Grandfather Campground

Great folks running this campground. Open year round which is great for our needs. Perfect location to attractions yet still peaceful at night. Be patient as they are still rebuilding river sites due to the hurricane. The rest of the campground is still up and running though! Bonuses are the playground, open fields, and roads/trails to walk along.

We stayed here for the weekend to go skiing. We were in cabin #2, the cabin itself was cozy but dated. Everything worked and we had a great stay. My only real complaint was that the windows have either a film in-between the panes of mold in-between the panes it made it impossible to look out all but 3 windows.

Went for my 6 year anniversary with my boyfriend in Feb 2024 and it was magical. I talk about my trip there still almost everyday and it’s coming up on 7 months since I’ve been there. It was snowing and it was desolate. I’ll never forget my time here. Nice staff and I would go back in a heartbeat. Little update: My now fiancé (aka the boyfriend I referenced to in the first review) told me that this was the place where we had so much fun and shared such a great time that, in that moment, he decided he wanted to propose to me in the coming months. (Side note- Reviews mentioning how it’s not luxurious should know that this is a campground not a luxury hotel. I had the lowest tier cabin I could get and it was amazing. It had the absolute bare minimum and I was just as happy. Camping is supposed to be in the wilderness not some 5 diamond resort. I would walk in 10 degree temperatures while snowing to the bathroom and I still didn’t complain. I was just happy I had a place to go. 5 stars everyone don’t let any review upset that a campground is indeed a campground deter you to go somewhere else)

This campground is a perfect "Base of Operations", if you want to visit the Boone/Banner Elk/Linville area. You are centrally located to more trout streams than you can traverse in a month, awesome wineries, shopping, antiquing, skiing, zip lines, snow tubing, hiking trails, or just the scenery. If you can't find something around here to do, you're just not trying. The campground is clean, quiet, and easy to get to on 105 coming out of Boone. Honestly, you can't beat the price if you go "out of season". We stayed there in our camper (full hookups) 6 nights in May for a wedding and payed less than $300. You do the math for a descent hotel for 6 days in Boone or Banner Elk.

Our family has stayed at grandfather campground three different times. We have done tent camping and also stayed in two of the cabins. It's a nice, quiet, safe campground with a family atmosphere.

Things I liked about this campground were the proximity to Grandfather Mountain SP and the view of the mountain as I walked through the campground. Things I did not like were the lack of proper cleanliness (especially in the bathrooms). Our campsite had food left behind on the ground. Picking up papers on the floor in the bathrooms is not enough. The sinks need wiping down and the shower stalls definitely need some love. The tiles appeared to have mold. If you will be using the bathroom in your camper then this won’t be an issue. A NO Smoking sign should be placed in the bathrooms. There was a gentleman who constantly smoked in there (by the B sites). The floor in the laundry room was just as dirty when I left, as when I got there. The electric pedestal placement was super awkward on our site (B28). There is no gate at the entrance/exit. So, anyone can come in and out, making it feel not so secure. A good chunk of the sites are pretty close together (this may or may not bother some).

Great location close to alot of stuff. We camped from a Thursday-Monday. But with 3 people in one small camper we typically use the bathhouses for showers etc. The bathhouses were dirty when we arrived and were never cleaned during our whole stay. Trash cans in bathhouses overflowing, dirty showers, spiders, smelled like urine and even a random stick on the men’s urinal that stayed there the whole entire stay. Nice campground but won’t be back to do how dirty the bathhouses were… we camped by the river and even went up the hill to the other side of the campground and the bathhouses were the same way.