By:
Submission
Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced the reopening of Look Rock Campground following a nine-year closure.
Look Rock Campground - elevation ~3,000 feet (914m) - is located along the beautiful Foothills Parkway West between Walland, Tennessee and Chilhowee Lake. Flush toilets and drinking water are available. Ten sites offer electric and water hookups. No shower facilities are located in the campground. Hammocks are allowed over the footprint of the campsite, limited to trees at least 10 inches in diameter with adequate padding around the tree. Only 2 hammocks may be suspended from a single tree.
From town: Go 11 mi SW on Foothills Pkwy.
Beautiful camp grounds in the Smokey Mountains. HOWEVER, DO NOT FOLLOW GOGGLE MAPS TO THAT CAMPSITE. If you follow Google Maps and your pulling a camper you will over heat your truck or Motorhome. It's straight up with 180 degree turns, it's a switch back from HELL. But it's a beautiful place.
Apparently this campground was reopened recently after being closed for some number of years. On the plus side, it's a fairly small campground. The road and sites are paved. The sites are heavily treed with decent spacing between. The hosts were very nice and helpful.
Negatives: RVs are clearly not the target customers. A small number of sites have power and water. Fewer are even close to being level. Some, like 55 aren't properly angled to the road, making backing in a real challenge.
The campground is an hour or more away from the most popular destinations within the park like Cades Cove and Clingmans Dome. To my recollection the one nearby trail is the short walk to Look Rock Tower.
For some reason, GPS routed us on Happy Valley Rd to get to the campground. DO NOT go this way. The road is narrow and the last 2 miles are extremely steep. Find the Parkway and take that into and out of the campground. It's a nicer road, the grades are manageable and there are a number of scenic overlooks with great views.
The park was beautiful besides be covered in poison ivy. We had brought our dog and were worried the entire time about getting a rash kind of steals the joy of camping. The poison ivy wasn't just on trails it was all over our camp site near the fire pit and our tent, also growing under our picnic table. The front office was not there the entire time which was not noted in any of the email traffic. Location was pretty but not sure I would recommend.
The campgrounds are nice, bathrooms functional for the most part. Our site had been washed out at one time, the picture didn't match the site. As others have mentioned the sites are close to each other, you will know your neighbor. The low rating is because of the close proximity to the lawless Foothill Raceway(Parkway). Loud motorcycles ruined the visit. Starts at 8:00 am till 10:00 pm. I can't recommend this campground until the Park Service gets the noise under control.
The campground is newly reopened, the road is nicely paved, a few sites have electricity but most don't. There's a dump station for RVs, and bathrooms but no showers. Don't expect your parking space to be level, expect to use blocks for your RV or trailer. There's the sound of motorcycles enjoying the tight twisty road to get here, but otherwise it's pure nature, with turkeys wandering around and a hiking trail to the tower.
