Nice review. That's my backyard. I live in Old Fort and volunteer for the U.S.F.S. I am up there everyday. It's a beautiful area. All the lower sites ( 1-24 )are pay to camp. Then there are the six dispersed sites which are free. Once you pass the last bridge beyond site number six camping is allowed anywhere. I've been volunteering there for seven years. I hosted for two years. It's a hidden Gem. The Gateway trailhead is new. It just opened a few weeks ago. It offers more hiking and biking trails. Lots of parking and pit toilets. Once yo get up to the campground area it is considered a wild trout fishery. Below is stocked. The fishing is excellent . I'm heading up there right now. It's my home away from home.
Have driven along that mountain road several times...true, Dispersed camping is generally always filled up Friday - Sunday. And will have some camping during the week. Glad you showed the terminus with the BRP...I had never driven it all the way to the Parkway.
Thank you kindly! Glad you like it. I need to use that more than I have. At the price I have paid for drones and the amount I have used them, that clip probably was worth $300. lol
Just subscribed! Like your channel. Been looking for campgrounds to the east, mostly head west, I live in SW Missouri so I tend to go that direction. Just got back from Big Bend NP, Guadalupe NP, White Sands NP and a week tent camping outside of Cloudcroft NM. I went to Lee's McRae college in Banner Elk in 73 and back packed all over Linville Gorge and other places. But now I tent camp out of my car around the country for a week or a month or more at a time. Thanks for reminding me of that neck of the woods! Just planned a trip that direction after watching your video! Take care and have fun.
You will be glad you came back! Its the most beautiful part of the country without all the problems of drought, fire, and flash floods. Let us know where you end up and what you think!
@@GoingNoWhereFast i will thanks! I think I can get back there between a pre-planned Great Lakes camping trip and a Oregon/Washington beach trip, depends on weather lol
Rick, did you bring "Liner" your camper? Did you camp? I mean this incredibly well-named creek area is very beautiful, but I was left wondering where you stayed, because you didn't show your trailer nor a camp. Being a fan of A-frame trailers and dogs, I always like to see both of them when I tune into your channel.
Sorry, not this time. We do a lot of exploring to find the best camping areas. And this was just one of those trips. The last two years the forest service has been closing off the dispersed camped sites with large rocks to keep out RV's and reduce soil and forest damage. So I've been scouting the areas more to find good ones, and this area was really all tenting, no room for the Aliner.
The pay sites are all the same, no matter what you camp in.. I think I said in the beginning they were $10, go to the part of the video where I'm parked at the pay station.
Spectacular drone footage and an Akela sighting, what more do you need for a great video! Thanks for showing us what the campsites look like in that area.
We have gone there three weeks in a row and many other times in the past! The free spot that we use has us sleeping less than 20 yards from the water. We've walked the nearly the entire creek within the campground and we've gone to the nearby waterfall that's found after an incredible, moderate hike from the pay sites. Thank you so much for covering but I'll admit I cringed a bit --- the site we found is perfect and we've come to feel like not many know about it lol. That road to the parkway is scarier than hell if you're from up north and not accustomed to narrow, winding gravel roads. If you look at a topographical map, you can reach the origin of Curtis Creek! Old Fort is only about 25 minutes from Asheville. The in-laws live there. We're in Marion and I work in Hickory. We've lived in the city,the country, near the beach, in the burbs and in the mountains and we wouldn't leave the mountains for anything!
I Agree, People who don't love the mountains, don't know the mountains. Love every minute! And being a small channel, with most of my viewers in their 50's and above, I wouldn't worry about these treasured spots being suddenly over run!! 😁 Thanks for the great comment !
It seems to me, the reservable places are filling up fast, but the first come fist serve are still have open spots. This place was full in the reservations, Standing Indian was, but the first come first served had openings, so I look for those places now and have a back up plan in case they are full..lol
Pretty nice area but as you said, crowded. That's why I like being retired, arrive at a campground on Sunday and they are usually pretty empty until Friday afternoon!
Absolutely!! Sunday through Thursday are the best days to camp. I like to boondock free camp during the week though, and use reserved camping spots for weekends with facilities. Just have to know the best sites to reserve!
They had a fire that swept through the underbrush late 2020. It should have cleaned up a lot of the ticks for a few years. But a great area for fall hiking.
