Crowders Mountain State Park - Camping Near Charlotte

Growing up, I spent many weekends and summer weeks camping. More recently, I have had the pleasure of backpacking through different trails in Pennsylvania. This is something I wanted to continue when I arrived in Charlotte so I decided to recruit Danielle's brothers, David and Andrew, to become my new backpacking group in North Carolina.

I searched for the perfect place for a beginner backpacking experience and found Crowders Mountain. This is a great little spot for someone that wants to try backpacking. There is a short hike in (1 mile) before you arrive at the campsite so there are NO CARS. Hiking in gives you the basic idea of having to carry everything you need to camp.

The amenities at the campsite, however, make this a very artificial backpacking experience. Each campsite has a metal fire ring with a concrete base and a grill for cooking, there are 2 flat pads designated for setting up your tents, and a picnic table. The greatest amenity that this campground offers is free, already-cut firewood. Also, thanks to that hot NC sun, all of the wood and kindling was extremely dry and provided easily-built, quick-lighting fires.

There are a few trails around the mountain. We hiked the Pinnacle Trail to Kings Pinnacle. The trail was described as strenuous and was a little steep towards the end, but since it's only approximately 2 miles long and the top of the trail yields some amazing sights, it is totally worth the hike. From one side, as you can hazily see in the picture below, there is a distant view of the Charlotte skyline. The trail was a little crowed on Saturday, but everyone on the trail was ready to greet fellow hikers with a smile and hello.

Final word: If you're looking to do a day-hike only a short drive from Charlotte, or an intro to backpacking before hiking miles into the woods, Crowders Mountain is the perfect place.