Grandfather Campground

We stayed in B20 along a small steam and across the road from watauga River. When we got there and there were ruts & mud where it seemed previous campers got stuck. The site was covered with wood chips and somewhat damp. Overall pleasant stay but the rain came hard and our site filled with rain puddles- no proper drainage. Then when we broke camp & went to dump, we learned we must pay $10 to dump! Office said since we did not have full hookups we must pay. I could see this for random camper coming there only to dump, but a paid customer? Never encountered this fee in the 10 years we have been camping. Shower house clean. On the fence about staying there again- unless they fix drainage issues.

We have stayed here for the last 16 years but will not return; the campground has gone downhill in my opinion. The office staff are sullen and not customer oriented (no greetings, not friendly at all). To enter our site we had to cross a gully which during our stay was not repaired. The site(s) was overgrown with weeds and grass. The roads are gravel and our site being on the "main" road had lots of traffic kicking up dust. Most traffic being workers on ATVs and full timers, very few adhered to the 10 mph speed limit. The bathhouse near our site was partially closed (2 showers and laundry) because of rotten decking; the remaining 2 need deep cleaning. Wifi has weak signal. We were "kicked out" of the campground due to a worker and my husband arguing. He told the owner that he was threatened by my husband, not true, the worker confronted us first. The remainder of our payment was refunded and I cancelled next years reservation.

We stayed 3 nights on one of the creek side spots. They definitely need to keep the campground better mowed and weedeated. It is easy in and out with your rig. Quiet neighbors. One thing that was really annoying was the sewer connection. The huge log/timber that was bordering the site was directly in front of the connection. No way that you could maintain a down slope with your sewer hose on that site. Plus, it was in the very back of the site. Our sewer connection is mid way on the side and it took 3 hoses to reach it. And the water connection was at the very front. Came *this* close to our hose not reaching it. Overall the place needs updating. It could be an AWESOME campground, because the location is ideal.

Arrived to find a very grown up site, the lumber used to block the site off was rotten to the extent that simply stepping on it made it fall apart it had exposed pieces of rebar sticking up waiting to be step on and stuck in your foot or to puncture a tire.

The grass was grown up terribly, our fire pit was full of trash and has been taken over by weeds and grass - no way could we sit out in the weeds and enjoy a campfire.

Lots of permanent rigs on site however the one across from ours was in terrible shape and very unsightly.

Moving on to the checkout process there was no one from management there we were greeted by a very nice man who quickly blew me know he was just covering the front desk he apologized for our bad experience and assured me someone would be in touch on Monday. He said “sorry about the grass they told us not to cut as often due to the cost of gas”

Monday came and no one called so I called just prior to closing time the lady took my concerns agreed they were not cutting the grass as often. This reasoning was sort of a sore spot for me due to the fact we paid for extra gas to come camp there and had a less than desirable experience. She did tell me if we had told someone they would have sent someone to run the trimmer….let me point out that no less than 6 men on four wheelers wearing Tshirt that indicated they were STAFF came by us a number of times while we were out and looking over the site if they could not see the shape of that site was in need of some attention then I had to assume it was the standard. In the end she apologized for the experience but never made any offer of trying to make it better.

Our camping experience consisted of sitting in our camper no enjoyment of the mountain evening by the campfire,

Arrived to find a very grown up grassy/weedy site, the lumber used to block the site off was rotten to the extent that simply stepping on it made it fall apart it had exposed pieces of rebar sticking up waiting to be stepped on and stuck in your foot or to puncture a tire.

The grass was grown up terribly, our fire pit was full of trash and has been taken over by weeds and grass - no way could we sit out in the weeds and enjoy a campfire.

Lots of permanent rigs on site however the one across from ours was in terrible shape and very unsightly appeared to be abandoned

Moving on to the checkout process there was no one from management there we were greeted by a very nice man who quickly let me know he was just covering the front desk he apologized for our bad experience and assured me someone would be in touch on Monday. He said “sorry about the grass they told us not to cut as often due to the cost of gas”

Monday came and no one called so I called just prior to closing time the lady took my concerns agreed they were not cutting the grass as often. This reasoning was sort of a sore spot for me due to the fact we paid extra for gas to come camp there and had a less than desirable experience. She did tell me if we had told someone they would have sent someone to run the trimmer….let me point out that no less than 6 men on four wheelers wearing Tshirt that indicated they were STAFF came by us a number of times while we were out and looking over the site if they could not see the shape of that site was in need of some attention then I had to assume it was the standard. In the end she apologized for the experience but never made any offer of trying to make it better.

Our camping experience consisted of sitting in our camper no enjoyment of the mountain evening by the campfire, I will say this campground was very quiet and I hate it was not all that I wanted it to be.

The location is good situated between Boone and banner elk. Our site was up on a hill and fairly level. Internet was solid. The bathrooms in our area were dismal and neglected. They were never cleaned despite being close to the maintenance shed. The staff were pleasant but we got the impression ownership was not present or engaged in the details of thing like cleaning the bathrooms.

Pros:
The staff is great and friendly and responded very quickly during a flash flood and with clean up after
The location- so many activities and hikes nearby with grandfather mountain, the blue ridge parkway, beech and sugar mountains and a quick drive to Boone for anything you need
The views- if you are up on the hill you have great mountain views and the river front sites have river front views

Cons:
Overall this place needs a little TLC, it is a bit of a hodgepodge of random sites and cabins all over the place with seasonal sites randomly throughout the park. It also seemed like a lot of rigs were just being stored in sites with nothing set up outside and nobody there- but it’s possible people did this in preparation for the all the rain.
There are 3 bathhouses that are in completely different conditions- 1 is newly renovated but dark and the entire floor was always soaking wet, 1 is slated to be updated next and I would avoid at all costs, and one feels more like a state park bathroom- bare bones but functional and at least has light.
We were there when the leftovers from tropical storm Fred came through- with 4-8 inches of rain in 36-48 hours forecasted. We asked the workers when we arrived how the area does with flooding and they said it’s does get flash floods with heavy rains but usually just washes out the road a bit and does no major damage. Which turned out to be an accurate description- at the worst of it there was about 6 inches of water under the river front rigs and the staff knocked on all their doors at 9pm to get them out of there in case it got worse. 12 hours later they were already repairing the three sites that needed to be releveled and spreading gravel back on the road way.

Internet speeds were great with AT&T and Verizon other than it briefly dropped during the storm

This campground has a decent mix of long-term residents and weekend warriors. Weekends were full; it cleared out a lot during the week (this was in late April/early May).

Pros of this campground:
- Good Verizon cell
- GREAT location to tons of hiking, Boone, Blowing Rock, Grandfather Mountain
- Average cost (some campgrounds in this area are extremely expensive)
- Nice views ///

Cons of this campground:
- Laundry room was extremely dirty - dog hair lining the washers/dryers, garbage overflowing with lint full of dog hair.
- Laundry also overpriced at $3.50 per wash (and again, borderline disgusting - like, the machines were the dirtiest we have ever seen throughout our travels)
- Not too much room between sites, but we had a large field behind us where we let the kids run around, so we didn't mind too much.

Overall we would stay here again because of the location and strong cell signal for work. It was a good experience overall minus the laundry situation.