“an exceptional Blue Ridge waterfall”
Catawba Falls is one of Western North Carolina's exceptional Blue Ridge waterfalls - one which is along the steep escarpment where the higher mountain lands drop off to the Piedmont areas below. It's located on an isolated tract of Pisgah National Forest property near Old Fort, NC, at the southern end of the Grandfather Ranger District, just south of I-40. A new parking area and trail culminates years of effort to provide public access to this special area, which required a variety of legislation to accomplish. Today, Catawba Falls is open to visitors and a highly recommended destination. Catawba Falls itself is divided into two or three main sections (depending on who you ask), along a stretch of the Catawba River which drops around 600 feet in about a half mile. The main upper part is about 50 feet high and is a free-fall, while the lower (or middle) section is over 100 feet high across multiple falls and cascades. It's more of a rushing creek than a river at this point, and thus shares an attribute with most higher mountain falls: it looks best after wet weather. Still, there is enough area on the plateau above to gather water that it's worth visiting any time, even in periods of lower water. It never dries up completely.
Reviews of Catawba Falls Campground
13 people have reviewed this location
Ratings Summary
Cell Coverage
Verizon 4G
Confirmed by 1 users | Last reported on June 12, 2021AT&T 4G/5G
Confirmed by 3 users | Last reported on March 15, 2024Moderate hike, but totally worth it! The falls were beautiful!
Expect to be walking/hiking for longer than 20 mins one way. We went but it began to thunderstorm and family was already tired so didn't see the full Falls, but was nice to see what we DID see!
Easy to moderate hike. Beautifull falls at the end. A great place to take the family!
Really sweet people running the show at Catawba. Needed a place to stay for night and it was so peaceful by the river that I wish I could’ve stayed one more night!
Nightly Rate: $35.00
Days Stayed: 1
Site Number: -
Nice little campground. Sites are close, but you have plenty of room. Sounds of the creek all night! Owners helped us back in and make sure we were good. Dump station was easy to access and had water. Great little RV park.
Nightly Rate: $46.00
Days Stayed: 2
Site Number: E6
Cell Coverage Rating
AT&T 4G
Simple, cozy, friendly.
Quiet.
Small river running thru.
Nightly Rate: $45.00
Days Stayed: 1
Site Number: E4
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
This campground is one of the most relaxing we have stayed at. Site 5 nicely accommodated our 35' 5th wheel although we did need to park our truck a few feet away in a large grassy area. Behind the campsite is a lovely stream. I believe there are 9 sites in this section with all having frontage on the stream. This section is separate from the long term sites and is very well maintained. The owners are very friendly. A huge plus was being able to receive Amazon deliveries!
I was very concerned about internet speeds as my job is 100% zoom meetings. There was no need to be concerned as connectivity was great. We have a Pepwave Max Transit Duo for AT&T and Verizon service. AT&T had download speeds of 64.96 and upload speeds of 6.72. Verizon was 66.27 for downloads and 1.03 for uploads. Our Mifi with T-Moble had download speeds of 68.79 and uploads of 17.93.
Nightly Rate: $53.00
Days Stayed: 12
Site Number: 5
This campground is one of the most relaxing we have stayed at. Site 5 nicely accommodated our 35' 5th wheel although we did need to park our truck a few feet away in a large grassy area. Behind the campsite is a lovely stream. I believe there are 9 sites in this section with all having frontage on the stream. This section is separate from the long term sites and is very well maintained. The owners are very friendly. A huge plus was being able to receive Amazon deliveries!
I was very concerned about internet speeds as my job is 100% zoom meetings. There was no need to be concerned as connectivity was great. We have a Pepwave Max Transit Duo for AT&T and Verizon service. AT&T had download speeds of 64.96 and upload speeds of 6.72. Verizon was 66.27 for downloads and 1.03 for uploads. Our Mifi with T-Moble had download speeds of 68.79 and uploads of 17.93.
Nightly Rate: $53.00
Days Stayed: 12
Site Number: 5
This small family run campground was a good weekend stop for us as we explored Asheville. It's about a half hour out. $50 is a little on the high side for us, but there is not much to choose from in the area.
When we arrived, the owner checked us in and she was very friendly. We got to our campsite which was part of a row of closely spaced campsites along the creek. It would have been nicer if they were a little more spaced out, but if you choose your site wisely you will have a bigger one. They weren't all created equal.
*Small Rant* The camper staying next to us let his dog wonder without a leash, poop wherever he wanted and didnt clean it up so we had to clean up dog poop in our site. The next set of people who camped next to us had their dogs leashed on million foot strechy cords so these dogs wondered around our site as well and their children walked across our site instead of going around it. Not the campground's fault, and its in their rules to keep dogs leashed and clean up after them. I just don't get how people can be so inconsiderate?
The campground has a laundry room, a little camp store, relatively clean bathrooms and you can receive mail here which is a plus as a full time RVer. There are a lot of permanent trailers here, but the permanent residents seemed to be in a different section from the short term sites for the most part. Our site was right along the creek which was beautiful and lovely to sit and watch.
The bathrooms and showers were relatively clean. We had great signal on AT&T.
Overall, would stay here again if we were in the area and there weren't cheaper campgrounds available.
Nightly Rate: $50.00
Days Stayed: 3
Site Number: E5
Cell Coverage Rating
AT&T 5G
This is a private campground with approximately 1/2 full time and then in another section they have 10 sites which are all in a row.
Getting to the campground from the interstate exit from I 40 is very tricky because the road to the campground actually intersects with the off ramp of the interstate. You need to pay special attention or you might wind up going the wrong way to the interstate.
The campground doesn’t officially open until April 1 but they take online reservations with the caveat that the general store is closed, limited facilities are available. When we stayed there there was no water available at any of the sites, even though the temperature was never below 45 when we were there. The bathhouse is open and it did have water and was reasonably clean.
We arrived at past 7 pm and we went to the registration office which was closed and there was no documentation of where our site was. They have a phone number to call but it was a voice message telling you to check in online and no one answered. We did get a call back and they said to just pick any spot we wanted in the E section. Luckily there was only one other camper. We never saw anyone during our stay so we don’t know who the owners are
Nightly Rate: $50.00
Days Stayed: 2
Site Number: E3
Cell Coverage Rating
AT&T 5G
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Catawba Falls Campground
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Good for fishing and hiking.
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Parking
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Pets Allowed
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Restrooms
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Wifi
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Wheelchair Accessible
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Credit Cards Accepted
- Last Nightly Rate
- 50.0
- Longest Vehicle Length Reported
- 24.0
- Lowest Nightly Rate
- 35.0
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Pull Through
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Tent Sites
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Dump Station
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Big Rigs
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Open Seasonally
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Age Restricted
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Boondock
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Cabin Sites
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Dispersed Sites
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Firewood
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Fulltime Residents
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Group Tent Sites
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Laundry
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Mobile Homes
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Permit Required
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Propane
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Public Water
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Pull Through RV Sites
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RV Sites
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Sewer Hookup
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Showers
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Standard Tent Sites
Campground
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