Linville Falls National Campground - Linville Falls, North Carolina (May 2019)

When you think of camping in a National Park, you think of boon-docking or camping without utilities. Most National Parks simply give you space to park your camper but no electricity, water or sewer connections.

Linville Falls National Campground was along the Blue Ridge Parkway and was under the administrative control of the National Park Service. We knew going in that this was going to be camping without hookups, which can be scary during June. No hook-ups translates to no air conditioning.

Linville Falls

The good news was that the temperatures were pleasantly comfortable. In fact, it was chilly at night. 

We did run the generator to make sure Rosie's batteries were charged, but we probably didn’t need to do so. (Rosie is our 25 foot Airstream trailer.)

Charging Rosie's batteries

The campground itself was nice. It had paved roads and a big grassy meadow area in the middle of it.

Rosie's site at Linville Falls National Campground

You cannot camp there without hiking to Linville Falls. This proved to be a popular hike with many people on it.

Linville Falls

Grandfather Mountain State Park was a surprise to us. We enjoyed the mile-high swinging bridge and the “Forest Gump” curve that was easily recognizable from the movie.

Grandfather Mountain State Park

He just felt like running!

Suzy waits for her "Daddy" to return from the mile high swinging bridge

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site was paved with asphalt
• We had to use our leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean
• This was a “dry” campground. That means there were no electrical, water or sewer connections 
• The campground had restrooms with flush toilets and running water in the sinks 
• The campground did not have showers 
• We could not pick up any TV stations using Rosie’s antenna 
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T placed one bar of 4G service over our site. This wasn’t reliable for voice or data service 

There were several bear boxes located around the campground. This was a reminder that we were in bear country and that we needed to be safe while there.

We were excited to see that our nighttime critter visitors to the campground included lightning bugs. After our Blue Ghost experience in Asheville, we welcomed our little visitors and enjoyed their show.