Where to go? NC summer hanging trip?

[BKiv]

Just thought I would throw this out there. Looking for advice on a good place to go camping this July for me and my son. Looking at Pisgah national Forest, Hungry mother in VA or if someone knows of a good site closer to pilot mountain or hanging rock with a cooler site and some stuff to do to keep little man Happy throw them at me. Thanks!

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[Cincyjp]

You might check out Linville Gorge. Shug has done backpack trip videos there, but there also roads on each side of the gorge with primitive camping areas.


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[gfstanley]

Grayson Highlands in VA would make a great trip. My daughter and I went last summer (June 30 - July 3) with daytime temps in mid-70's and night time temps in upper 50's. Here is thread with a write up of our trip and you can do youtube search for "Grayson Highlands" to see a lot more.

[E the B]

I'm just back from four days in the Nantahala National Forest near Topton, NC. Good trout fishing, whitewater rafting, and great trails.


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[Gqgeek81]

I would say the primary challenges this time or year are dealing with heat and bugs. If you can't handle those, it will greatly detract from your trip.

My method of dealing with both this time of year is to go to higher ground. Temperatures drop something like 3.5F for every 1000ft you climb so all else being equal, I can expect to lose something close to 15-20 degrees if I go to many parts of Pisgah or to Grayson Highlands.

I don't think the elevation per se effects the mosquitos, but the terrain does not lend itself to a lot of stagnant water so they are pretty rare in my experience up there.

If you're car camping, you can bring all sorts of products and gadgets to help with the bugs at any elevation.

You can deal with the heat with fishing, swimming, paddling, surfing etc if you don't want to go up. A fire can help, but this time of year they aren't as fun to be around.

July is blueberry season too so that might be worth keeping in mind. I imagine the season will be a bit early this year, but I'm basing that off the early Spring we had in Raleigh. Might not have been early elsewhere.

[MrGhoti]

I don't do any backpacking, as yet, but have done a lot of car camping around NC, charlotte area mostly. I love Morrow Mountain and Lake Norman State Park best. both of them have boat rentals and swimming available, which will be nice in the hot summer months. Fishing also good at both places.