Advice on Campgrounds

We have no idea what you WANT to do, nor how you like to camp. If you want a "camping" experience, stay within the national park. If you want to be around the "things", then an RV Park would be called for. If they are in/around Pigeon Forge, they are crowded. You will be no more than 20' from your neighbor. If I were you, I'd get on www.campgroundreviews.com and put in each town. It will give you a score for each campground. You can better determine what YOU want.

If you want to visit the Smoky Mountain National Park, consider Townsend. Very quiet and close to Cades Cove. I've been to Little Arrow Campground and Big Meadows Family Campground and enjoyed both.

Cages Bend outside of Nashville is a great park away from the hustle and bustle of the City yet close enough to enjoy everything in Nashville. It's a COE park and camping is 1/2 price with a geezer card. ($15/night) It's located on Old Hickory Lake in Gallatin. Scroll down the linked page for more info....word of caution though, check in is at 3PM and is enforced......Dennis

Things to see and do in Nashville

Executive is right, Cages Bend is excellent. As he said especially with a geezer card. How ever, wasn't overly impressed with their shower house facilities.
And slightly east of Ashville isMama Gertie's Hideaway Campground. Not the cheapest, but worth the stay. Get one of the sites on the top!!! We are generally State Park type campers, but treated ourselves to this and it was well worth it.

Memphis- Tom Sawyers in West memphis Arkansas on the river. I have never stayed tere but others have spoken highly of it.

Nashville- Yogi Bear Jellystne
Two Rivers
The KOA
all are on Music Valley Drive and not too far out of the city center.

Gatlinburg- That depends on if you want in or near G'burg or if Pigeon Forge is acceptble or even Seviervile. There are so many choices here. For G'burg they are all located east of town on 321 and most are acceptable with some nicer than others. Look them up.

Pigeon Forge I can say The Ridge is new and very nice but high priced being a mile north of Dollywood. Pine Mountain is a little way off the parkway and nice.
River Plantation is nice also.

Thanks for your input. You all have been most helpful. It is nice to get info from someone who "Has been there and done that". Happy travels. Arnold

To Howdy35 re: trips to Nashville, Gatlinburg, Memphis, Ashville

We have two favorite rv parks in the Smokies...Twin Creek RV Resort just outside Gatlinburg is a nice park with a little creek and privacy and it is a stop for the Gatlinburg Trolley...you can ride it to the town of Gatlinburg or the Arts community...even to Dollywood...for a very nominal fee. I enjoyed it because we never had to take our vehicle out in the traffic, plus I could shop while my husband stayed in the park! gatlinburgtrolley.org has a map of the scheduled stops.

We also like Stonebridge RV park in nearby Maggie Valley. It is nice and has a creek in the back and, if you have pets, there is a big field for them to play in. Maggie Valley is small, but has some nice places to eat or shop. Right across the highway is a place where they carve bears from wood with chain saws. And not too far away is the town of Wayne, which has a great Pizza place...and near Brevard are some beautiful waterfalls in Transylvania County.

The closest place to Memphis that we have stayed is at one of the casinos in Tunica, MS, which is about 50 miles from Memphis. I have heard good things about Tom Sawyer RV Park, which is on the Mississippi River, but we've never stayed there. And I think they have a couple of RV Parks near Graceland now, but again, I don't know anything about them.

We have stayed at the Tom Sawyer RV park in West Memphis, AR, several times. It floods completely every Spring so you should be good traveling during the summer.

Another place that is actually in Memphis (15 miles east of downtown) is the Agri-Center RV park. It is rather plain but it is right in the city on a large tract of farm land. We stored our coach there for 8 yrs. when in town as it's only 8 miles from the house until I found inside storage. If you decide to stay at the Agri-Center, enter from Germantown Parkway, not Walnut Grove (very low trees).

Since you are moving 'east' from there, it's not too far to I-240 that connects to the I-40 heading to Nashville. If you want, you could drive north on Germantown Parkway (6 lane divided street) and hit I-40 but there are a 8 or so traffic lights.

In Nashville, we have stayed at the Jellystone park, KOA (north) in Goodlettsville and the KOA in Lebanon, TN, slightly east of Nashville.

In Asheville, we have stayed at the KOA West but it is now not 'big rig' friendly because all of the low tree branches. In our previous coach (42 ft.) we stayed at Campfire Lodgings which is tight going up the steep road but once you are on top of the mountain, it's heaven! I don't think I would take our 45 footer there.

Lately, we have been staying at Lake Toxaway, NC, at the Mountain Falls Motorcoach Resort which is about 60 miles south of Asheville and only 20 miles to Highlands, NC. It's a beautiful part of NC and a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Safe travels!
MM.

By far, one of the nicest parks in Tunica was the Harrah's RV Resort. Unfortunately, it closed when Harrahs closed and has not been reopened. It's really sad no one has picked up that property.....Dennis

The last time we stayed at Yogi Bear Jellystone in Memphis was the last time for us. It was in January and they were listed as a Passport America park. When I went in to register I presented our PA card and was told they no longer accepted it (but still showed they were on line). I asked for a seniors discount and they said they didn't do that. I asked if there was an off season price and the answer was no. I think we paid $65 and there were maybe 5 other campers and mud and mud puddles where we parked. Also, the drinking water was awful. We have found better places to night stop on the way to Florida in the winter.