Giving a honest review of Blue Bear Mountain located at
196 Blue Bear Mountain Road, Todd, NC 28684
Dates of Stay: November 13-15th, 2020
Overall Rating: 3.4/5 - Please note this is based off of the Rankings BELOW - This campground is easily a 4/5 for want to revisit.
Roads: 2/5
Bathouse: 4/5
Playground: N/A
Fishing: N/A
Pool: N/A
Sites: 3/5
Extras: 4.5/5
Roads
NOTE: Even the Campground recommends 4x4 during winter months. ALSO FOLLOW THE CHECK-IN and CHECK-OUT Times this is critical for safety reasons if your towing.
The roads coming into the campground are the only thing that are a definite negative for this campground. It is a Mountain Camp and that is a very honest assessment of the campground. 421 and 194 are fine for towing in for anyone who has towed in the mountains. Neither of these roads are cause for concern. Note if your coming from the Winston area 421 does have one stretch where you will have to slow down for your transmission. (We tow with a 5.0 4x2 F-150 with a 5600 lb camper for reference) Once you turn off of 194 BE PREPARED!!! You have now started on a just over 1.5 car wide gravel road. Please pay attention to the check-in time this is for your safety. We had multiple cars pull over to allow us to continue pulling up the mountain. The first 800-1000ft of Longhope Road is not bad, after that you begin a quick increase climb to Blue Bear Mountain Road. See the topo map below. This is a gravel road. There is not room for you to pass another unit in most spots. We came in just after some rain. We tow with a 4x2 truck, I will be brutally honest if my husband did not know how to put foot into his truck and if his truck did not "identify" with a 4x4 truck (33" Grabber AT/X Tires with a leveling kit) we probably would not have made it up the hill with the 5600lbs behind us. Once you get up the hill and get into the turn for the campground (watch the fence, we were coming in hot with our foot on the gas and barely missed it) your fine as the campground sits on a beautiful plateau on a mountain top. Beauty does not even give the view justice.
Bathhouse
Each bathhouse at this facility is a private shower/ toilet combo. They have some labeled for women and men. We did use the bathhouses at this campground as we were on tank water and a dump station set up so to take that nice hot shower both my husband and I used the bathhouse. They had ample hot water and plenty of cleaning supplies to wash down surfaces others had used. I also watched them wash the bathhouses Saturday.
Playground
There is no playground but the mountain here is your playground. Our son enjoyed running across the plateau and going for a hike on their marked trails
Fishing
There is a small pond and you have to pay to fish. We did not do this while we were there as we had tickets to Tweetsie Christmas so we left early to go down to Blowing Rock. Additionally you have to get to their pond, I am sure we could of asked if they would take us (my father-in-law has bad knees now and the hike to get there would not have worked.)
Pool
There is no pool at this location.
Sites
Sites the critical questions everyone always has. The sites at Blue Bear are Electric ONLY. You have to stop and fill up your fresh water tank on your way in. You also have to stop at the dump station on the way out. However, Blue Bear cares about their RV campers. They have extra water totes so you can bring water down to your camper. We also should of asked but we had an issue with our tank sensor reading full when in fact our tank was pretty empty. My husband and I used the truck to haul 50 gallons of water using their (2x 5 gallon tanks and our 2x 5 gallon buckets). We found out after that they had additional hose that could of reached our site and would of gladly hooked it up for us. They have 13 sites for RV's. I must have a love for campgrounds with only 13 RV sites. We stayed in C5 & C6 they are pull through sites. The old mountain man (who was amazing) who worked there recommend us pull through opposite the way the hook up is (30ft of cable was needed) so that our view when we stepped out of the camper was of the mountain and ohhh what a view.
While only have 13 RV sites there are numerous tent sites including tent sites where you have to backpack in. This place was truly unique and quite cool.
Extras
As far as extras there is a lot to see here. Turns out the campground is part of two mountains and they have marked trails to get you there. You can hike through valleys along the mountain and to ponds. The views alone here can keep you busy. Breathtaking is how I recall it. Also they have some really cool features on the site in the form of Teepees. If your an outdoorsy person and love to hike, Blue Bear Mountain has everything you need in one place never have to leave the campground. The trails are marked and marked quite well as long as you pay attention to the colors. Look at some of the images below for the trail info. I would of went further and walked the whole trail system but we forgot our toddlers hiking pack at home (oops) so I could only do what he would walk with me. The camp hosts/staff have maps available and will give you insight on their trails.
Overall we will be more than likely be back. If it was not for the road coming in we would of probably booked another trip there already so that my family could hike the full property.
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