Lake Powhatan Campground

The campground is well managed. The restrooms are clean, the people are friendly and helpful. Cell service (Verizon) was spotty, but there was a "cell service area" in the campground that seemed to get a better signal most of the time.

We were fortunate to snag a full hook-up site (site 53) and it was relatively level, but somewhat difficult to back our rig in to as the angle of the drive, and the edge of the road, made turning and maneuvering somewhat challenging (and we're not novice campers).

We have a National Park Pass which provides for a 50% discount on camping (camp use fee only!).

We stayed here just prior to jumping on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We wanted an afternoon to explore Asheville and this provided the perfect location. While at the campground you would have no idea the the city was 15 minutes away!

We did not use the bathhouse but we did peak in! Clean and updated!

There is a lovely dock to fish from and a beach for swimming.

Our site had electricity.

This was our first time camping in the Asheville area. We chose this Pisgah National Forest campground because it was very reasonably priced and the sites were spaced out. Ourcheck in was very pleasant, we loved the very nice lady at the entrance.

The roads coming in felt very narrow. We were right near the bathrooms which were single units with a toilet and shower and relatively clean. Our site was very clean as well. The driveway was a little bumpy backing in. We didn't need any leveling blocks which was terrific! A level site is the best site.

We had absolutely no signal and since this was a forest, we couldn't use starlink. So we unfortunately had to travel out during the day to work. That was the only drawback. If you need internet, you might not be able to get it here.

Tons of mountain bike trails in the area if you are into that and close to Asheville.

I travelled here with a 35’ 5th wheel, long bed pickup and parked in site #38 Lakeside Loop, a FHU, BI site for $28/night with the America the Beautiful Senior pass (50% off the site fee but utilities were charged separately.) The roads and sites were asphalt and navigating was okay. The road was a little narrow so going around curves was a bit tight. This site was just off a curve in the road which made it harder to get into plus being an uphill push. It took me 2-3 tries to get the approach right. It was a lovely site once in there. It was plenty long for the rig and truck as well as being spacious. Nice trees for shade and there wasn’t another site really close by. It was a quiet campground even though it was spring break. There are lots of trails nearby for both hiking and biking. I didn’t have much connectivity at the site – texts would come in randomly and sometimes emails would show up but I couldn’t open them. There was a handful of OTA channels and no wifi. The bathhouse was clean with individual shower rooms and toilets (2 each.) There is a great grocery store 10-15 minutes away and an outlet mall nearby. The rangers and staff were really helpful when I had an issue with one of my front jacks. This will be my go-to park to stay at when visiting Asheville. I would probably choose site 36 or 37 on the Lakeside Loop or 21 on the Big John Loop.

This park is managed by the concessionaires, PisgahAdventures.com who have some of the best people I've ever dealt with in a federal government campground. Like a bonehead, I reserved a site without services, and the park has a 4 hour limit on running generators. I was concerned that it might be too hot, so, I went back up to the gate and asked if they had any sites with electricity. The nice ladies worked hard and got me a 'Host' site that had full hookups, for a few bucks more. Dude...score!

There are many sites without services and a few with hookups. There are 3 loops, and one loop has most of the hookups. There is a small lake where there is fishing and swimming. However, dogs are not allowed on the swimming beach. There are many bike and hiking trails nearby, both within the bark, and just outside.

There is no camp store. However, they sell ice and firewood ($10) at the gate. The only recycling are aluminum cans.

GPS got us to the park, but I was suspect going through a residential area before arriving at the gate. There are a lot of sharp turns, hills and dips.

To get cell service, I drove a couple of miles outside the gate for 2 to 3 bars of 4G AT&T and 1 bar of 4G Verizon.

We went with our 4yo son in mid February. Everyone had a good time. The heated bathrooms and shower rooms made all the difference. And the showers put out hot water and were free! The water pressure wasn’t good but you’ll be able to get clean.

Bent Creek trails are all around the campground, so if you’re into mountain biking then this is a great place to camp. The lots at trail heads were filling up by 11am, but you can get to most of them in a couple minutes by bike from your site.

