Camping in Tennessee and Noth Carolina

Planning a trip this summer to Tennessee and North Carolina and wanted to know if anyone has any great campgrounds they would recommend and any places of interest.

We camped their many years ago in a pop-up. It rained the entired time. So much rain that it saturated the canvas. Wish we had our r-pod then.

http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1484&KW=smokys&PID=12514&title=gsmnp-elkmont#12514 Here is an old post about the Smoky's and I would add my vote as a place to see& stay while in the area.  I usually go there every year in the fall.  Cherokee is interesting, if curious about the history of the people, having some museums, etc. It has lots of "touristy" stuff like Gatlinburg, also.

There is a r-pod round up at Raccoon Holler campground in northwest just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in NW NC 12-16 June.See the other forum (Www.rpodnation.com) for details.  Looks like a group of intrepid podders will gather!  See www.raccooncholler.com for details of the campground.

I stay in National Parks pretty much whenever I can.  Smokemont near Cherokee, NC, or Deep Creek near Bryson City, NC, are both very nice and easy to get to with a Pod.  On the TN side, Elkmont, is close to Gatlinburg, Cosby and Cades Cove are not hard to get to also, though more remote.  There are no hook ups of any kind in the GSMNP, and no showers.  I dry camp.  It ain't for everyone.  This is where your input would really help.  Do you want to dry camp or do you want full hookup?  Do you have kids?  If you want playgrounds and activities in the campground for them, you need to let us know.  There are an abundance of places outside of the Smokies with hookups and lots of kid-friendly things.  I've never stayed at any of them so I can't recommend them, but I'm sure plenty of people here have.

Ditto for the Outer Banks.  I like Frisco and Ocracoke campgrounds in the Park.  No hookups, although they do have cold water showers.  Again, there is no shortage of commercial campgrounds in the area, but I've never stayed at any of them.  The Park (Seashore, actually) campgrounds are behind the dunes so you won't be able to see the ocean without a walk.  I don't know if any of the commercial campgrounds have ocean views.  There might be zoning laws against putting anything on the ocean side of the dunes, but I could easily be wrong.  You can take a ferry over to Portsmouth Island south of Ocracoke and camp on the beach.  You need 4WD and I've never seen anyone towing a camper in the sand.  I would not recommend it if you care about your camper. 

Check online regarding opening dates for the Park campgrounds and reservations.

  TT