Lake Powhatan

Overall a very good stay due to respectful Neighbors, well-maintained site and kind individuals at the Gate.
Bathrooms however were not maintained frequently enough…Campground was at full capacity too so they should have been cleaned throughout the day.

We will be back though and hope the cleaning schedule will have tightened up.

We stayed at Lake Powhatan over Labor Day weekend — our fourth trip and third year in a row, so we're basically regulars at this point. This time we were on the Big John loop for the first time, and the site we got (013) was really nice.

We love this campground. It's a solid, well-kept spot, the site itself was great, and we had a campfire pretty much every night — there's plenty of firewood around if you're willing to go collect it. The lake is a short drive or a medium walk for a swim, though heads up it was pretty shallow and silty with the low water this year.

The one thing to know: if you don't have a camper, the walk to the bathhouse adds up. Not a dealbreaker, but worth planning for. We had a water spigot right in front of our site which was convenient. The hosts are very active driving their gas golf carts around quite often, that might be my only very minor complaint. Also this was the first year we didn't actually see a bear but the site up from us did report one around their bear box.

Overall we loved it, and we'll be back.

Large and private sites. Our trip was very peaceful.

So many campsites to choose from with wonderful hiking trails

I have been camping the National Park systems for 40 years and am very disappointed with the move in the last several years to move to contractors/concessionaires. I do not think there should be an $8.00 reservation fee by some contractors at some campground sites. I didn't even notice the additional fee until after I had booked. My fault that I didn't look after I typed everything in as I was in a rush. $45 for one night, no electric or water is not what I expect from these sites. I found this spot to get a site last minute. The gentleman in the booth stated I couldn't drive around and pick a site, because he didn't know which sites were empty. He showed me a stack of reservations, where people hadn't checked in yet. He knew of a couple of sites that were empty. Normally I see these reservations posted on the site, so last minute 1 night check ins can pick a site. I don't understand why these contractors wouldn't do that. Since I was able to get limited wifi (they didn't haven't at the booth area), he allowed me to go see if I could find an empty site and check on recreation.gov to confirm it was not reserved. Again to add an $8 fee at all, but especially for a one night stay is ridiculous. To think of sending paying customers away from a campground because you don't want to put the reserve tickets on a post takes away from the campgrounds earnings. I like to look for a spot because I need a bathroom nearby and I travel with dogs, so want to make sure I'm not too close to another site or right on the path to a bathroom.
The sites were nice, there was a shower that took a bit to warm up. The lake seemed small to me and did have a small beach area. The lake loop campsites, which I didn't camp on didn't seem to have a view of the lake, although they were a bit closer to the lake then the other sites. For the price I would not camp here again.

We had a fantastic time at this campground, the staff was on point with turning over campsites for the next guest. Ian was our favorite and went above and beyond to help us out. Lake was great, take a walk up the creek, its fun. Dog friendly, beautiful area. Good times

Lovely site. so quiet. Love the location to trails and Asheville too!

I love Lake Powhatan Campground! This was my fourth or fifth time staying here, and it continues to be one of my favorite campgrounds. The campsites are spacious and offer a nice sense of privacy, and the bathhouse is always clean and well maintained. The campground is easy to navigate with good signage, and the staff at the entrance station have always been friendly and welcoming.

There are also plenty of nice areas and trails where I can take a quiet walk and enjoy the surroundings.

This trip also came with a very memorable visitor—a black bear wandered right through my campsite one morning! It definitely made for an experience I won’t forget and made me appreciate the secure food-storage lockers even more.

Lake Powhatan is peaceful, beautiful, and well maintained. I’m always happy to return, and I’ll be back again.

Very quiet loop (Hard Times Loop). Basically zero cell service.

Great location