers can enjoy high-quality backcountry fishing in the cool waters of the countless streams and rivers that snake through the mountains, with trout available in abundance. Wildlife viewing is a popular pastime, and with around 1,500 bears living in the park, it's not uncommon for visitors to spot one. The park is a sanctuary for a magnificent array of animal and plant life, all of which is protected for future generations to enjoy. The park also holds one of the best collections of log buildings in the eastern United States. Over 90 historic structures, including houses, barns, outbuildings, churches, schools and grist mills, have been preserved or rehabilitated in the park.
Facilities
Round Bottom offers a traditional outdoor camping experience You MUST have a HORSE to camp at Round Bottom Horse Camp!
Natural Features
Round Bottom Horse Camp is surrounded by picturesque mountain ranges, pristine mountain streams and rivers and clear blue skies that set the backdrop for your camping and horseback riding adventure. At 3,060 feet elevation, the campground provides a moderate climate, typified by mild winters and hot, humid summers. Great Smoky Mountains National Park preserves a rich cultural tapestry of Southern Appalachian history. The mountains have had a long human history spanning thousands of years, from the prehistoric Paleo Indians to early European settlement in the 1800s to loggers and Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees in the 20th century. The park strives to protect the historic structures, landscapes, and artifacts that tell the stories of people who once called these mountains home.
Nearby Attractions
Cherokee, North Carolina, located about 13 miles away, offers fuel and grocery stores.
What the agency tells you
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.
Caution: Bears and other wildlife frequent the area. All food and equipment used to prepare and store food 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.
Dispose of garbage promptly in bear-proof dumpsters. This rule is strictly enforced!
Everything else this campground posts · 11
You MUST have a horse to camp in a horse camp. All horses must have a current Coggins test. A maximum of 6 people and 4 horses may occupy a campsite. Campers are responsible for cleaning their stalls before departure and placing waste in a manure trailer. Fires are allowed in fire rings only. Important Information: Food storage regulations are strictly enforced. Horse feed is also covered by food storage regulations. Pets are allowed in the horse camp but must be on a leash at all times and not left unattended. Pets are not allowed on trails.
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.
Heat-treated wood is available from a growing list of private businesses in communities around the park. Please visit www.nature.org/firewoodmap 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 restricted from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Stalls are provided but may not be visible from your campsite. Check the site page for details. Horses may not be tied to trees.
With the exception of Big Creek, horse camps do not have potable water.
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
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- PIT TOILETS on 5 of 5 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Horseback riding
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 25th darkest of 84 in NC
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 4 days ago, 13 km away
- Patchy color
Nothing to book until it reopensread 15:58 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
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 · 15
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 Round Bottom Horse Camp closed this Friday and Saturday night. The National Park 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.
- Smokemont CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 6.9 mi · 142 sites
- Cove Creek Group CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 32 mi
- Cades Cove CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 32 mi · 164 sites
- White Pine South Group CampPisgah National Game Refuge · 35 mi · 1 site
recreation.gov availability, read 15:58 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 001-005 | 001 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 77 ft | 220 ft | $30 |
| Horse Camp 001-005 | 002 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 66 ft | 264 ft | $30 |
| Horse Camp 001-005 | 003 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 70 ft | 309 ft | $30 |
| Horse Camp 001-005 | 004 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 66 ft | 206 ft | $30 |
| Horse Camp 001-005 | 005 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 89 ft | 289 ft | $30 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Balsam Mountain CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 4.0 miBalsam Mt. CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 4.0 mi
Cataloochee Horse CampGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 5.5 mi
Smokemont Group CampGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 6.9 mi
Smokemont CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 6.9 mi
Tow String Horse CampGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 7.1 miThere is no street adddress for the horse camp.
Round Bottom horse camp is located about 9 miles NW of Cherokee, NC.
From Cherokee, NC: Take US 441 north. Just before entering the park, turn right at last traffic light onto Acquoni Road. Go one block, acorss river, and turn left onto Big Cove Road (marked by detour sign). Go 9 miles to a tee. Turn right and go 0.9 mile to the end of the pavement. Take the gravel Straight Fork-Round Bottom road, adjacent to a trout rearing facility, 3.5 miles to the horse camp.
From Gatlinburg, TN: Take Newfound Gap Road (US 441 South) towards Cherokee, NC. Exit the park into Cherokee and turn left at the first traffic light. Go one block, across river, and turn left onto Big Cove Road (marked by detour sign). Continue with directions above.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Maggie Valley, NC
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 67°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 24°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Round Bottom 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 →