Johnny Molloy - Best Tent Camping: The Carolinas: Your Car-Camping Guide to Scenic Beauty, the Sounds of Nature, and an Escape from Civilization

This book is for residents of North Carolina and South Carolina who enjoy some great places to live, work, and tent camp.

Best Tent Camping: The Carolinas

Copyright 2019 by Johnny Molloy

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

Published by Menasha Ridge Press

Distributed by Publishers Group West

Fourth edition, first printing

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Molloy, Johnny, 1961- author.

Title: Best tent camping. The Carolinas : your car-camping guide to scenic beauty, the sounds of nature, and an escape from civilization / Johnny Molloy. Other titles: Carolinas : a guide for car campers who hate RVs, concrete slabs, and loud portable stereos

Description: Fourth Edition. | Birmingham, Alabama : Menasha Ridge Press, an imprint of AdventureKEEN, [2019] | This book is for residents of North Carolina and South Carolina who enjoy some great places to live, work, and tent camp. | Distributed by Publishers Group WestT.p. verso.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018038111| ISBN 9781634041515 (paperback) | ISBN 9781634042918 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: CampingNorth CarolinaGuidebooks. | Camp sites, facilities, etc.North CarolinaGuidebooks. | North CarolinaGuidebooks. | CampingSouth CarolinaGuidebooks. | Camp sites, facilities, etc.South CarolinaGuidebooks. | South CarolinaGuidebooks.

Classification: LCC GV191.42.N2 M65 2019 | DDC 796.540975dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038111

Cover and book design: Jonathan Norberg

Cover photo: The spillway at Old Levi Mill Lake in Poinsett State Park (), Johnny Molloy; inset photo Guy J. Sagi/Shutterstock

Interior photos by Johnny Molloy unless otherwise noted on page and as follows:

Maps by Steve Jones

MENASHA RIDGE PRESS
An imprint of AdventureKEEN
2204 First Ave. S, Ste. 102
Birmingham, AL 35233
800-443-7227, fax 205-326-1012

Visit menasharidge.com for a complete listing of our books and for ordering information. Contact us at our website, at facebook.com/menasharidge, or at twitter.com/menasharidge with questions or comments. To find out more about who we are and what were doing, visit blog.menasharidge.com.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank all of the land managers of North Carolinas and South Carolinas state parks and forests, as well as the folks at the national forests, for helping me in the research and writing of this book. Thanks to Sierra Designs for providing me with a high-quality tent in which to camp, night after night after night.

My biggest thanks of all goes to the people of North Carolina and South Carolina. They have beautiful and historic states in which to tent camp.

An Appalachian vista from the Mount Mitchell observation tower (see )

PREFACE

As a proud Southerner who believes that our region is the most beautiful in our great country, I jumped at the chance to write Best Tent Camping: The Carolinas. And for the fourth edition, I was eager to update the campgrounds in these great states. Having extensively explored the outdoors and written about North and South Carolina, I looked at writing this book as an opportunity to thoroughly and systematically explore the entirety of the two states, via tent camping, of course. With a Sierra Designs tent and laptop in my Jeep, combined with my past experiences, I took off, exploring by day and tent camping at night, breaking out the computer to type up on-site reports about each destination.

My high expectations were exceeded. I knew the islands and beaches were beautiful from past visits, but have you been to the Outer Banks in the fall, with a cool breeze and warm golden light spilling onto its sands? Have you gazed from the top of Mount Mitchell and looked upon the glory of the Southern Appalachians, or sought the distant horizon from the rock monoliths at Table Rock State Park? However, to me, what lay between the Atlantic beaches and the Appalachian range was most surprising.

In North Carolina, Merchants Millpond State Park features a swamp not unlike the famed Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia. The Lumber River also has dark water and is a federally designated wild and scenic river. The Piedmont has the Uwharrie National Forest, where hiking trails wind beneath verdant forested hills broken by clear streams. Pilot Mountain stands where the Piedmont meets the hills, and its cylindrical, flat-topped cone rises 1,400 feet above the surrounding landscape.

In South Carolina, the pleasant surprises start in the Francis Marion National Forest, just a few miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean. This locale offers a long stretch of the Palmetto Trail, a nature study amid wooded wetlands, and canoe routes through some of the least-trammeled terrain in the Palmetto State. Sand Hills State Forest harbors an ecosystem unique to the Carolinas. The varied tracts of the Sumter National Forest in the Midlands offer great recreational opportunities. The Buncombe Trail, now a South Carolina favorite of mine, circles sleepy Brick House Campground. Lick Fork Lake is an ideal mix of campground and land- and water-based recreation in an attractive setting. LeRoys Ferry Campground, operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is a quiet respite on big Thurmond Reservoir. And Poinsett State Park is an ecological wonder, with vegetation from the sand hills, the mountains, and the coast, all in one great destination.

Even the mountains offered some new surprises, such as the New River in the northwest corner of North Carolina. This ancient watercourse winds its way through steep hills, offering excellent canoeing and fishing for smallmouth bass. For forays onto the river, use the Wagoner Access Unit of New River State Park as a base camp. Primitive Honey Hill Recreation Area was my base camp for paddling and hiking the Francis Marion National Forest.

With the aid of the helpful folks at Menasha Ridge Press, this fourth edition, complete with updates, has now come to be. I made many wonderful memories along the way and expect to make many more in the Carolinas. I hope this tent-camping guide will help you make some memories of your own.

Johnny Molloy

Wild azaleas bloom along the shore of Lake Keowee (see ).

BEST CAMPGROUNDS