South Mountains State Park

We had a site right along the river - so lovely! This is a small campground, and sites are also on the small side. But it's a lovely wooded campground with the river and great hiking right from the campground.

South Mountain State Park is one of our favorite SP to visit. They have three electric sites, but they fill quickly. There is a separate camping area for horses/ trailers. With barns and electricity. The majority of the campsites are tent area. The bath house has three stalls and three showers each, and a family bathroom.

There are amazing hiking trails and a beautiful creek for wading and playing. If you enjoy trout fishing, the waters are delayed harvest, and offer excellent fly fishing opportunity Oct to June.

You can get cell service at the visitor center with Verizon. They have a small museum, visitor center and store with carries ice and firewood. Assorted t shirts, tent stakes, etc. can be purchased here. They do not sell LP bottles or refill LP. The closest stores are about twenty minutes away in Morganton, so plan accordingly.

I highly recommend South Mountain for a great "back to nature" experience. While offering a few creature comforts and still being able to disconnect from the world.

Clean park used mostly by hikers and backpackers, but there is a small drive-in campground with only two electric sites. There are no other hookups. We really enjoyed our stay. Our shaded site was beside a babbling stream, with hiking trails beginning at the other end of the parking lot. Learned the hard way to believe the documentation that rates the difficulty of the trails. The hike to the waterfall was definitely strenuous. This park will be on our list to revisit. The only communications with the outside in this area were texts.

Many different back pack camping sites through out the park. In the "family" campground, there are only 18 sites most of which are tent ready or van or very small camper. Two sites are pull through electric only and one tent site has electric for the disabled. No dump station. Beautiful creek runs beside most of the sites. I would stay under 30 feet at this park. Visitor center was nice with a small museum. Bath house was a bit dated but clean looking. The park is packed on weekends with day use visitors. Rangers make their rounds regularly. Most of the trails are difficult for the casual hiker. There is a horse barn and camping for the equestrian folks. Cell service is almost non existent in most of the park. Verizon would not work at all at our site but AT&T would do voice, text, email, and could look at weather radar with a cellular booster. If trails are your thing, this park is for you.

Lovely park, spacious and clean. There are trails you can walk to right from the campground. The trails are beautiful and there’s a gorgeous waterfall.
Only a few electric sites that book up. We stayed at a dry site which was no problem because there’s water spigots year round.
Several sites were right on the river which were really beautiful!

FYI site 16 claimed up to a 25 foot RV but that size would only work if you have a curved trailer/RV since its in the shape of a C. Our 23 foot airstream had trouble getting into site 16 due to the curve backing in. (We probably could have done it if we spent a bunch of time pulling forward and backing in) but there were other open spots and ranger was very nice and helped us switch to another site (13) that was more straight to back into.
Sites 15 and 14 and 13 were more straight and easier to get into.

No cell service for AT&T or Verizon in the campground, but some of the trails we were able to get 1 bar and get a text out.

Bathhouse was clean and seemed newer. Lots of hot water. Overall impressed with facilities, trails, natural beauty and ease of access to everything.
We loved this park and will be back!!

We were really impressed with this park. The CG is small but the sites are really nice. The bathhouse is the nicest we've seen in a CG! A beautiful building and clean. Great trails that leave from the CG. We were there mid-week in May and there were empty sites. You're supposed to reserve ahead of time but we showed up without a reservation and were able to register and pay at the visitor center (cash only). No cell service at the CG but 1 bar Verizon at the visitor center. The campsite cost $26 but seniors get a discount and pay $20.