Lake James State Park

There are two campgrounds here, a site at Catawba River with 20 tent only sites. There’s a parking lot, and you carry your camp down the hill to sites right on the lake. The toilet and shower facility is roomy, and seems to be well maintained.

The larger, newer facility at Paddy’s Creek has 33 sites, again for tents only. Again, the restrooms are spacious and well maintained.

We went on to the headquarters on the lakeshore, and we’re offered the use of the parking lot for our overnight stay, which better suited our needs that dropping the pop up and parking next to it at the campground.

The staff could not have been friendlier or more accommodating to our needs. Thank you North Carolina State Parks!

I spent 3 months as the campground host at paddy’s creek campground. I just want to clarify that this is not just tent camping. If your vehicle fits on the parking slab you’re good to camp in it. They get vans, rooftop tent setups and even small campers. This campground is fairly new and has great bathroom facilities with hot showers, firewood on site and hiking trails all around.

Catawba river campground on the other hand is tent camping only.

For context, I stayed two nights, Sunday and Monday, in March, so not at all busy. The beach and picnic shelters were closed, but not a problem, a great time to be here. Some good hiking right from the campground and a mtb trail area (check the website for rain related closures).

The bath house was fantastic, with hot water, and very clean. My site was well kept and the accessories were in good repair. Two nicely located accessible sites for those who need them.

The experience was made by the camp hosts at the time, Vicky and David, who were super nice and thoughtful. All around a great spot.

While Paddy’s Creek doesn’t allow RVs it was a nice location for camping in my teardrop. It’s a relatively newer campground so the bathrooms were very nice and the sites were very well maintained. I picked a spot in the back so that my parking spot didn’t have any stairs between it and the picnic table, fire pit, and tent camping area. If I were to do it again I would have picked a spot closer to the lake even if there were stairs. Note that cell phone reception was poor so I’ll try bringing a booster next time if I have to be access the internet much.
I do plan on coming back as it’s a beautiful area with hiking and mountain bike riding. The problem was that I camper there right before Thanksgiving and it was (literally) freezing. In the spring or summer I’ll bet it is a wonderful place to stay.