Lake Powhatan Recreation Area
A lake and campground inside Pisgah National Forest, yet barely fifteen minutes from downtown Asheville.
- Buncombe County, NC
- Nearest town: Bent Creek
- 2,221 ft
Coordinates
- Lat
- 35.48607
- Lng
- -82.62960
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
- Buncombe County
- State
- North Carolina
- Nearest town
- Bent Creek
- Elevation
- 2,221 ft
- Max vehicle length
- Not verified
The place
About Lake Powhatan Recreation Area
Lake Powhatan is the rare spot that puts national forest camping within reach of a city. The lake has a sand beach and a swimming area, the campground loops sit under tall pines, and the Bent Creek trail system starts at the edge of it — one of the best-loved mountain biking networks in the Southeast, with enough mileage to fill several days. The Parkway and the North Carolina Arboretum are both minutes away. For anyone travelling by van, the combination is unusually practical: forest quiet at night, a real city for resupply in the morning.
For van drivers
Getting a van in and out
The approach through Bent Creek is paved and reasonable, and Brevard Road puts you on the edge of Asheville within a few miles, so groceries, fuel, water and laundry are all straightforward. Bent Creek's forest roads beyond the campground turn to gravel and are better explored on a bike than in a van. Cell signal is usable here, which is not true of most of the campgrounds in this directory.
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
- 35.486072
- Longitude
- -82.629598
35.4861° N · 82.6296° 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: Bent Creek
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
