Dan Nicholas Park Campground

Dan Nicholas Park is located in Salisbury just north of Charlotte off I-85. We prefer campground with a more wooded private feel as opposed to a KOA. This park features private wooded sites but amazing nearby amenities for kids. We stayed on a site along the lake where you can fish. The site was large, wooded, and private with a fire ring, picnic table, and power/water hookups. Restrooms/showers are clean.

The best part of this campground is the park amenities including a splash pad, gem mining, petting zoo, paddle boats, putt putt, carousel, and more. All amenities are reasonably priced. Splash pad is free. This is the perfect campground for families with young children!

A prior review said it best, a great place if you have young children. As new full time RVers, perhaps this was not the best place for us. We were visiting a friend in the area and stayed on their recommendation. No sites have sewer, there is no cell service AT&T, and the Wi-Fi was spotty. Due to trees no Direct TV. However this is an excellent county park, a few pull thru sites, sites are a good size, width not depth, fairly private feel. The narrow campground road is paved, the sites are gravel. Well maintained, good for TT and tents. Staff very friendly and helpful. Very quiet, no road noise.

We stopped here after 3 all day drives with overnights in truck stops so the instant we started down the long wooded road our stress began to melt away. Kitty in the office was extremely helpful and because it was midweek gave us our choice of spots since most were open. She did say that the place, even at this time of year (late Nov) can get crowded though rarely filled except at Thanksgiving so it's probably a good idea to call a few weeks ahead to get an idea of how busy they might be. I had called in early Nov and was told it would be safe to just show up.

I read in one review that the roads in this campground are not very wide. They are not highway width but were fine for our motorhome and way wider than some we've been on.
OK, the campground...there is a big lake with sites alongside it that are treed. The office has a color coded chart that will tell you which ones are best for your rig if you arrive without reservations but ours is perfect for our 33' motorhome. We're at the end of the lake, just next to the path to it, as well as across from the path leading to the showers and have excellent WiFi! Others have reported no AT&T and that was true for us but even boosted we had no Verizon signal either. You can however, text and make WiFi calls if your phone has that capability and you are either near or go near the WiFi signal. (there is a map in the office showing where the WiFi spots are.)

The sites are nicely spaced with a fire ring, picnic table water and 30/50A electricity, however they are not all level. Our site 25 was very nice, though 26 was just as nice and probably easier for anyone bigger to get into. The site was almost level but I had to park far enough forward to keep from going down into a dip so we could not extend the awning. However, there are enough trees that I cannot see this being a problem even in summer. The shower/toilet house is impeccably clean with two showers per gender. There is decent-good pressure, the stalls are well maintained even if older, with a separate dressing area enclosed and a shower curtain to keep it dry. And the best thing in this cold weather? They are heated.

One other thing of note, if your dump is on the driver's side of the coach as our is, the dump will be on the wrong side when exiting the camp. We had to turn around but I am sure there is a better way and it would be worth asking at the registration.

On the side of the lake opposite the campground there are paddle boats and a concession stand and there is a trail that leads all around the lake. There are also ducks and geese that seem "trained" to beg for food but are not aggressive about it. There is also a hiking trail (easy) that takes up to 2 hours that winds through the woods from the end of the lake. At this time of year the leaves have dropped so there was little to see, so it was merely fresh air, nature and exercise all of which we were craving.

The campground was blissfully quiet and seeing the way the staff attend to the park and visitors we imagine they enforce quiet hours when it's crowded. The gate does close at night but you will be given the gate code when you check in. We didn't use it.

Bonus: while away from it all in the park, you are literally minutes away from downtown Salisbury where there are plenty of places to dine or shop. And, though we didn't go, there is a train museum that is supposed to be fun and informative.

We arrived without a reservation to find the Autumn Jubilee was about to commence the next day, so the park was full apart from one dry hook up site. Thankfully the area is wooded as it was hot and humid. Not the best to not have power for the air con, but thankfully a quiet park so we had our windows open fully all night.

Bathhouse needs maintenance but usable. The park that surrounds it has alot of activities to do, varying in price. We attended the festival which we all thoroughly enjoyed, and were able to walk there from the rv park.

Loved it. Lots of stuff to do especially for kids relax walking around the trails or see the Zoo animals even a petting farm my kids loved the gems, we had parking enough for 3 cars, but we only had 2 my truck and my wife's van. Highly recommended

Great park for family camping. Staff very friendly. Not many sites to accommodate larger RVs. Would have given five stars if full hook ups were available. I will return to this park in the future.

We made reservations on line and did not pay close enough attention to the email confirmation which stated the gate closed at 5. We got there after 5 but luckily were able to get to our site thanks to another camper who knew the code. This was a one-nighter for us as we were meeting family from Charlotte. What a nice little park! The sites are nice and spaced out. The bathrooms clean and warm. The cell signal was good with AT&T but with Verizon we could not connect at the campground though we did at the entrance from the main road near the gate. During the night we heard coyotes off in the distance... a very strange sound if you've never heard it. There's a nice little lake and they rent boats. There's a trail going all around it too.

We loved it! Lots of room and trails for kids and adults to ride bikes or walk around. Within walking or biking distance to Dan Nicholas Park that has a train ride, splash pad, mini golf, paddle boats, zoo, playground, lots of picnic tables/areas and a carousel. The campground has mostly 50/30 amp with Water sites and a few no hookup site.

We will defiantly be returning to cam again.

Reservations number 704-216-7808
https://rowancountync.gov/430/camping

For a county park, Dan Nicholas is good. But it does have a few issues that need addressed, especially if you have a larger rig. Some sites are VERY tight, and if you have slide outs, some wouldn’t work for you at all. They’re also a bit unlevel and very sandy. They all need a fresh layer of gravel. They also need to cut down some of the smaller annoying trees that make backing into your site a bit harrowing, to say the least. It could just be “cleaned up” a bit and be much more user friendly. Also, zero cell service. When we made our reservation, we confirmed that WiFi was available in the campground. In fact, we picked the site closest to the router location for optimal service. Well, it was “down”, and it sounded like it was a frequent occurrence. Also, and probably our biggest annoyance - the dump station is on the wrong side. You have to circumnavigate the entire campground and come back in the exit side (when we asked about this because we assumed the road was one way- as are most campgrounds- they told us the road is two way and to just go back in the exit for the dump station, so your sewer hose will be on the correct side.) Not sure what would have happened had we met another RV. Absolutely no way two could pass. Glad we didn’t have to find out. We were there mid-week, so it wasn’t busy at all, but we can only imagine the headache this would have been on a weekend. Even though this park is very close to home, I doubt we’ll be back.