Lake Powhatan Campground
The time of year has arrived when every weekend is an adventure pretty much. This past weekend, we decided to camp at Lake Powhatan which is located in the Bent Creek area in the Pisgah National Forest. We had never been here before and I admit that I was a little worried. I read mixed reviews about Lake Powhatan Campground, but we decided to take the chance and I’m so glad we did!
This is a beautiful area. There are tons of biking and hiking trails to keep the family busy! D enjoys biking and hiking, but L much prefers biking. The reason why is that he is on a tag-a-long and only pedals when he remembers. I just can’t imagine riding a bicycle and only pedaling when I felt like it. If my man would agree on a tandem bike, then I’m pretty sure I could experience what our four year old does when it comes to pedaling.
We tent camped on Hard Times Loop, site 91 which was a really good location. The woods were behind us as you can see in the picture below which offered us more privacy and we were close to the restrooms which is a plus with kids.
Each site is shaded or partial shaded and provide a picnic table, tent pad, lantern post and campfire rings with grills. I felt that we has plenty of space at our site. The boys had plenty of room to run around and get dirty from head to toe, we had room for our bikes and all the toys that seem to make it on any road trip.
There were two spots that had hosts and we were very close to one of the hosts. We never had to go to them since everything was always in tip top shape around the campground. There was no noise (except the first morning when someone’s car alarm was going off for like 15 minutes), but this was an accident (I hope), or maybe they wanted to wake everyone up at 6:30 am. Either way, I was awake already so it didn’t affect me 🙂
My eyes lit up and a happy dance broke out when I discovered how clean the bathrooms and showers were. Nothing freaks me out more than going to a dark campground bathroom that has creepy crawlers all in it. I don’t mind the creepy crawlers outdoors, but something about being locked in a bathroom with them is another story completely! The bathrooms are single person but we rarely experienced a line. The only time we had to wait was in the PM and most people were probably taking one last potty break before bed (which is what we did) and I never had a line for the showers. I hate that I forgot to snap a picture to show you just how spotless they were.
They do have what is called a Lake area but to us it was more like a huge pond, but it was fun for the kids nonetheless. There are geese (which are rather hard to avoid when water is involved) but they also have a pier that you can fish off of. The lake is stocked with trout. Fishing poles were not on my check-off list so those we did forget them, but will remember them next time.
Things to know
Lake Powhatan is open from April – October with a quiet time from 10pm – 7am which is very common with most campgrounds. You can make reservations (which is what we did) but they do offer some first come/first serve sites. I’m not brave enough to chance a first come/first serve with kids.
If you don’t camp, you can also enjoy the area with a day visit for a picnic, an easy one-mile hike around the lake, or pier fishing in the trout-stocked lake. There is a small fee for non-campers to access the area, but off hand I’m not 100% sure what that is..
Camping costs at Lake Powhatan campsites are $22/site with 98 sites available. The maximum number of vehicles / people per site are 2 vehicles / 8 persons. There is a $5 for each additional vehicle. Pets are welcome but they must remain on a leash.
All in all we had a great weekend and will definitely be revisiting Lake Powhatan when we are hitting the trails in the Bent Creek area.
