Van Hook Glade
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 2212 on recreation.gov
- Season
- April 1Opens April 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Van Hook Glade is a scenic, secluded campground in the heart of the Nantahala National Forest. Convenient for families and anglers, the campground is in close proximity to hiking trails, scenic views, waterfalls and a nearby lake. Keep reading
Recreation
Campers can easily relax with a book or deck of cards in the shaded campsites, or seek out many activities close by. A short trail in the campground leads to the Cliffside Lake Recreation Area, which offers six hiking trails ranging from easy to moderate, as well as trout fishing, picnicking and swimming. Boating is not permitted. Van Hook glade is a short drive from Dry Falls and Whitewater Falls.
Facilities
Van Hook Glade offers 18 secluded sites, all equipped with picnic tables, tent pads, lantern posts and campfire rings with grills. Hot showers and flush toilets are also provided, and firewood is available for purchase on-site.
Natural Features
The campground is located just 4 miles from the scenic and cultural attractions of Highlands, North Carolina, offering shady campsites in a heavily wooded and secluded area situated on rolling hills. The elevation is 4,118 feet, and the calm waters of Cliffside Lake sit adjacent. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (828) 787-1980.
Nearby Attractions
A morning or late afternoon drive down scenic Highway 64 is sure to present visitors with amazing views. The quaint town of Highlands has a general store and various attractions, while the larger town of Franklin has shopping, a casino, grocery stores and performing arts.
What the agency tells you
No hookups available
Sharp curve inside campground loop may make maneuvering an RV difficult
Campground hosts on-site
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Limit two vehicles and two tents maximum; some walk-in sites are limited to one vehicle
Campfires can only be made in fire rings provided
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
- 22 · 3 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 36 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…rings with grills. Hot showers and flush toilets are also provided, and firewood is available for…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Hot showers and flush toilets are also provided, and firewood is available for purchase on-site.”
- Store
- Nearby
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 23rd darkest of 84 in NC
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:01 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 16:11 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 10 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 8 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 16:01 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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $24 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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:11 UTC
- Cherry Hill CampgroundSumter National Forest · 13 mi · 1 of 56 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:01 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
24 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 10 mapped sitesAll 24 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 21 of the 24 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. 22 of the 24 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.
| Cliffside Lake | Large Picnic Shelter | day use | 144 ft | 357 ftSkitty Creek | 559 ft | $30–$40 | |
| Cliffside Lake | Small Picnic Shelter | day use | 144 ft | 226 ftSkitty Creek | 484 ft | $30–$40 | |
| Management Sites | 002 | type not stated | 485 ft | 527 ft | $40 | ||
| Management Sites | 003 | type not stated | 474 ft | 582 ft | $40 | ||
| Management Sites | 004 | type not stated | 512 ftLong Branch | 456 ft | $40 | ||
| Management Sites | 005 | type not stated | 444 ftLong Branch | 364 ft | $40 | ||
| Management Sites | 006 | type not stated | 554 ftLong Branch | 468 ft | $40 | ||
| Management Sites | 009 | type not stated | 189 ftLong Branch | 129 ft | $40 | ||
| Management Sites | 01 | type not stated | 35 ft | $40 | |||
| Management Sites | 015 | type not stated | 36 ftLong Branch | 412 ft | $40 | ||
| Management Sites | 016 | type not stated | 43 ftLong Branch | 439 ft | $40 | ||
| Management Sites | 017 | type not stated | 86 ftLong Branch | 334 ft | $40 | ||
| Management Sites | 018 | type not stated | 301 ftLong Branch | 377 ft | $40 | ||
| Management Sites | 021 | type not stated | 399 ft | 567 ft | $40 | ||
| VAN | 001 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 270 ft | 328 ft | 713 ft | $24 |
| VAN | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 169 ft | 493 ftLong Branch | 379 ft | $24 | |
| VAN | 008 | tent only nonelectric | 169 ft | 324 ftLong Branch | 217 ft | $24 | |
| VAN | 012 | tent only nonelectric | 74 ft | 10 ftLong Branch | 253 ft | $24 | |
| VAN | 013 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 49 ft | 10 ftLong Branch | 322 ft | $24 |
| VAN | 014 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 49 ft | under 10 ftLong Branch | 369 ft | $24 |
| VAN | 015 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | $24 | |||
| VAN | 016 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | $24 | |||
| VAN | 019 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 171 ft | 174 ftLong Branch | 344 ft | $24 |
| VAN | 020 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 250 ft | 409 ftLong Branch | 462 ft | $24 |
The agency files 2 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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
West Fork Campground (Clayton, GA)Chattahoochee National Forest · 9.2 mi
Sarah's Creek Campground (Clayton, GA)Chattahoochee National Forest · 10 miBurrells FordSumter National Forest · 10 mi
Willis Knob Horse CampChattahoochee National Forest · 12 miLong Bottom FordSumter National Forest · 13 miCherry Hill Recreation AreaSumter National Forest · 13 miFrom Highlands, North Carolina, follow Highway 64 west approximately 4.5 miles. The campground entrance is on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Highlands, NC
Typical weather
Typical April night 39°F, day 62°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical April night 39°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
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
Van Hook Glade 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 Van Hook Glade, Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina
Dear Chuck Edwards, I’m a constituent in North Carolina’s 11th district. I tried to camp at Van Hook Glade, Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 12 of the 22 campsites the agency files at Van Hook Glade, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 10 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Van Hook Glade keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Van Hook Glade. 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 Van Hook Glade (Nantahala 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 Van Hook Glade, Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina
Dear Ted Budd, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Van Hook Glade, Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 12 of the 22 campsites the agency files at Van Hook Glade, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 10 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Van Hook Glade keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Van Hook Glade. 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 Van Hook Glade (Nantahala 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 Van Hook Glade, Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina
Dear Thom Tillis, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Van Hook Glade, Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 12 of the 22 campsites the agency files at Van Hook Glade, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 10 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Van Hook Glade keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Van Hook Glade. 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 Van Hook Glade (Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina) via campanac.com