Blog

You’re the anal type: you like the idea of getting away for a weekend escape, but you just don’t feel good about being completely detached from work. We’re not crazy...

How do you keep an 18,000-acre state park secret — so secret it doesn’t even show up on Google Maps? Hiding it in a surprisingly open area south of Morganton...

There are several winter camping options at New River State Park, a linear park following its namesake river and known for one thing: paddling. The Wagoner Road Access has 10...

Technically, yes, it’s a horse camp. But if they don’t mind, should you? Not once you see the 15-mile trail network that includes a pair of 7.5-mile loops. One climbs...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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....

Badin Lake Campground One of three campgrounds serving the popular Badin Lake area of the Uwharrie National Forest, you’ll find a trail for just about everything here. There are miles...

Stone Mountain is noteworthy on several fronts. For one, there are its catch-and-release trout waters. Then there’s nearly 17 miles of official trail exploring this rugged 14,100-acre park along the...

Grayson Highlands is the jumping off point to some of the best exploring in the East, period. Grayson Highlands and the adjoining Mount Rogers National Recreation Area are crossed by...

Like its sister Sauratown peak Hanging Rock, Pilot Mountain is a great weekend destination for the adventurous. The park’s west-facing cliffs are a popular top-roping destination for rock climbers, 25...