Smoky Mountain Campgrounds

We stayed at Elkmont a few years ago. We had a great site on the river. It is a beautiful place and we loved it.

We were there in June and it was HOT. A battery operated fan was our best friend. We saw the synchronous (spelling?) fireflies. Amazing! We made sure we walked a few yards on the Appalachian Trail, just for bragging rights :) We "hiked" the Appalachian Trail!

I agree on the rustic camping experience mentioned above and this was nice. The trees are so thick above there was no using the Dish for TV & no off the air TV or
radio reception. It was kind of nice not knowing what was happening in the world for the week. We where at Elkmont.

Elkmont has my vote!

As the others have stated, there are a lot of threads about that area, although many are related to the other end of the comfort spectrum :) If you stay in the park itself the experience is far more rustic than many of the commercial places around the periphery. We're staying in Cades Cove around that same time, but we booked months ago so I don't know what the availability looks like right now. Try recreation.gov for available spots around that time - it will show you all of the park campgrounds in the various parts of the park. Just be aware of the limited amenities (power, individual water, etc.) in the park campgrounds (which I assume is OK since you mentioned rustic, but just to be sure...)

- R

There are a couple that we are headed back to this spring. Both on the eastern, quieter side of the park. Smokemont, up the valley from Cherokee. Davidson River Rec Area CG near Brevard, an easy daytrip to Biltmore.

We always head for ELKMONT Camp inside the Smoky Mtn Natl Park. This camp ground has no hookups and is very popular in the area. Great Ranger staff there... Water is available at the several Rest Room buildings around the camp grounds. Gatlinburg and Townsend are just a few miles away. We always go to Townsend for groceries and supplies. ELKMONT has a Gatlinburg TROLLY Stop on the grounds.

We love camping on the banks of the Little River that runs through the camp ground. Lots of hiking trails close by and wildlife. In JUNE you might still get to see some of the Synchronous fireflies that live in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A real treat during MAY and perhaps JUNE.


Photo from GOOGLE IMAGEs

You can find a similar camp ground experience with hookups just as you leave the NATL PARK entering TOWNSEND...

Roy Ken

Cades Cove has a campground. No hookups.

phipps33 wrote:
We are looking to head to the Smoky Mountains the first week of June. Is there a topic here somewhere with campground suggestions?

We will be in a hybrid and like to stay in the more "rustic" sites and definitely want to be able to make reservations.

A search of the forum using "Smoky Mountains" turned up plenty.
https://forums.woodalls.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/search/parms/sw%7Bsmoky%20mountains%7D%7Ckm%7Bexact%7D%7Ckl%7Bm%7D%7Cfm%7B%7D%7Cpd%7B365%7D%7Cma%7B%7D/sr/1.cfm

We enjoyed Elkmont Campground inside the park. It is dry camping but a very nice campground. This was in Sept. in our previous RV.


See more info at:
http://www.recreation.gov/camping/elkmont-campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70968

http://www.rvparkreviews.com/regions/tennessee/great-smoky-mountains-national-park/elkmont-campground-nps-campground