Great Smoky Mountains: Deep Creek Campground

In an effort to stick a fork in our Cumberland Gap/Deep Creek adventure, let’s wrap up the whole series with my thoughts on the Deep Creek campground…just in case you feel like visiting.

Big picture…

The Deep Creek unit as a whole is certainly worth a visit. As I detailed last time, the trails provided wonderful scenery and variety. And that’s only the ones we explored. We truly barely put a bootmark in the miles to be discovered there and the campground provides a great starting place to check them out.

Also, with Deep Creek running right the campground, the scenery is not only refreshing but invigorating and a great way to keep the kids entertained while you’re cooking dinner and such.

So apparently I didn't take many pictures of the campground. You'll have to use your imagination on this one but here's a shot of Fred and Dobby at the campsite.

Getting your camping on…

There are two areas of front-country camping at Deep Creek, the larger RV/Popup sites and the tent sites. We opted for the tent sites to soak up the granola goodness of being able to listen to the babbling of Deep Creek day and night.

The catch here is that the tent pads are extremely close together in that section. During high visitation (like the peak at Independence Day), you will get to know your neighbors. The close proximity of the pads also means that you will have people tromping through your site to get to the comfort station and creek. There’s really no way around it so you’ll have to set aside any notions of personal space in the summer months. Again, given the timing of our trip, there were only a handful of campers so we were all able to spread out and enjoy the extra space without cramping anyone’s style.

Now, given my post about Bryson City, you might think that we have no issues with lack of personal space. While I certainly love getting to know folks, it does put an awkward pressure on people when every utterance, opening zipper, etc. is going to disturb a neighbor’s slumber and vice versa.

In spite of the up-close-and-personal nature of the tent sites, the pads were quite nicely leveled and slightly elevated which is wonderful for drainage in wet weather…which, as you know, we had. Now, a year ago we would have had no problem in our smaller tent, but Big Anges was a bit oversized for the tent pad that was probably a 12×12 footer. We managed to angle her enough to make it work but it did require some ingenuity. Agnes is a big girl after all.

Alternatives…

Tents are allowed in the larger sites which are more traditional in their spacing but you will have to give up the creekside location since they are on a different loop of the campground. At this unit, none of the sites, regardless of location, has water and only a couple have low-amp service for medical needs. So the only real issue to weigh is space vs. creek proximity.

And, as I mentioned earlier, showers are a no-go here. The comfort station is basic in that there are toilets and sinks which is really quite easy to get by with if you adjust your expectations. If you simply can’t do without a shower, there are several commercial outfits just outside the park entrance who will happily set you up with one for a fee.

Final thoughts…

I hope you’ll give the Deep Creek unit a visit if you find yourself in the area. The accommodations are simple but certainly adequate. In fact, it’s the simplicity that let’s you fully detox from the complexity of our modern lives. It’s a great place to recharge your batteries and Vitamin N as Rich Louv would say.

Where do you like to go to simplify?

And now for your moment of green…

All sorts of lush, southern mossy goodness at Deep Creek in North Carolina.