Good car camping spots near Knoxville, TN?

[MrMiner2]

Sorry, if this is the wrong place to post. However, I know WHiteblazers are beyond wise.

I backpack a good amount in the smokies and Tellico. However, I never pay attention to car camping spots. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

[TNhiker]

thats a wide open question..

do you mean "car camping spots" as in established campgrounds?

or do you mean "car camping spots" as in drive down and road and find a place to tent beside the road?

either way----to answer the first one-----not sure about knoxville proper (i do live in knoxville though)---but outside of knoxville-----there are established places that have camping such as big ridge state park.....panther creek state park........TVA has a bunch of other campgrounds scattered throughout the lake areas...........the smokys has established campgrounds............big south fork has a few campgrounds.....indian boundary lake has a campground....and then of course there are privately run campgrounds in area as well (like koa and crap like that)...


as for the pull of side of road campsites----you'll find more of these in national forests....

citico creek road (and the roads that branch off of there) has numerous places to car camp.......

there are also places down in the bald river area..............

and if you go on the east side----there are all kinds of places in the roads near max patch......


hope that helps....