Wash Creek Horse Camp
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:38 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Wash Creek Horse Camp is a small group area designed for equestrian use located two miles northeast of the North Mills River Recreation Area and Bent Creek of the Pisgah Ranger District. Keep reading
Recreation
As part of the Pisgah National Forest, a network of equestrian trails are available in the North Mills River, Trace Ridge and Wash Creek areas and are easily accessible with space for several horse trailers. Hiking, fishing and hunting are popular activities in the area. Some of these trails are shared by mountain bikers. Routes are marked with signs and colored blazes.
Facilities
The campground has one site and a vault toilet and hitching posts for horses. This small group facility can accommodate 30 people and 10 vehicles.
Natural Features
Wash Creek offers a remote hardwood forest setting with a small, shallow stream nearby.
Nearby Attractions
The site is 20 minutes from the North Mills River Recreation Area and 45 minutes from Lake Powhatan Recreation Area. It is approximately 1 hour from attractions in both Brevard and Asheville. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (828) 577-4167.
What the agency tells you
No Commercial Use: This site may not be used for festivals, ticketed events, or any activity where attendees are charged a fee. Commercial use requires a Forest Service permit — contact the FS directly to inquire.
Access to the site is via a narrow gravel road.
Absolutely no access to the site is allowed in advance of stated arrival date.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Check-in time is 2:00 pm. Check-out time 12:00 pm
Maximum occupancy for this site is 25 people and 10 vehicles.
Fires may only be burned within established fire ring(s). DO NOT burn any construction refuse material or other material known to contain metal objects such as nails, screws, etc. Pallets are not allowed!
Bring your own trash bags and pack out your trash. Campsites found in unsatisfactory condition following check-out may be subject to future restrictions to Naventure managed facilities.
This campground is managed by Naventure. Nearby North Mills River and Davidson River Campground are a hub and resource for Group Site visitors.
If any assistance is required during your stay, please contact the Group Campground Manager at (828) 577-4910 or visit North Mills River Campground.
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.
Kiln dried firewood is available at North Mills River Campground for $10 (tax included) per bundle. Campfires must be fully extinguished before departure.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group, 1 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…The campground has one site and a vault toilet and hitching posts for horses. This small group…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Fall color · reported 4 days ago, 20 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 16:38 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
3 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:38 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:38 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.
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 · 3
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:38 UTC
- Lake Powhatan GlampingPisgah National Game Refuge · 4.3 mi · 1 of 23 site-nights open
- Davidson RiverPisgah National Forest · 11 mi · 2 of 264 site-nights open
- Harmon Den CampgroundPisgah National Forest · 29 mi · 6 of 38 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:38 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| WASH CREEK HORSE CAMP | 001 | group equestrian | 285 ft | $40 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
North Mills RiverPisgah National Forest · 1.7 mi
Lake PowhatanPisgah National Game Refuge · 4.3 mi
Lake Powhatan GlampingPisgah National Game Refuge · 4.3 mi
Wolf Ford Horse CampPisgah National Game Refuge · 5.3 mi
Mount Pisgah CampgroundBlue Ridge Parkway · 5.4 mi
White Pine South Group CampPisgah National Game Refuge · 10 miFrom exit 40 on Interstate 26 take travel west on Hwy 280 (passing the Asheville Airport and going towards Brevard). Go six miles to light and turn right on North Mills River Road. Go six miles and just before entering the North Mills River Campground, turn right on Forest Service (gravel) Road #5000. Proceed two miles to site on right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mills River, NC
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 68°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 · 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
Wash Creek 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 →
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 Wash Creek Horse Camp, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
Dear Chuck Edwards, I’m a constituent in North Carolina’s 11th district. I tried to camp at Wash Creek Horse Camp, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Wash Creek Horse Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Wash Creek Horse Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Wash Creek Horse Camp. 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 Wash Creek Horse Camp (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 Wash Creek Horse Camp, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
Dear Ted Budd, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Wash Creek Horse Camp, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Wash Creek Horse Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Wash Creek Horse Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Wash Creek Horse Camp. 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 Wash Creek Horse Camp (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 Wash Creek Horse Camp, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
Dear Thom Tillis, I’m a constituent in North Carolina. I tried to camp at Wash Creek Horse Camp, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Wash Creek Horse Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Wash Creek Horse Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Wash Creek Horse Camp. 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 Wash Creek Horse Camp (Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina) via campanac.com