Lake Norman State Park Campground

Arrived around 4 and got the last site. We were able to get our 45' fifth wheel in the site without much issue. Site was a bit unlevel front to back, but autolevel handled it fine. Each site has a great pad for picnic table and fireplace and enough privacy to not be obtrusive. Deer in the campground will walk right up to you.

The facilities were clean and new and were amazing, however the water pressure on the men's side was unusable. So low of flow that only 1/3 of the shower head had water flowing from it. Otherwise it was fantastic.

We have both at&t and Tmobile as we work and school from the RV. AT&T was voice only and tmobile was hit and miss. Download would bounce between 5 mbps and 100 mbps regularly, but upload speeds were terrible the whole time, ranging from 1-7 mbps.

Getting to the campground is a pretty drive, but it winds on and on. At a lot of state parks the drive in feels long because it is wooded and unfamiliar, but this drive in is LONG. Camp host was on top of meeting for checkin, since there's no check in gate, but almost too quick, as she came up while we were trying to back in. I realize this is likely to avoid walk ins from getting into sites that are booked, but visitors during backing in are never fun.

We stayed here for 3 nights in late September as we wanted to be somewhat close to Charlotte and wanted to check out this state park. The FHU sites are in an area with very few trees - seems they took out the trees to make the sites. The dry sites are in the trees so we couldn't get enough solar so had to run our generator off & on. We had read the sites aren't very level - very true! We had to raise up pretty high on our passenger side and ended up staying connected to our tow vehicle as it was a bit sketchy... our trailer is less than 22' - can't imagine something larger than that trying to get level in most of the dry sites. So yes, read the descriptions of the dry sites if you have a RV.
We had a bit of a lake view - nothing fantastic, but it was quiet and lots of trees behind us.
I waivered between 3 & 4 stars, because it just a basic campground.
We are full-time so have been to a lot of campgrounds!

Arrival - No check-in kiosk but, your site should be clearly marked by the host as being reserved. The host did come by soon after arrival to provide us with a parking pass, maps, and option to purchase firewood.

Tips - If you are coming through Troutman, allow for extra time as traffic was particularly bad with the multiple roads going from two to one lane. If you don't have to go through Troutman, don't. Pay very close attention to the signs leading to the "Family Camp." Don't make the mistake of turning into the "Group Camping" area. Bring your own firewood, the bunks available are expensive and hardwoods. If you are a Starlinker, be aware that the track for the LEO satellites is NW (316 deg) to SE (130 deg) so you're going to want to chose your site accordingly; site 35 worked very well with 5G connection speeds @ or around 150Mbps down.

Favorites - Scenery and the site. Beautiful maples, ash, and pines. Lots of deer. FHU large well-kept back-in site with plenty of room for the tow vehicle.

Negatives - Signage coming into the camping area, easy to turn into the wrong area.

This is a lovely camping setting. Do read the reviews on the cons and the details on each campsite at the reservation site. Many campsites slope downhill or uphill in the non hook up area where we were. Typically the ones on the outside slope down and the ones on the inside slope up. BUT there are exceptions to this on both sides. We were in site 21 which was fairly even front to back, but we did have to level side to side.

The pad area is paved and lined with low brown posts that are a tripping hazard in many sites. The fire pit areas are level and so are the tent platforms.

This park is about 10 miles off of I-77, so get gas and food before you come. We came in via 150, which looks like a country road to avoid Charlotte. I don’t recommend coming that way because it’s a very congested area with lots of new houses, etc. It’s now the suburbs to Charlotte. Try to come from the north or east. There should be less traffic.

Pros: Lake Norman is a beautiful state park with mature trees, beach access to the lake and some hiking trails. The campsites have a lot of space between them. Sites have a picnic table, fire pit, and a trash hanger. All sites have a paved driveway. The bath house is the nicest I’ve seen at a campground, granite counters and slate tile floors. There are cute cabins to rent that have two rooms; bunk room and a full size bed area. They do not have a bathroom, kitchen or indoor dining table. They are well made and two years old.
Cons: All campsites are badly sloped, even the new ones. There are drainage issues and puddling at the campsites. The water pressure is 40psi and the spigots are hard to use. Some sites have full hook ups, but most are primitive. They do have a dump station. Some of the sites with sewer hook up are so sloped that the hose drains uphill. Because the sites aren’t level, it is not suited for larger campers. The grass/weeds around the sites looks like it has never been mowed. The picnic area is crushed granite and is worse than sand. It gets in your shoes, in your RV, everywhere. It also holds the water when it rains. After each rain storm all these pads had water, even the tent pads. Now for my biggest concern and I voiced it to two park rangers. They have non-registered campers driving through the campground all day. The average was six cars an hour. They often drove faster than the speed limit too. I worry about safety and theft with that many cars driving thru. If some of these issues were addressed we would return. As it is now we can not recommend this state park campground, which is unfortunate because it is a beautiful setting. It could be 5 stars.

There are two parts to the campground. An older loop with no hookups and a loop that is two years old with full hookups. We were in the new section.

As we’re just passing through our desire was to stay hitched up, but that was not to be as the sites have a lot of slope (tongue up). So we had to unhitch. Long distance to the sewer hookup required an extension. Cleanup in the morning was a disaster as the entire hillside is clay mud that gets all over everything and drained directly into our site. Other sites seemed drier so pick accordingly.

Despite all this we loved the campground. We’d stay again just in a different site.

MTB trails, which are abundant, were closed due to mud.

The facilities were probably the nicest I’ve ever seen at a SP.

This is a really nice little park. Clean, paved site with fire ring and piniic table. Bathouse is beautiful and well kept. Our site was FHU but most were no hook ups. Many sites were up or down a hill. Very few RV appropriate sites. Our main complaint was the convoluted route to the park. That is why I rated it a 3 plus how few big rig friendly sites are available.

Nice, large park, with new bathroom facilities and cute little cabins. The sites with power and water (for rvs) are pretty disappointing - middle of open field, no privacy, views of roads, close to each other. We have a small trailer, 19ft, and chose instead to do a tent site (no power, water, nothing). Most of them overlook the lake, have significant space between them, have great tree canopy. These sites are paved, but uneven and very narrow so anything bigger than a 19 would be challenging. The park has limited activities despite its size - one hiking trail, the lake (which granted, is vast and you can do all water sports), and mountain bike trails. You have to drive to bike trails from campsite as well as drive somewhere if you want to drop you own canoe or kayak. Considering park size, this makes no sense.