r/GeorgiaCampAndHike • u/ceo_of_the_homies • 6d ago

Question State Parks Similar to Black Rock Mountain?

Can anyone reccomend any parks similar to Black Rock where the campsites are up on the mountain? The wife and I visited earlier this year and absolutely loved hiking there and spending evenings in downtown Clayton, unfortunately the park is pretty booked up for our anniversary week we want to go

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u/pariah1984 6d ago

Check out Monte Sano state park in Alabama. It’s a beautiful park nestled on top of a mountain overlooking Huntsville.

And there’s plenty to do. For fun in the city, go down the west side of the mountain to Huntsville (and the rocket museum if that’s your thing)

For fun in nature, go down the east side of the mountain and check out Cathedral Caverns, High Falls, DeSoto Falls, Little River Canyon, and all the other cool stuff the Cumberland Plateau contains.

Edit to add- if you want a bit further drive, check out Mile High campground in Cherokee, NC. It’s private, not a state park, but it’s not too expensive and run by some great folks. And the views are incredible. No hookups, though.

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u/SusanMWarEagle 6d ago

Just got back from there a week ago (Mile High). We used to go when our kids were little and it was rarely full. This time it was mostly full on a weekend forecast with rain and a lot of people showed up on Sunday and Monday. The cat’s out of the bag unfortunately! Love it there so much.

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u/pariah1984 6d ago

It has certainly become popular! I go there a few times a year and have become friends with the owner along with my camping group. We went for a meet up a couple weeks ago and it rained the entire weekend, and yet the campground was 3/4 full. But it still didn’t feel crowded!

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u/ceo_of_the_homies 6d ago

How friendly was the surrounding area at monte sano? My wife being a black woman has her reservations against states like Alabama and Mississippi so would just want to make sure we would be safe (to be fair the rebel shop on the way into Clayton scared us, but the town became our favorite place with the best people we have visited. Dont judge a book by its cover lol).

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u/pariah1984 6d ago

Haha yeah, that rebel shop in Clayton is certainly an interesting choice, but I think it mostly caters to the locals that live up in the hollers. In my experience, there should be no issues in any of the areas that are more tourist oriented, like Clayton or Huntsville. Or any of those natural attractions that I mentioned in Alabama. I’m a white dude, so I might not be quite as attenuated to picking up such things, but I never saw any indication that she would have any concern in any of the places I mentioned. Huntsville is a pretty big city, and being a big city in Alabama, it is quite a diverse populace, from what I saw.

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u/ceo_of_the_homies 6d ago

awesome, thank you so much!

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u/IOI-65536 6d ago

There are no other state parks with campsites on the side of a mountain in Georgia. Vogel has cabins up the hill from the lake, but camping is at the back.

I know of backcountry (backpacking) sites in several places, Yonah is probably the easiest to get to but also Blood and Springer Mountains on the AT, but you would have to carry your gear up and generally water is seasonal at best.

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u/ceo_of_the_homies 6d ago

ahh, thank you this is great knowledge!

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u/Samantha_Cruz 6d ago

Fort mountain State park in the cohuttas

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u/Roadscrape 5d ago

Fort Mountain is the way.

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u/SporadicallyInspired 6d ago

Cloudland Canyon. Opposite side of North Georgia, but beautiful. Small town at the base of the plateau, another maybe 30 minutes to drive up to Chattanooga.

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u/That-Biscotti-3266 6d ago

Not GA parks but since you got up to Black Rock you may not mind going a little farther into NC. 1) standing Indian- campsites are down in the Valley but surrounded by great AT hiking and the town of Franklin is nearby and just as nice as Clayton. 2) if you don’t mind going another 1hr past Clayton, go to Waynesville and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Blue Ridge parkway has a great campsite right near the Pisgah Inn(probably too late to get anything at the Inn). Lots, and I mean lots, of great trails to hike near the Pisgah Inn. Top recommendation is Black Balsam.

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u/Roadscrape 5d ago

Mt Pisgah campground is right across the road from Pisgah Inn. The tent area is a quarter mile away from the RV area. Nice and quiet. No real views, but is largest campground on BRP - loads of roadside pullouts for views.

That said there is a private campground off the BRP on a ridge top with views from most campsites - Mile High Campground.

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u/Good_Log_5108 6d ago

Black rock is pretty unique in that sense. Sometimes it’ll feel like you’re camping in a cloud, when the weather is right. 

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u/Previous_Minimum_116 6d ago

Tallulah is just right down the road from Black Rock. The campground is not on top of the mountain, but it is actually closer to Clayton.

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u/ceo_of_the_homies 6d ago

we hit up tallulah for a day last time we were there (still a beautiful park). Might be our best bet, just wanted to see if there was any camping up on a mountain like black rock first