Julian Price Park Campground
A large Parkway campground on the shore of Price Lake, minutes from Boone and Blowing Rock.
- Watauga County, NC
- Nearest town: Boone
- 3,482 ft
Coordinates
- Lat
- 36.14044
- Lng
- -81.73914
Van camping
You can drive in and sleep in your van here.
At a glance
The basics
What to expect
Blue Ridge Parkway
High elevation, tunnels with posted clearances, closes in winter weather.
- County
- Watauga County
- State
- North Carolina
- Nearest town
- Boone
- Elevation
- 3,482 ft
- Max vehicle length
- Not verified
The place
About Julian Price Park Campground
Price Lake sits right against the Parkway with Grandfather Mountain's ridgeline behind it, and the campground wraps around the water in loops of wooded sites. It is one of the biggest campgrounds on the Parkway and one of the easiest to reach, which makes it a natural base rather than a destination in itself: Boone is a short drive for groceries and a laundromat, Blowing Rock is closer still, and the Tanawha Trail and the Linn Cove Viaduct are just down the road. Canoes and kayaks go out on the lake in the mornings before the wind picks up, and the loop trail around the shoreline is flat and easy.
For van drivers
Getting a van in and out
This is one of the more forgiving Parkway campgrounds for a longer van, and the access from Highway 321 out of Boone means you can reach it without a long stretch of ridgeline driving. That still leaves Parkway rules once you are on it: low speed limits, no commercial vehicles, and tunnels with posted clearances between here and points south. Winter closures are routine at this elevation.
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 nps.gov(opens in a new tab).
Where it is
Coordinates & directions
Decimal degrees
- Latitude
- 36.140437
- Longitude
- -81.739141
36.1404° N · 81.7391° 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: Boone
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
For sale
