Lookout Mtn & Grandfather's Mtn

[Black Chrome]

Starting on the 4th of July and taking a nice 4 day motorcycle ride with some of my friends. Two of them have never hung before but are very enthused about it. We are leaving Indiana and heading down to Lookout Mountain. Most of the guys aren't into backpacking but we have been getting them geared up. We will be camping the whole way and using alky stoves to keep down on good expense. My question to you guys is where to camp? We are pretty much looking at car camping sites since we don't all have backpacking gear. However we dont really want to be camped with a bunch of RV's. We also need enough room for 4 hammocks. We kind of guessed that national forests and state forests would be our better chances. Lookout mountain is the first days destination and then grandfathers mountain/Linville Gorge the next day. After that we are just winging it. Possibly heading towards West Virginia on day 3 then home on the last day. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[Grits]

O wow that is alot of ground to travel; but around Grandfather Mtn I would hang at Price Park,Linville Gorge, Crabtree Falls camping areas on the Blue Ridge Parkway, they will be crowded. I would make the trip over to the snake Hwy 421 Shady Valley Tn where the Appalachian trail crosses, there are over 400 curves. Medicine Man might be able to give you some tips on camping around Roan Mt which is between Grandfather Mtn and Shady Valley.

[Taliesin]

If you choose to camp at a State Park in Tennessee, I think you need to make reservations ahead of time, now.

Here is a link to the Tennessee State Parks that have camping.
http://www.tn.gov/environment/parks/.../camping.shtml

Here is the link for Reservations. You can call or make them online.
http://www.tn.gov/environment/parks/reservations/

You all have fun! I hope you will hit the Cherohala Sky Way on your way up to Grandfather Mountain. It's a beautiful drive!