James River State Park Campground

This campground surprised us! It is 30-40 min from Lynchburg, and getting there we traveled long winding, but paved roads. It was worth it!!
Aesthetically, the campground was awesome. Beautiful setting amongst the trees. Appropriately spaced sites. Our site was flat, and well maintained. There were individual bathhouses which was a welcome finding. They were very clean as were the bathrooms! The laundry room was also a pleasant surprise! $1.25 to wash a load, and $1.25 to dry! Again it was clean, and well maintained!

James River State Park is a quiet gem located in quintessential central Virginia. This park is quite secluded but there are simple services (gas station, general store) located about 7 miles from the park entrance.

We booked a last minute site in late May that was likely a recent cancelation. From my research (Google Earth) I knew it was a buddy site, which I generally do not care for, but hey, it was an available site. We stayed at Red Oak Campground Site #31 with our 25' TT. It was a tight squeeze getting it in as the 40' of driveway indicated in the reservation did not clarify that the first 15' was shared with Site #30. I was able to park at an angle, so no biggie. The site was gravel and perfectly level (side to side) so I didn't even need any leveling blocks!

We took our eBikes to the Tye Overlook at sunset and it was beautiful and highly recommended.

One interesting note- it seems that, at least the weekend we were there, most of the campers knew each other and there was a lot of socializing between sites. It was definitely an older crowd at Red Oak, which is probably why it was so quiet- very few children. Essentially, I was getting a retirement campground vibe.

There are many large cabins, some with fantastic views of the mountains. A boat launch and horse only campground are also important facilities at this park.

Nearby attractions include the Blue Ridge Rail Trail, ue Mountain Brewery and several wineries.

Best sites: 5, 7, 10, 14, 18, 27, 31(buddy site)

Note: Cell signal review based on use of the WeBoost RV65 kit. I was able to get 3 bars of Sprint 4G LTE at the site. It is 2 bars of 3G with no booster in the campground. Other areas of the park you can get 4G LTE without a booster.

Visited in February when most of the campgrounds and cabins were closed. Primitive campsites still open. Stayed in site #1 on Branch Pond Road as it was the only one with enough space for my 22ft long truck. Sites 2-7 in this area only have enough space for a single passenger vehicle to park. The sites on Branch Pond Road were well maintained with an elevated and leveled tent pad, table, fire ring and pole to hang your food bag (bears are a real concern here). No water. Pit toilet. Before making camp I was able to recharge some batteries by plugging into an exterior outlet at the bathrooms next to amphitheater (this may be frowned upon by the park staff but none came through during that time so I didn't ask permission/forgiveness).
I didn't explore the other camping areas since they were closed during the winter. The rest of the park was beautiful. The trails we all in excellent shape and primarily wide and smooth. Hardest part of any of the trails would be the elevation changes (hills) which were generally minor.
I did not get any cell service in the park using AT&T and an iPhone 11. Some signal was available at the entrance/fee station but nothing once you went into the park.
I expect during peak season the park has a much different vibe but in the winter/off-season it's a great escape.

Nice little campground and our 40’ coach fit OK. The drive in is a little narrow, but only a problem with oncoming traffic. Sites were fairly level, but not perfect. Sites are packed pea-gravel, but during rain (we had a lot), the packed gravel dust/dirt splashed onto our rig quite a bit. In heavy rain, the sites get pretty mucky. Each site was nicely situated and most are very private, but there are a few that would work well for groups that want to be close to each other. Each site has a good table, OK fire pit and a nice lantern hanger. Bath house was very nice, especially the showers which are private rooms vs. group showers (no vanity or power in the shower area however). It’s a bit of a drive from pretty much everywhere, but if you are looking for a nice campground to escape to, this is a good location.

We stayed 1 night at this campground and hope to return again for tubing on the river. The river was above flood level and not safe for water sports during our stay.

Campground is well laid out with some privacy between most sites. Any site looked like it would be easy to get equipment level and most will accommodate large rigs. Bath house was clean (cleaned extra times per day this summer during the Covid-19 pandemic.) Electric and water at each site and a dump station at the entrance to the park. There is a nice educational nature center open on the weekends.

There are also a limited number of hike-in sites outside of the main campground.

This is an International Dark Sky Park. While hands-on ranger interpretative events were cancelled during our stay due to the Covid-19, the park provided written information about the night sky for the current month to campers.

The only downfall we found was that the road to the park was narrow and vehicles traveled fast on it. It was a little concerning towing.

We have x-finity cell phone which claims to use Verizon towers. I had 2 bars of service at the campground.

We've done a lot of day trips to James River State Park and finally had the opportunity to camp July 11-13, 2019.

We were able to check in early and chose a site with partial shade close to the bathhouse.

Everyone was very helpful and accommodating, and even though I didn't have (AT&T) cell service at our campsite (we had limited service on our Sprint phone), there's Wi-Fi available at the visitor's center that I was able to connect to. (The center closes at 4 pm, so if you need to check in, do so during the day!)

Our site was huge and level, and it was nice to be out in the middle of nowhere and have water and electric service.

We checked at the canoe livery about renting tubes, but since the river was running fast they couldn't rent them (liability issues?) Lots of other folks who'd brought their own tubes were out on the water.

For more information, you can check my blog post about our experience:
http://www.art-rageous.net/artrageousblog/?p=4374

Only thing really missing was a good place to swim, given that it was incredibly hot and humid when we were there. Having a beach area along the river or a pool would have been perfect!