My husband, 85 year old father-in-law, and I stayed at Lake Powhatan Campground for 4 nights in early June 2019. All of the full hookup sites were taken so we stayed on the dry Hard Times Loop in a 26 ft travel trailer pulled by an extended cab 4wd pickup. It was great! The roads are asphalt all through the campground with gravel sites. Our site was nice and level with a fire circle and picnic table. We were within easy walking distance to the bath house with 2 large bathrooms and 2 large showers.... Read More

My husband, 85 year old father-in-law, and I stayed at Lake Powhatan Campground for 4 nights in early June 2019. All of the full hookup sites were taken so we stayed on the dry Hard Times Loop in a 26 ft travel trailer pulled by an extended cab 4wd pickup. It was great! The roads are asphalt all through the campground with gravel sites. Our site was nice and level with a fire circle and picnic table. We were within easy walking distance to the bath house with 2 large bathrooms and 2 large showers. They are all private rooms with lockable doors, and the water in the showers was nice and hot. They are cleaned several times throughout the day, and the campsite hosts routinely raked, cleaned and inspected all sites after campers departed. They also kept us apprised of bear sightings throughout our stay. We did see what appeared to be a mama bear with one cub. They walked through our site around 7:00 am but didn't disturb our camper. We wouldn't have known they were there if our poodle hadn't started barking. My husband thought it was cool watching them through our camper window! The campground has an easily accessible dumping station, too. The 3 of us drove down to the parking lot for the lake and walked the easy hike to the picnic and swimming area. My 85 year old father in law didn't have any problems making the short hike there. We saw several bicyclists and people fishing from the pier on the other side of the lake near the handicap parking. The water was clear enough to see fish swimming near the shoreline, and they have a small swimming area roped off. No pets are allowed on the beach, but they could be in the picnic area without a problem. There are lots of other trailheads and hikes of various degrees of difficulty. I highly recommend making reservations online and in advance, especially if you want to stay over the weekend. We didn't make reservations and drove up to the ranger station on a Monday. Since it was within the "4 day window", we were only allowed to stay for 2 nights. However, the morning of the 3rd day, we were able to pay for the next 2 days since our site wasn't reserved. We left Friday morning. They said if we had reserved it online, we probably could have reserved all 4 days at once. It had something to do with their reservation system. It really was a minor inconvenience, and everyone was so helpful and kind. The area is beautiful and feels so far away from the city, but West Asheville is only 2.5 miles away with restaurants and the outlets very close. We also took one day to visit Brevard. It was raining so we didn't see Sliding Rock or Looking Glass Falls as we had hoped, but instead opted for a tour of Oskar Blues Brewery where they make Dale's Pale Ale and lots of other beers, and offered some local wines and soft drinks. My husband really enjoyed the Mary Anne and Ginger Beer made with real cane sugar. We got french fries from the food truck there, and that was pretty decent too. All in all, we will be back to Lake Powhatan Campground. It's part of the federal park system in the Pisgah National Forest and near the North Carolina Arboretum. Rates were $22/night, but since my father-in-law had a senior pass for the national parks, we only paid $11.
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