It is very close the Asheville, which is another great feature when winter camping. No need to cook and eat dinner out in the cold when there are hundreds of great places to eat just 20 minutes away.

I definitely want to come back and check out more of Pisgah and this seems like a great place to do it.

Lake Powhatan Campground is beautiful - very dense trees and canopy made the overall campground very quiet. I was able to hike around a little bit, but take note that this is a mountain biking destination - almost all trails will have bikers on it, and they are all heavily trafficked. If you want to walk the loops and drop down the beach area you can still get some good exercise in. Easily accessible campground, and you are very close to stores nearby if needed. The campground map/reservation system has a well-marked legend, and it has a ton of variety in what amenities site could have - make sure to pay attention to each designation! One downside - zero connectivity (VZW) for a campground so close to civilization, and no WiFi.

PROS
Discounted camp fee with senior pass
Reserved 169 days prior to arriving
Friendly and helpful gate attendant
Nearly 100% shade at each site
Excellent dark sky viewing
Private sites with large space along with vegetation between sites
Very quiet
Asphalt parking pad surrounded with bean size gravel
Concrete picnic table
Metal fire pit with cooking grate 2 hook lantern pole
Electric at water connection for heated water hose connection
Recycle bins in campground loop
Trash dumpsters immediately out of campground loop
Firewood for sale but gate attendant told us to buy at Ingles
(grocery store) where it is$3 bundle cheaper and we did!
Next to North Carolina Arboretum
Close to Asheville Outlet Mall and Camping World

CONS
3 bear sitings a day prior to our arrival in campground, according to gate attendant
No overnight gate closure even tho RULES proved at check-in stated gates closed at 10pm, but no open hours in RULES
Lakeview site 38 not level
Up hill sewer connection at Lakeview site 38
Fire ring not cleared of ash upon our arrival
Non-moveable concrete picnic table and beyond camper awning
2 toilets and 2 showers for entire Lakeview Loop (21 campsites). There were lines!
Low hanging tree branches over roadways and roadside tree branches over roadways so it was a maneuvering obstacle challenge to not scrape camper roof and sides
Campground roads narrow with tight curves along with roadway asphalt dropped off to steep shoulders; could be challenging to novice rig drivers (as we witnessed that more than once)
Two-and- a-half-mile drive on a twisty hilly road through residential neighborhood to get to the campground
No WiFi
1 bar Verizon

We were pleasantly surprised with this campground. We didn’t have any issues getting to the campground as far as directions (we had them pre loaded on the phone) or the roads being too narrow, we did have to avoid one low tree branch though.

I booked a little last minute so we ended up with site 004 in the Big John loop. It had electric but that’s it. It was big enough for our 34ft camper but we were barely able to squeeze the truck horizontally in front of it to keep it out of the road but also not in our way. It was pretty far from the 2 side neighbors but the one across was somewhat close. That campsite is one of the hosts so they were at least nice. Behind the camper was just woods which was nice for our dogs to potty and they loved watching the chipmunks out of the window. The bathrooms were right across the street but not close enough to be annoying. We ended up using the facilities the entire time because they were so nice and convenient. There are 2 separate bathrooms with just toilet and sink and then there are 2 separate shower rooms. There is no water temperature control and you have to keep hitting the button to keep it running but the temperature is nice and warm. There are also heaters in all the rooms.

There was basically no cell service for us with Verizon. Every once in a while if we put the phone in the right place in the window we could get the tiniest amount of signal. We did however also have a tablet with FirstNet and it worked well enough to download videos to watch and we also used it as a hotspot to browse the internet on our phones.

The best part about this campground is how close it is to so many trails and to downtown Asheville. You can walk to many trails and make a day of it. I would definitely come back and try to snag a more secluded campsite with full hookups next time. But even still, it was peaceful enough to sit out and drink coffee in the mornings with little disturbance in the campsite we had. We would have stayed longer if we could have!