Bear Den on the Blue Ridge Parkway

July 28- July 31 2022                                                          Most Recent Posts:
Bear Den Campground                                               Wrapping Up Riverbend
BRP near Spruce Pine, NC                         Chinquapin Mountain & Highlands

On Friday July 28, I moved from Riverbend to Bear Den.  It was only a 111 mile drive but the narrow roads, curves and mountains were worse coming from one end of the North Carolina Mountains to the other than they were getting to Riverbend initially.  Driving 11 miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway was the nicest part.  I guess I’m too nervous for mountain driving.  I’m having such a wonderful time in the North Carolina Mountains but I’m not sure I have the fortitude to return again.

The campground at Bear Den is off the Blue Ridge Parkway UP a long narrow gravel road.  The road has driveways to houses along it and dead ends into the campground.   The campground is very large as you can see from the map.  It has both campsites and cabins though the cabins that I saw in the campground have no amenities.  The campground roads themselves go further up the side of the mountain and I was all the way at the top.  Section D.  Low gear just to get there.

The campground’s information says some cabins have Jacuzzi spa tubs, provide a completely equipped kitchen and fully-furnished living area with gas log fireplace, porch and private deck.  But the only ones I saw within the campground were simple one room.   I didn’t look into where the others might be on the 400 acre property.

My site was a pull through which was nice initially but it was very odd in that the two sites “above” me drove right by my patio on the “drive way” every time they went in and out.  There were several other sites I would have liked much better for a month long stay.  Unlike Riverbend where most people were long term – month or seasonal, the sites above me switched out every week-end and later in the month were empty all week long which was very nice though there was still an amazing amount of traffic on the loop that surrounded me.

This picture shows Winnona from the front.  The 3 sites on my “driveway” were in the middle of the road that circled to the top and back which everyone who rented a golf cart, so they didn’t have to walk the steep hills, had to drive up and down.  There was no privacy and often no silence.

The campground had a very small lake separated into a swimming section with a small beach and a fishing section with a dock.

There was more fishing than swimming while I was there but it was seldom too hot here right off of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Notice the mid dock that sticks out into the lake on the swimming side.

Here it is from the top of the dock.  You can see the swimming rope and the fishing dock on the far left.

From the other side of the lake the artificial waterfall is visible.

I guess this makes 3 waterfalls on the property technically.

Bear Den is known as a family campground and in addition to the swimming and fishing lake has a basketball hoop and a popular recreation room.

The campground also has a series of trails on its 400 acres.  And two of them have waterfalls.  The campground areas are in yellow toward the bottom of the map.  I was in area D.

The first hike I did from Bear Den was on the property, the Cascade Trail which I understood had a waterfall on it.  At that point, I thought the property only had one waterfall and I wanted to see it.

The trail began uphill from my site and continued uphill to the falls.  It was steep and long, a single track, rooty and slick in spots.  It was approximately 3 miles round trip but it felt like a lot more.

I found numerous mushrooms but few flowers.  I took pictures of tons of mushrooms.  These are the most interesting ones.

I really wasn’t expecting to see a tiger lily at the base of this large oak.

An example of the rooty trail with fungi I don’t think I’ve seen before.  Look closely for orange “stalks”.

No idea what they are or if they are edible.  Do you know?

Lots of rhododendron and huge rocks as I approached the cascade.

Lovely as it is, it doesn’t seem like a cascade to me.  I called it Dripping Springs.

This video of “dripping springs” is a bit jerky in parts.  The rocks were slick and I was trying to show the area and trail in.  But the sound is magical as always and the negative ions were wonderful. Negative ions are believed to produce biochemical reactions that increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin, helping to alleviate depression, relieve stress, and boost our daytime energy.  I know for sure that I feel better after spending time in them.  And after another harrowing drive,  I was only to happy to spend time here.

I was very glad to arrive and get parked at Bear Den.  This hike not easy, but a nice start to my month long stay here.