Blog

Hot Springs Appalachian Trail Campsites

If ever there was an area set up to accommodate the avid camper, it’s Hot Springs. Located on the Appalachian Trail — the AT runs along a sidewalk through the...

Read more
North Mills River Camping

The trails in this section of the Pisgah District of the Pisgah National Forest are open to hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding. From here, you can hike up to...

Read more
Fires Creek Recreation Area Camping

There’s primitive camping galore in the Fires Creek Recreation Area, particularly along the trail leading up to the rim and along the 25-mile rim itself. Which brings us to the...

Read more
Ammon Branch, Nantahala Camping

Perhaps you’ve been driving down a gravel road in one of our four fine National Forests — Croatan, Uwharrie, Pisgah, and in the case of Ammons Branch, Nantahala — and...

Read more
Devils Fork State Park Camping

Located on the southern shores of Lake Joacassee, this would seem the ideal winter getaway for paddlers interested in exploring the the lake’s many fingers. And it is — for...

Read more
Big Ivy Area Camping

The Big Ivy Area — “big ivy” is what the locals call mountain laurel — is one of those areas you may have scoped out on a map — the...

Read more
Blue Valley, Panthertown Camping

Looking for a cheap mountain getaway this winter? Highlands and Panthertown Valley are not much more than 10 miles from the roadside campsites along Blue Valley Road. Primitive, yes, but...

Read more
Burrells Ford Camping

Johnny Malloy, in his “The Best in Tent Camping: The Carolinas” (see below), writes evocatively of this primitive escape on the edge of the Ellicott Rock Wilderness: “The Chattooga runs...

Read more
Davidson River Campground

Davidson River is a great winter campground for several reasons. One, the gate is open late, allowing you to spend those long, cold, dark winter nights in town. Two, there’s...

Read more
Winter Car Camping Trips

A sad thing about car camping in the high country of the Carolinas: come mid to late fall the campgrounds all go into hibernation. Well, not all of them, exactly....

Read more
Storage and Care of Backpacking Equipment

The gear we sell at Great Outdoor Provision Co. is made to last many years of hard wilderness use. While outdoor gear has to take all sorts of knocks, abrasion,...

Read more
Leave No Trace 2.0

Get in. Get out. Leave behind nothing but…nothing. That’s the philosophy behind LNT—Leave No Trace—backcountry travel. No one wants to bust their chops to get to the back of beyond...

Read more
NC State Park Online Reservations

Call 1-877-7-CAMP-NC or select a park at www.ncparks.gov.

Read more
Therm-a-Rest NeoAir - UltraLight Comfort

The NeoAir mattress represents the world’s most advanced engineering in ultralight comfort. Beyond being the lightest air mattress available, we’ve utilized two patent-pending internal technologies, making it up to three...

Read more
Preventing Hypothermia

by Bill Mauney There is a chill in the air on this crisp fall day. An explosion of bright hues rocks your senses as the golden rays of the rising...

Read more