Linville Camping Trip - Day One!

 Hi all! So, as promised, I am going to write a little review/blog about our most recent trip camping in Linville, NC. Last year we decided to camp on Father's Day weekend, and decided to go again this year. It is a great time, weather-wise in NC to tent camp. It typically isn't too cold, and typically it doesn't rain a great amount in June (this week is an anomaly). So, in true Kayla-plan-ahead fashion, I had been working on an "itinerary" of sorts for about 2 weeks. I picked out some places to go, 2 state parks, hikes and overlooks that would be either on the way to our campsite or in the area that we could go to. I printed out the directions to the campsite, with some stops along the way, and the reverse directions. I know this is really old-school and some people would shake their head at this, but I will say, when you are directionally challenged like I am, and you have no service, these print outs are a life saver, literally.

So we had most everything packed up on Thursday night to leave Friday morning around 7:30. We had our tent, our canopy and chairs, my sleeping pad, Tim and Zoey's sleeping bags, pillows, about 5 blankets, towels (swimming and showering), our kitchen supplies, fishing rods, our Blackstone griddle, our lights/lanterns, Uno cards, and our clothes. All of that seems pretty reasonable but we were packed to the brim. (We drive a 2023 4Runner for reference.) 

All packed up and ready to head out

Linville is about a 2 hour drive from our house, so not a terrible drive. We had tickets for Grandfather Mountain that morning, so that was our first stop - we had reserved tickets for 10am. Grandfather Mountain is one of the few state parks in North Carolina that charges for entry. Also, they encourage everyone to reserve/buy their tickets online. When you arrive they give you either a USB or a CD that guides you through the park. I really found this helpful since this was the first time we had visited the park. It lets you know where the stops are throughout the park, and what you can expect to see. 

The sign for the entrance to the park

The first stop along the way is a beautiful overlook. This is a great spot to get your first peak at the mountain, and to get a great photo (we had a little photoshoot, see below). Next stop is an area with bathrooms, picnic tables and a nice little nature walk (about half of a mile). While we were there we saw two little baby birds, which Google told us were Eastern Phoebes.

The next stop going up the mountain was to Spinx and Split Rock. These two rocks are older than the mountain itself and it is said that they were part of a rock formation older than the Appalachian mountains and higher elevation than Grandfather Mountain. It is said that the Sphinx rock weighs more than 2 million pounds, even though I am not sure how they would know that! These rocks are really worth a close look, and there are some great views near them as well. There is a little parking area where you can park and walk to the rocks.

                

    

The next stop is the Nature Museum and the Wildlife habitats. Inside there is a gift shop, a small little cafe, and some small nature exhibits. There is also some auditorium and classrooms for groups. The gift shop was kind of small but had a lot of cute stuff, all reasonably priced. We didn't get food at the cafe, but I found the prices a little high. If you are planning on eating while there, you probably should pack a lunch and just eat at one of the picnic tables in the park. At this location you can walk around and see the wildlife habitats as well. There are elk, a river otter, eagles, cougars and bears. Unfortunately, we were only able to see the elk, otter and eagles. The other animals were not able to be found in their exhibit. They do have presentations and feedings for the animals, so you can see the schedule for when the keepers will be having these. They all seemed very informative.

Elk munching 

Unfortunately, that is when our trip to Grandfather Mountain ended. The day we went, winds were very high and they actually ended up closing the Mile-High bridge, which I would argue is the main attraction at the park. The gate up to the bridge is right outside of the habitats, so we couldn't even continue up to see the other lookouts or go to the hiking trailheads. That was the big disappointment of the trip. We will be heading back eventually to go to the bridge, but despite having clear skies this trip, the wind was not in our favor. I would definitely encourage you to not buy your tickets way ahead of time and to really look at the weather, not just the temperature/rain. Also, the temperature on the mountain, and especially on the bridge, is going to be cooler than it is at the bottom of the park. So we cut our park trip early, and headed toward the campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I had spent some time looking for things to do while on the trip, so there were several overlooks I had pinned. I had Google Maps pulled up for the drive, and you can see in map mode all of the overlooks along the way.

View of Grandfather Mt.

View of Lost Cove Cliffs

While driving along the parkway, we ran up to Linville Falls, so we got out to stretch our legs and take a peak at what they had to offer. There is a little visitor center with some small-ish souvenirs and bathrooms. There are a couple of hikes from the visitor center - we chose to go to the Upper Falls and it was about a mile round trip. The hike wasn't too difficult, but because of the hills, I would say it is moderate. I found the waterfalls beautiful, but if you are looking for size, these aren't really that big.

After stretching our legs, we jumped back on the Blue Ridge Parkway for two more overlooks before reaching our campsite.

View of North Toe River Valley

Chestoa View

And we were off to the campsite to get everything set up. We stayed at Bear Den Campground, address was in Spruce Pine but it was very close to the town of Linville. The campground offers tent and RV sites and cabins. They have a lake with fishing and swimming, an arcade, playgrounds, laundry, and events. You can rent a golf cart from them, and you can buy firewood and ice at the campground. I will warn you, the campsites have gravel tent pads, so make sure you have a lot of cushion. I also found the sites rather close together, and you will not be very secluded. The campground advertises that they offer Wifi, but I wasn't ever able to use it, but that could have been my service as well (T-mobile). 

Our campsite, A41

The lake, looking at the swimming, beach area

After checking out the lake and doing a little bit of fishing, we went back to our site and hung out for a little while by the fire. Overall it was a very fun, and full first day. 

I decided to split the trip up in a couple of blog posts because there was so much, so I am sorry ahead of time. I hope you enjoy reading about our mini camping trip to Linville. Day one complete!

Us 3 at Grandfather Mountain!