The best camping near Charlotte

Some of us define camping as a paved spot to park a mansion-sized RV with water for the blow-up hot tub and electrical hookups for the big screen. Others want nothing more than a barely marked firepit off a trail accessible only after a climb to the heavens. Pisgah, a paradisiacal wilderness a couple of hours west of Charlotte, offers both. There’s a long list of official campgrounds for the official car and RV camping experience. Then there are many sections of the forest where pitching a tent anywhere is a-ok, from literally the side of the road to deep into the forest. For those backcountry campers, we’d suggest an unmarked spot near the Sam Knob Trailhead, where a forest floor covered in soft pine needles makes for a cushy night’s stay.

These 44 campsites occupy a pretty piece of land on a peninsula, meaning even the interior spots aren’t far from the picturesque shoreline. The park occupies a stretch of the northern section of Lake Norman, and while it’s an hour from Charlotte, it’ll feel like you’ve traveled well beyond. For those who want more separating them from the great outdoors, there are six rental cabins with all the charm of an outdoor adventure without the actual outdoors.

Two hours west of Charlotte, the peaks at South Mountain State Park rise up a good 3,000 feet, making room for an 80-foot waterfall that's reason enough to make the drive. But the camping here is stellar, with sites spread out along the Jacob Fork River and an entire equestrian section for those who just can't spend a night without their horses.

There are those among us who just cannot be satisfied with a single day on the roller coasters at Carowinds amusement park. And for them, there's Carowinds Camp Wilderness, a 55-acre campground not far from the coasters. The campground accommodates 45-foot RVs and includes cabins that include the 14-person Great Wilderness Lodge, with its large meeting room to help the fam plan out its attack of the next day’s rides.

There's a lot that’s close to King's Mountain campground. Lake Crawford is right there next to the RV-friendly park. Then there are the hiking trails, equestrian facilities, pioneer-era homes to explore and a Revolutionary War site not far away in the National Military Park. Or, maybe, see none of it and simply set up under the old-growth forest that covers the shady sites, an ideal spot for doing nothing in a hammock stretched between the trees.

The Linville River took a few thousand millennia to cut the Linville Gorge, also known as the Grand Canyon of the East. Helping it with all that work creating the majestic canyon is the water that comes off Linville Falls, which drops from a cliff into a waiting pool of icy water below. The falls and the majestic views of the canyon are just a five-minute drive from the rustic cabins and campsites at the Linville Falls Campground, serving as a tree-shaded base of operations to explore an outdoor paradise just two hours from Charlotte.

Lake Wylie curves and cuts its way along the border of North and South Carolina, and right at the southern center of the lake is a peninsula campground that juts out into the waters. Ebenezer Park’s 66 campsites begin back in the trees and then open up along the water, where RVers watch sunrises and sunsets across the lake.

Just 30 minutes southwest of the city, McDowell Nature Preserve serves as an outdoor playground for city-dwellers, its well-maintained trails a frequent spot for dog walkers. There are 56 sites under the trees at the campground, all of them not far from all the activities awaiting on the Catawba River nearby.

The good news is that the greenway’s roiling creek and wide trails cutting through forests are just a 30-minute drive from Charlotte. The bad news is that camping here is limited to families, so if you haven’t already, you’re going to need to get working on some offspring. Those group family campouts happen about once a quarter, by reservation only. While the child-free among us aren’t invited, parentals will love the organized events like daytime explorations of the waterways and starry nighttime hikes.

Charlotteans are most likely to know Copperhead Island for that place where the office rented the outdoor shelter once for a bonding-with-your-coworkers picnic. But the island jutting into Lake Wylie also has a small campground -- just six tent-only sites with million-dollar access to the lake. The catch is that the county doesn’t rent out single campsites, so get your buddies together and rent the whole thing for $134 to $316 a night, giving you exclusive access to the entire island.