Northwest North Carolina recommendations please

Beemer, how did you like Doughton Park. That's just above stone mountain state park. We have been thinking of trying it for our first dry camping experience.

Asheville area;
BIltmore estate
Hot Springs, NC for a soak
Rt 129 (Tail of the Dragon) for an interesting drive
Cherohala Skyway for another interesting drive

Boone area;
Mast General Store in Valle Crucis (both store and annex)
Mast General Store in Boone
Grandfather Mountain for great views and hiking
Moses Cone Manner for a pleasant afternoon and hike around the lake
Mortimer Campground for out in the woods camping by WIlson Creek
Blowing Rock (the town) for artsy type shopping
Tanger Outlets for outlet shopping
Blowing Rock (the tourist trap)
Tweetsie Railroad for a unique amusement park
Doughton Park for BRP camping

This one of my favorite areas. Even though 500 miles from our home we have visited the area probably 40 times in the last ten years. The places listed above only scratch the surface of what is available.

I'd stay in the Asheville area, we weren't impressed with the cg's in Boone a few weekends ago. Mama Gerties is super nice in Swannanoa as another option. Very new and very clean cg, super convenient to I-40 and you don't hear it. As others recommended, there are very nice choices in Asheville. We had some really good bbq at this hole in the wall place in Asheville just behind those rustic shops on the right across from Biltmore.

livelylittlecampers wrote:
To the original poster--Asheville is also a great food city! Try 12 Bones for BBQ and Tupelo Honey Cafe for the best grilled cheese and tomato soup in the world. I am an English teacher and Asheville is also world class for bookstores--there are several within walking distance downtown.

Yup, wife and I could spend our vacation in good bookstores. One of our favorites had a tea room in the back. Wish I could remember the name of it but it was St. Petersburg.

Not to pick nits, but 12 Bones is a newbie in town. For a more traditional 'Asheville taste', try Little Pigs on McDowell St across from Asheville High. Unfortunately the very best barbecue in town closed down a few years back.

Downtown is worth at least a 1/2 day just browsing the shops & galleries, and people watching. Summer brings out the odder folks downtown, and there are usually a few street musicians & other buskers performing for tips. Unless you've got one of the 24' Sprinter B's, arrive in town by 8 or 9 am, and you can curb park in a metered space ($1.25 hr), feeding the meter every 2 hrs for as long as you want to stay (bring quarters).

The Parkway north of town may be reopened by Labor Day weekend. They hope to have one lane open at the failed area, with traffic controlled by an automatic light system.

Jim, "Mo' coffee!"

To the original poster--Asheville is also a great food city! Try 12 Bones for BBQ and Tupelo Honey Cafe for the best grilled cheese and tomato soup in the world. I am an English teacher and Asheville is also world class for bookstores--there are several within walking distance downtown.

mockybird wrote:

wbwood wrote:

NORM WADDELL wrote:
Consider Mountain Stream R V Park at Marion N C.
Most beautiful park we have seen. P M me for more.

While I will agree it was ok kept, the owners were not the friendliest around and they have lots of rules. Te owner walks around with a list in his back pocket or at least did the weekend we were there.

We will never return.

Wb.........I bet he heard that you were coming and printed them out " just in case " ;)

Lol Gary. First I was given the rules at check in. By the way, spoiler alert, rule number 19 says "if you read all the rules come to the office for a gift" or something along those lines. Was a carabiner with their name on it. Also at check in was asked if we were going to use Internet. Told them maybe. The lady gives me username and password. Username was the site number. She goes through a long spell of not to use Facebook, watch movies and a bunch of other things not to do on the Internet because its all connected in with their business Internet (satellite) and if they go over the data quota, then they can't access the Internet for 24 hrs. Didn't even bother with it. There was a sign that said something like quiet time was at 9 pm on a sign about 20' from our site. An older coworker, his wife and grandkids came up shortly after us. Their grandkids and my daughter were right in front of the sign at 8:30. The male owner came and told them it was quiet time. And they weren't even loud at all. The next day they were having a pot luck dinner. So we thought we would go. We went into Lenoir to get something to take to it and were back at our site. The kids were playing in the creek. The man with his rules in his hand walked right in between us and my coworker and told the kids to not throw rocks because they had to pay for them. He didn't bother to say one word to us adults about it at all. We ended up not going to the potluck. My coworker and his wife did. They came back and said not a single person would speak to them or even bothered to try her food. She said it was like children of the corn. Lol

Amongst their rules is to not let your dogs use the bathroom on the grass, have them use the gravel. They did have a little pet walk area thankfully. Nothing for kids to do at all, except get scolded.

wbwood wrote:

NORM WADDELL wrote:
Consider Mountain Stream R V Park at Marion N C.
Most beautiful park we have seen. P M me for more.

While I will agree it was ok kept, the owners were not the friendliest around and they have lots of rules. Te owner walks around with a list in his back pocket or at least did the weekend we were there.

We will never return.

Wb.........I bet he heard that you were coming and printed them out " just in case " ;)

livelylittlecampers wrote:
We are actually staying at the Asheville East KOA right now and I have been blogging about our stay. Please click below to see a bunch of pictures of the campground.
...

The Swannanoa River cuts right through the campground and there are two lakes that are pretty in the back of the campground. We have a riverfront site which is not very wide but it is very, very long. There are two fire pits on the site--one by our camper and one down by the edge of the river. Tubing on the river is a blast--you can hop in right at the end of your site.

We have kids, and there is plenty for them to do here. If you are traveling with just adults you should also consider Mama Gerties--we have stayed there as well but did not go back because there is nothing for the kids. It is also a very pretty campground at a great price.

Either way--there is so much to do out here that you probably won't be spending too much time at your site anyway.

Have Fun!!

Jeremy

This sounds great, Jeremy. Stellar job on the blog too!:W

Jeremy, great pics and blog on that KOA. Looks like a great place to cool off. We are going to add it to our list.