Campground's between Memphis, TN and Ashville NC

Jellystone Park in Nashville. Spittin' distance from Grand Ole Opry/Opryland Hotel and Starlight theater (Home of Shot Gun Red). Also, the "Grey" line tour bus company is pretty much across the street. Asheville West KOA is right of I-40. Fairly good pitch to driveway, sites pretty close to each other, but nice. Not too far from the Biltmore Estate (well worth seeing). Truck stop at the same exit as the KOA.

Masscamper wrote:
Will be traveling between Memphis, TN and Asheville NC. Any suggestions on campgrounds? Hiking and kayak access would be a plus!

Sounds like you want less tourist stuff and more nature.

What route will you be taking? That will help us provide more specific suggestions. We use the comprehensive Allstays.com app with a map to locate campgrounds along our route. Allstays gives a very up to date and complete listing of cgs.

We will be following I40 with a stop in Nashville. You are correct about more nature a bit less touristy.

Just a few miles east of Nashville is Seven Points Campground which is a great COE on J Percy Priest Resevoir. The lake front sites are absolutely wonderful with 50 amps and water, dump on the way out. Reservations are difficult for the lakefront but off lakefront sites are also good.

accsys wrote:
Just a few miles east of Nashville is Seven Points Campground which is a great COE on J Percy Priest Resevoir. The lake front sites are absolutely wonderful with 50 amps and water, dump on the way out. Reservations are difficult for the lakefront but off lakefront sites are also good.

Also recommend this Campground. You will find very few vacancies but call everyday because people do cancel. We will be there for a week in mid-July on a lakefront site we reserved 6 months out.

Traveling east of Knoxville on i-40 take the Deep Springs road exit. It's less than 5 miles to Douglas Lake and the Anchor Down RV Resort.

About halfway between Nashville and Asheville is Cumberland Mountain State Park. It has both lake kayaking and hiking. It's one of our faves in Eastern TN. Here's the link:
http://tnstateparks.com/parks/activities/cumberland-mountain-hiking

David, I'll agree with magnus that the TN state parks are very nice. However, Cumberland Mountain SP is just a little south of Crossville. Since you are stopping in Nashville, Crossville is only about 2 hours or a bit more towing and would be a very short day. I'll respectfully disagree with magnus that it is half way to Ashville. You have to go around Knoxville which is maybe an hour an a half or so towing and then you go through the Smokey Mountains and even on I-40 it will probably be a slow trip. There are a lot of curves on that part of 40 and also a lot of trucks (at least there were when I made the trip from Durham, NC to Nashville several times in the 1960s). Also, although there are several state parks in western NC, the few which do have camping are walk-in tent sites, so nothing for an RVer there (bummer! I just finished researching this since we live close in western SC). Don't know how fast you are planning on traveling but, if your not in a hurry, you might look in the Townsend, TN area for a not so "resorty" campground near Smokey Mountain Nat'l Park.

Good luck and safe travels. I hope you find a nice place or two on your way to Ashville.

Ken

I hate to post right after my previous post, but I just noticed Big Ridge State Park on Norris Lake. This is east of Knoxville but is a good distance north of I-40. Don't know if you want to go that far off of 40. Look at the Tennessee State Parks web site, tnstateparks.com. 50 campsite with water and elec. (50 amp) and a dump station.

Ken