Best Camping in and near Gorges State Park

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The Baying Hound Campground

7 sites · Tents3 acres · Asheville, NC

THE CAMPGROUND The Baying Hound Campground is where rural Appalachia meets “keep Asheville weird.” You’ll see sleeping pods decorated by professional artists, structures made from upcycled building materials and permaculture experiments in the making. We’ve been described as “if a European hostel and an Appalachian campground had a baby.” Not quite glamping and definitely not KOA, we're happy to offer you a more social alternative to cookie-cutter lodging without breaking the bank. *Van-lifers, truck-top-tenters and other vehicle dwellers* Y'all are welcome to book this spot! Note that the parking area is SEPARATE from the site pictured and you can NOT drive down to the site. You'll be sleeping in the parking area and still have access to all our facilities. SHARED CAMPGROUND AMENITIES: - Indoor bathroom and sinks with hot and cold running water - Indoor hangout area with couch, books and outlets - Charging station for your phones and tablets behind our graffiti’d garage - A re-imagined, yet decidedly old-school pit latrine - Outdoor sink with cold running water (seasonal = April-October) - Outdoor shower with solar-heated water* Mother Nature can be a little stingy with the sun, so unfortunately we can not guarantee that this will provide warm water. If nothing else, it'll be refreshingly brisk. :) (seasonal = April-October, CLOSED Nov-March) - Community fire pit with wood for sale for $5 a packet - Community charcoal grill (be sure to bring your own charcoal) + picnic table - Omoplata Overlook hangout area with deck furniture, table, hammock and solar lights - Multiple picnic tables where you can hang out & eat - Wi-Fi zone with varying quality of internet (but you’re camping, so you should enjoy the outdoors and company of your friends :)) - Nearby Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym! Ask us more if you’re interested. - Curiosity Trail :) *FAQ: Is this a good spot to bring my kiddos? Our campground is not equipped to handle the magical, whirlwind force that children release unto the world. There's a lot of breakable stuff, tempting treehouses (that might be occupied by other guests!), sites that are within earshot of each other, and hazards that aren't a good fit for kids. THE NEIGHBORHOOD The campground is located in the "Emma" area of Asheville. Also known as "Wild Wild West Asheville" (to distinguish it from regular West Asheville which is about 5 minutes' drive away), this is the last bastion of non-gentrified Asheville. Emma is completely un-zoned, so you get an interesting mixture of mostly residential and agricultural properties that scatter the area. The campground itself is tucked away in a 2-acre wooded valley. We're about 10-15 minutes' drive away from downtown Asheville and a $12-$15 Uber ride. Unfortunately, public transportation is not very accessible from the campground. WHAT'S NEARBY? - There are approximately a bajillion breweries in Asheville, many of which are within 5-15 minutes away. - Downtown Asheville (~10-15 minutes), West Asheville (~5-10 minutes) and the River Arts District (~5 minutes) are full of city life fun - amazing restaurants, live music, shopping, art galleries and did we mention breweries? -So much hiking! Choose your own adventure - waterfalls, mountain-top views, fog-drenched valleys, rambling rivers. There are some trails about 20 minutes away, but to get to the good stuff, you'll drive 40-90+ minutes. - White water rafting ~60-90 minutes away - Tubing down the French Broad River is the ultimate way to chill out in the sun. French Broad Outfitters, Zen Tubing and Lazy Otter are some companies that can take care of all the details for you. These are all 10-20 minutes away. OUR HISTORY We discovered this property in 2017, and quite by chance! We had finished working a seasonal job in Colorado and were on our way out to the coast to look into starting our own business. We happened to come through Asheville and casually stumbled across this property. Long-story-short, we put in a bid on the property. It was accepted, and now we have a real fixer-upper on our hands! Here's some history on the property as reported by the previous owners: The road you park on was the old county road, a long, long time ago. The couple who sold us the property is elderly, and the blue house you pass on the left on the way to park was where the wife grew up. In fact, that enormous pine tree on your right as you come up the road was the old lady's Christmas tree as a child. The jiu-jitsu gym used to be an auction house. Then it was used as a dance hall. Then it became a cabinet-making space and finally a timber frame-making space. Over the past year we've converted it into a jiu-jitsu gym, although you can still see plenty of "upcycled" remnants of previous uses, all around the gym. The campground area itself was slated to be turned into a trailer park. You can tell that the area was partially graded at one point or another. Thanks to that initiative, we have some convenient paths all around! They decided not to follow through on setting up trailer pads since it was more money than they had bargained for. After that, the space was used as a black-market dump! Luckily the city shut it down, and after two spring seasons of cleaning up back there, we're left with what you see! We're going to continue to pour our hearts, souls, creativity and probably more than just a little money into making "The Baying Hound Campground" a fun place to crash for a couple days while taking in all that is Asheville. Thanks for reading!

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