5 Best Camping Spots In The Smoky Mountains, According To Reviews

The Great Smoky Mountains are one of the most definitive ranges in America. They carve from east to west through the heart of Appalachia, scoring for 36 miles across the borderlands between Tennessee and North Carolina. It's a land of tempting wonders for lovers of the vast outdoors — 16 mountains lurching skywards to over 6,000 feet, 384 miles of super-scenic road touring, and, of course, America's most-visited national park.

And then there's the camping. There are a whopping 10 maintained frontcountry campgrounds and more than 80 backcountry campgrounds within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park alone. And that's not even mentioning all the privately run campgrounds and glamping sites that pepper the peripheries of the famous reserve. To put it another way: You won't be short on places to pitch the tent under the shadow of Kuwohi.

That's where this guide comes in. We've formulated a way to rank and compare all the major campgrounds in the Smoky Mountains to offer insights into the cream of the crop. It's simple, really: Focus solely on NPS grounds inside the national park, shortlist them according to ratings on Recreation.gov, and then consult multiple other platforms to get the final ranking. The end product is a handful of enticing locations, where you can set up under ancient hemlock trees, beside babbling highland creeks, or to a backdrop of the legendary Smokies valleys. Happy camping!

More than 2 million travelers hit Cades Cove each year, according to Recreation.gov, so it's hardly a surprise that it ranks up at tip-top place among the best campgrounds in the Smoky Mountains! The 159 pitches are a particularly popular option for those looking to explore the hiking-rich western portion of the Great Smokies National Park any time of the year. They come with the usual fire rings and flush toilets, but there aren't any on-site showers or hookups. It's rustic, but not too rustic.

The scenery is, simply, spectacular. This ground is tucked amongst the snaking byway of the Cades Cove Scenic Loop, which — and here's the kicker — you'll be able to access before the arrival of the day trippers. The upshot? How about visions of wildflower-clad peaks and valleys filled with morning mists and forests without anyone else in attendance?

This part of the Smokies is also a doozy for walkers. It's essentially a whole valley with mountains on all sides. There are myriad routes that begin close to the camping, from the lovely 4.2-miler to the Abrams Falls, a gushing waterfall in the middle of the forest, to the more panoramic Rich Mountain Loop, with its 1,700 feet of elevation gain.

Think of the Cosby Campground as tied for first place with Cades Cove. It only misses out on a place higher up this page by dint of an alphabetical quirk. Its 4.5 Recreation.gov and Tripadvisor metrics combo up with an enviable 4.7 on the big G to make it just as well-reviewed as Cades Cove under our method of ranking. So, expect some pretty dang good things.

There's lots of space thanks to the 157 pitches. They all come with tent pads for easy setting up and comfort, grills, fire rings, and a table. The whole lot is sheltered by a sweeping woodland, in a wild part of the Smokies that's brimming with wildflower viewing in the warm months and leaf peeping come the fall.

One person on Reddit summarizes its draws like this: "Cosby is a great site. A little more east, but it's very nice. No showers though. Great trailheads. Close to Docs 321 cafe." Indeed, the Cosby area is crisscrossed by more hiking paths than you can shake a bottle of Tennessee whisky at, including the highly-rated route up Gabes Mountain via the Hen Wallow Falls, a 4.3-mile journey through hemlock stands to a hidden waterfall. Then there's Docs 321 café, just an 8-minute drive down the road. When it comes to reviews, that one's a scorcher. Past visitors talk of dining on Philly cheese steaks and smoked pies in the middle of nowhere. Mmm.

Balsam Mountain Campground scores an enviable 4.5 rating on TripAdvisor and a 4.6 on Google, putting it neatly into joint third place on this list of the finest campgrounds in the whole of the Great Smokies. And that's not its only claim to fame. Nu-uh, Balsam soars to a whopping 5,000-plus feet above sea level, making it the highest-altitude camping location in the national park. Bring a jacket, folks, even in peak summer!

The location could hardly be more tempting. To get here, you'll need to cruise along a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a fantastic fall foliage route that's been called America's favorite drive. Break off that onto the Balsam Mountain Road to find the camping set amid pockets of laurel and spruce about 30 minutes outside of the town of Maggie Valley, NC.

Highly rated it may be; large it is not. Balsam Mountain counts just 42 rustic campsites. You won't even find a hook-up or warm showers in these parts. The payoff is real seclusion and proximity to the wilds. Hit the nearby Hemphill Bald and Rough Fork trail to complete a 14-mile loop through groves of ancient trees replete with summit views. Or, go for the 5.2-mile there-and-back hiking the Flat Creek Trail to wander moss-caked woods beside gurgling mountain streams.

Running alongside Balsam is the largest developed campground in the Great Smokies. Yep, this one counts a whopping 200 separate pitches for tents and RVs, along with 20 extra walk-in pitches. The site is split in two by the wiggling waters of the Little River, which means swimming holes are always at hand — a real gift when the temperature cranks skywards come the midsummer!

The extra size does mean that Elkmont reigns as perhaps the busiest of all the campgrounds in the region. However, that hasn't stopped it from garnering an impressive 4.5 out of 5 on TripAdvisor, and nearly the same on Recreation.gov, where one past visitor sang its praises: "This campground is simply amazing! Good location surrounded by beautiful forest and creek, functioning facilities, and close to town to buy grocery [sic]. I will visit again."

The proximity to Gatlinburg is yet another draw — the pitches of Elkmont are a mere 9 miles down the road from Tennessee's gateway to the Great Smokies. Along the way, you'll breeze by the Sugarlands Visitor Center, which has all the hiking maps you could need, not to mention park rangers at hand to help you plan your visit to this wonderful corner of the country.

Cataloochee Campground is the last mention here, but it almost claimed the crown at No. 1. Here's how: The site scores a whopping 4.8 out of 5 on Google, but only narrowly missed out on a tie for the top four by getting 4.4 on TripAdvisor. As such, it finds itself relegated to the lower league, though it's worth noting just how tight the margins were, because — if reviews are to be believed — it's one seriously lovely camping spot. Or, in the words of one past visitor writing on Google: "In my opinion this is the most beautiful campground in the Smokies." Simple as that.

Here's what you can look forward to: An off-the-beaten-path selection of just 26 separate pitches that sits in one of the wildest corners of the Smokies, surrounded by gushing highland rivers, meadows stalked by wild elk, and rocky ridges. There's no cell reception, no campground shop — it's for channeling your inner Daniel Boone on the frontier!

Given the high altitude (Cataloochee is perched at 2,600 feet above sea level) and the super-winding way in from I-40 (it takes at least 30 minutes to drive up from the highway), this site is only open for the warmer season, typically from sometime in April to mid-fall.

Sorting the stacks and stacks of campgrounds in and around the Smokies is no mean feat, particularly since so many of them command good review scores — the quality of places to pitch up is pretty dang high in this much-loved national park. A multi-pronged approach was needed, taking in review metrics across multiple platforms.

First, we decided to eliminate all privately run campgrounds and focus on only those within the national park. Then, we consulted Recreation.gov, the official federal travel booking platform, where campgrounds are ranked out of five stars based on reviews from past visitors. That gave us a shortlist of 10 campgrounds, which we then proceeded to whittle down to just five by checking review scores on TripAdvisor, one of the globe's largest travel sites, where you'll find over one billion ratings for attractions right across the planet.

With our quintet of top-scoring campgrounds in hand, we then needed to sort in order of the finest. Because many shared the exact same ratings across TripAdvisor and Recreation.gov, we needed to pull review stats from Google to see which sites would go first and last. If there were still ties, placements were sorted alphabetically.