Tubing in western NC or VA - Jellystone Campgrounds?

nicholasjr wrote:
thanks for the suggestions. Looks like I'm gonna try the KOA Asheville East or drive further to Cherokee KOA.

Hope I'm not too late to this thread

Luray VA, there's Hiking at Shenandoah NP, The Luray Caverns, and Tubing down the Shenandoah River... the tubing was a 1hr+ easy lazy river ride down the shallow Shenandoah river which we enjoyed.

all of this was a 15 min drive from each other

Mike

The Marion Jellystone park, near I-40, is a highlight for our 8 and 11 year old grandchildren--this summer and last. I don't know about the tubing and it's mainly geared to kids, of course, but the multiple activities, the fantastic water slide, the pool, miniature golf, were all special for our grandkids. Depends on age of kids.

thanks for the suggestions. Looks like I'm gonna try the KOA Asheville East or drive further to Cherokee KOA.

Deep Creek area in Bryson City has great tubing also the Cherokee KOA has great tubing.

If you want to have a small pool in addition to tubing, try Asheville KOA East. The Swannanoa River runs thru there. Tubing is popular there in summertime!

Deep Creek area has 2 campgrounds...the section of Smokey Mtn. Nat Park and a private campground, Deep Creek Campground & Tube Center. Nat Park does not have hookups. The private campground has full hookups. Have stayed there & tubing is fabulous!! Creekside sites are hard to get but creek access is available. Bryson City is a neat little town. Also has Great Smokey Mtn Railroad train rides which are pricey but make an awesome day activity.
Have camped both places & enjoy both!

Do not go to that jellystone natural bridge. Looks great on the internet, not so much in person. Just went there this past July 4th. The staff was not prepared for the holiday weekend and everything just failed. You could not see the bottom of the pool, was terrible. My daughter got sick from the pool water and we spent a night in the hospital. (so too did our friends son) the hospital tested her stool and said it was a Bacteria from pools or ponds.

Arcade was only 20% operational as all games were broken and the pond / beach (which we did not go in, was complete weeds and slime. Maybe I expect more, but it was all nasty.

Anyway, we like jellystones, just don't go to that one. The luray caverns are much nicer nah the natural bridge caverns. Also, the shortest tubing ( through jellystone) you can do is 4 hours, don't know about you, but my 8 and 12 year old could not spend that long on a tube.. (Nor could I)

We did enjoy the river though as that was the most refreshing... we spent hours just sitting in the flowing water and skipping rocks.

Coworker did some tubing up on the New River recently. Said he really enjoyed it.

I did not find Yogi Bear Marion anything special. Deep Creek maybe a good choice for tubing.

We have stayed at both Jellystone's in Luray and Natural Bridge. While both nice we preferred Luray much more.

If you really mean "Western" (i.e. Nantahala) consider Persimmon Creek CG. In the gorge you may have to go rafting rather than tubing.