Davidson River Campground
The busiest campground in Pisgah National Forest, three miles from Brevard and surrounded by waterfalls.
- Transylvania County, NC
- Nearest town: Brevard
- 2,165 ft
Coordinates
- Lat
- 35.28335
- Lng
- -82.72928
Van camping
You can drive in and sleep in your van here.
At a glance
The basics
What to expect
National forest
Often first-come, gravel access, vault toilets, little or no signal.
- County
- Transylvania County
- State
- North Carolina
- Nearest town
- Brevard
- Elevation
- 2,165 ft
- Max vehicle length
- Not verified
The place
About Davidson River Campground
Davidson River is the front door to the Pisgah Ranger District, and the district is the reason people come: Looking Glass Falls drops sixty feet directly beside the road, Sliding Rock is a natural waterslide with a lifeguard in summer, and Looking Glass Rock is a granite dome that draws climbers from several states. The campground itself is a set of wooded loops along the river, shaded by white pine and hemlock, with tubing and trout fishing straight from camp. Brevard is three miles away, which makes this one of the few genuinely convenient mountain campgrounds in the region.
For van drivers
Getting a van in and out
Access is from US 276 just off US 64, both of them ordinary two-lane roads, so this is one of the easier mountain campgrounds to reach in a longer van. The roads deeper into the district are a different matter: the Forest Service roads toward Sliding Rock and beyond narrow and steepen, and some are gravel with limited turning room. Brevard covers groceries, fuel and laundry. Cell coverage is reasonable at the campground and disappears quickly up the valley.
Written for a high-roof van, not a pickup. Surfaces and clearances change with the weather and with the season’s roadwork — the official page below is the last word.
On the ground
Facilities & fees
Not verified means nobody has confirmed it — treat it as unknown, never as a no. 8 of the 8 below are still unconfirmed.
- Restrooms
- Not verified
- Drinking water
- Not verified
- Showers
- Not verified
- Dump station
- Not verified
- Hookups
- Not verified
- Campfires
- Not verified
- Dogs allowed
- Not verified
- Reservations
- Not verified
- Max vehicle length
- Not verified — check with the park
- Season
- Not verified — check with the park
- Fees
- Not verified — check with the park
The last word on all of this is fs.usda.gov(opens in a new tab).
Where it is
Coordinates & directions
Decimal degrees
- Latitude
- 35.283347
- Longitude
- -82.729275
35.2833° N · 82.7293° W
No map tiles here on purpose. Half of these places have no signal at the gate, so coordinates you can save offline beat a map that needs one. Drop them into your phone before you turn off the pavement.
Nearest gas and groceries: Brevard
Before you go
Official sources
Fees, site counts, length limits and closures change season to season. Everything we have not confirmed ourselves is marked Not verified above rather than guessed at — and where we do have a number, the operator’s own page still wins.
Keep looking
Camp nearby
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