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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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,...
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...
NC State Park Online Reservations
Call 1-877-7-CAMP-NC or select a park at www.ncparks.gov.
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...
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...