Falls Lake State Recreation Area, Rolling View: Campground Review

If you want to go see lemurs at the Duke Lemur Center, you’re going to need a campground to stay at, right? Right. I remember at some point I was having trouble finding a well-reviewed RV park near Durham, but now I can’t figure out why. There are several different State Recreation Area campgrounds in the area, all of which seem to be well-reviewed and well-priced. We picked the one that was most convenient to the things we were planning to see in the area, which was the Rolling View section of Falls Lake SRA.

Booking and Arrival

I just checked my records (by which I mean, I never delete e-mails: I just searched my inbox) and we booked our campsite a full 10 months in advance. We were there Memorial Day weekend (Sunday to Tuesday), so I guess we were nervous that it would sell out. It did indeed look very busy Sunday night, but things cleared out quite a bit Monday at check out time. I just played around the reservation system a bit: there’s almost no availability right now for Labor Day weekend (a few weeks away as of this writing), but plenty of spaces left for an upcoming weekend in August. So you should be good booking fairly last minute for all but holiday weekends. W/E sites are $24/night.

We had a long drive Sunday and arrived a little after five. There was a pretty big line of cars waiting to get into the park, but they had park workers walking through the line and checking people in to speed things along. Incidentally, the only rule printed on the parking pass, and the only rule they make a point of telling you, is that no alcohol is allowed. But this might have been a Memorial Day weekend thing (the emphasis on the rule, not the rule itself).

Campsites

We stayed in the B loop, in site B14. Most of the sites in this loop were very spacious and looked like they’d be fine for any size rig, but there were a few near the entrance to the loop that were pull-off style and looked like they could be very tight.

Our site was VERY long, and wooded and narrow, but there was plenty of room on the road to maneuver, and we didn’t have any trouble backing in.

We really loved our site; we had neighbors on one side with lots of separations and woods between us and them, but on the other side there was just a view of the lake through the trees and a magical path from our site to the pier.

Our site was huge, with steps from the pad down to a big area with a picnic table and fire ring:

There were some sites that were a lot more out in the open, if that’s what you’re looking for:

Amenities, Activities, and Campground Overall

The main thing going on here is water activities on Falls Lake, which is a 12,000 acre reservoir. There’s boating, swimming, and fishing available in or near the campground, which seemed to be used mostly by local people there for the holiday weekend. We didn’t get a chance to do more than observe the lake from the pier at the end of our magic path, however.

There are some hiking trails through the campground, but it was pouring much of the time we were there, so we didn’t get to check them out very much.

Bathhouses were clean but a bit dated. One thing I noticed was that there were no curtains across the changing room part of the showers (so there was the shower with a curtain and then a changing area adjacent to that, but no curtain).

Local Area

We were here for the proximity to Durham, which is about 25 minutes away. The campground itself is in a pretty rural area, so you’re looking at a decent drive to get much of anywhere. Dave had to find a Home Depot on our last morning when we realized the cotter pin from our hitch had gone missing, and it was a pretty substantial drive. But you’re well situated to explore the Research Triangle area–close to Durham and 40 or 45 minutes to either Raleigh or Chapel Hill.

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