North Carolina southern mountains

[Sculptor]

We stopped here in the southern Appalachian mountains for a couple of weeks.  I didn’t see much in this forum so I wanted to jot some of it down. 
Most of the campgrounds we have seen are small, apparently to make room for the mountains all around.  Call ahead.  One campground I called, insisted they had big rigs stay there often.  We drove through in our car and found it would have been a no go.

We found a very nice campground that Is big rig friendly.  We are about 60 feet total.  We fit our 36 fifth wheel in with a bit of room to spare.  The sites are average width, so with both slides out there is just enough room for a fire ring and picnic table.  No pull throughs that I am aware of.  Our HDT is parked in the overflow a short distance away.  This is a very nice and well kept park.  The hosts are very welcoming and helpful.  

Be aware there are mountains here.  There will be some long grades so my advice to anyone is to slow down.

The Great Outdoors RV Resort 
Franklin has much in the way of daily shopping needs, with a nice little downtown for specialty shops. There are a few restaurants but we have not tried most of them.  Rollie Polie Pollies was good.  Avoid Fat Buddies BBQ.  Franklin is roughly central to many mountain towns.  Silva, Dillsboro, Bryson City, Cherokee, Highlands, and further out, Cashiers and Murphy.  

The main 2 lane highways are often very tight and curvy, not recommended for a long rig.  We seldom saw semis on these roads.  We traveled NC 64 3 or 4 times but in our car.  We also drove 19 to Nantahala.  These are both very scenic and I highly recommend them, but with a car not an RV.

Highlights include: The Smokey Mountain railway and museum, Harrahs Casino, high end shopping in Highlands, fly fishing and outdoor outfitters in many towns, seemingly endless hiking, rapids, rivers, many waterfalls.
Not comprehensive, but this might help for planning.

 

 

 

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

Nice! Haven't been that way in a year.  I agree that some of the area is not big rig friendly.  Most of the parks were built in the 1950's-1970's and are sized for that era rigs.

 

[Sculptor]

34 minutes ago, Alie&Jim's Carrilite said:

Nice! Haven't been that way in a year.  I agree that some of the area is not big rig friendly.  Most of the parks were built in the 1950's-1970's and are sized for that era rigs.

 

There was one we saw across the river that looked sizable, but we were across the river so didn’t drive through it.  All others we saw were just as you describe, they looked like storage lots not campgrounds.  🙂