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Friday, August 10, 2012

Pisgah National Forest


For a little change of scenery we loaded up the RV and are now parked at Mount Pisgah Campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The Blue Ridge Parkway has 9 campgrounds along its 469 mile length.  Mount Pisgah Campground is located at mile 408 toward the southern terminus of the parkway and is across the street from Pisgah Inn.  This is typical of a federal campground--no hook-ups at the sites.  There is a central water spigot and a dump station.  We were totally surprised to find showers in two of the restrooms. Those two restrooms look like they are new or recently renovated.


There are only a few sites large enough to accommodate our RV so we waited until after many schools in the area started and waited until the weekend was over.  We arrived early in the afternoon and had no trouble getting a site.


The campground has four loops--two for tents, one for vans, small trailers, and pop-up campers, and 1 for larger RVs for a total of 128 sites.  Because the campground was nowhere near full, we were told we could park anywhere except in the tent only loops.  There are both back-in and half-moon pull-thru sites, all of which are paved.  Many sites are on such a slope that it would be difficult to get level, especially in the RV loop.  We had to move from the first site we chose just for that reason.  Most sites are too short for our rig.  There may be 10 or so sites that would be suitable for larger RVs.


Mount Pisgah is located in the 500,000 acre Pisgah National Forest in western North Carolina near Asheville.  There are about 400 miles of trail in Pisgah and these trails are commonly referred to as the “Pisgah 400”.  Do you suppose there are folks out there trying to hike all 400 miles?

We came here for the hiking, of course.  There are trails which lead from the campground to Mt. Pisgah Picnic area on the Blue Ridge Parkway and from there on to Mt. Pisgah Trail.  Can’t get much more convenient than that.  The Mountains to the Sea Trail is also nearby.


The campground is located across the street from Pisgah Inn which also has a restaurant and gift shop.  I’ve already bought something for our new home at the gift shop and started my Christmas shopping.  I expect we’ll be dining at the restaurant one night while we’re here since I forgot to bring the meat for one of our evening meals I had planned for this week.

Rooms with a view
And what a view
The elevation here is around 5,000 feet.  We were hoping to escape the heat at the lower elevations and we’ve not been disappointed.  The daytime temperatures have been between the mid 60s to low 70s.  The nights are cool enough that we’re too chilly with the windows open.  However, like is so common in the mountains, we have gotten rain every day so far.


It has been a nice change of scenery and the hiking has been good.  We’re happy campers.

That’s all for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

4 comments:

  1. We camped there last fall and like you, had a difficult time finding a good site. Once we were settled, I enjoyed the walking while John had to stay in a nurse a cold.

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  2. nice to be out in the RV again!..enjoy your weekend!

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  3. We drove up to the Mt. Pisgah area when we were in the area in the spring...those roads going up are something else! Looks very relaxing, enjoy your cool nights!

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