"Day Camping" near Charlotte

ljn21

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HI Everyone
Before we moved from AZ we used to enjoy a place near Flagstaff that we found when sxoutinf for elk where we could do what we called day camp. No official camp site, but we could find spots where you could pull off the dirt/gravel roads and make a small fire (safely) to cook lunch, kids could run and play in the woods, shoot bb/pellet guns, etc. Is there places like that here near Charlotte? We were going to venture out by South Mountain today to find some unpaved roads but am confused about having fires outside of designated camp grounds amd if its ok to shoot a bb gun...anyone know?
 
Nope, there are no public lands like out west.
 
Yep, you will need to go to a state or county park. But you won't be able to build a fire unless they have a designated area to do so. I wouldn't advise just pulling off of a dirt road somewhere and making yourself at home. It is someone's private property and they likely won't take too kindly to that.
 
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Yep, you will need to go to a state or county park. But you won't be able to build a fire unless they have a designated area to do so. I wouldn't advise just pulling off of a dirt road somewhere and making yourself at home. It is someone's private property and they likely won't take too kindly to that.

Appreciate the guidance!
 
in AZ this would have been in National Forest land
You can go up around Brevard into the Pisgah National Forest and just pull off and hike. You would need to check in at the Ranger station about fires and BB guns.
 
Yeah, Pisgah National Forest is about as close to that as you will find around here. They have some fire roads that have rough camping spots on them and you can have a fire as long as no fire band in effect. Craig Creeks Road off Brown Mountain Beach road comes to mind.
 
The gamelands above Morganton and Uwharrie are probably your closest spots. Steele creek, Upper Creek, and the upper reaches of Wilson Creek have some spots. Those are all west of Morganton.
 
Yeah, Pisgah National Forest is about as close to that as you will find around here. They have some fire roads that have rough camping spots on them and you can have a fire as long as no fire band in effect. Craig Creeks Road off Brown Mountain Beach road comes to mind.

Thanks for the recommendation!
 
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This is an interesting topic. You always here about enjoying the great outdoors but when you want to get out and do it all of a sudden you are confronted with a myriad of rules, regulations, and restrictions. Isn't that why you want to get out there, to get away from all that bull?
 
This is an interesting topic. You always here about enjoying the great outdoors but when you want to get out and do it all of a sudden you are confronted with a myriad of rules, regulations, and restrictions. Isn't that why you want to get out there, to get away from all that bull?

Agree! Feel like its hard to try and figure out the rules too...example, google-ing about fires gave a range of answers from yes to no to maybe so. Also, we dont know our signs/markers like we did in AZ or WI like what the markers look like for state land boundries vs private land or if there even is any in NC/SC, or if that "road" in front of you is a public road or a private driveway. We came across a neat small pond yesterday that had a small pullout by it, a log bench, picnic table, etc but there was clearly private property right next to pullout, shed, junk in woods, etc. The pullout had this sign, google didnt return anything useful. We wanted to stop and eat lunch by the pond, which was FULL of bluegills and would have made a peaceful and fun snack/fishing diversion for awile. Anyone know what the sign means or been there before??
 

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I would recommend 3 things to get if you don't have yet:

NC widlife rule book, new one comes out every year- online version https://www.ncwildlife.org/Licensing/Regulations

NC gameland booklet, again a new one each year- online too https://www.ncwildlife.org/Hunting/Where-To-Hunt-Shoot/Public-Places

and a NC Gazetteer map book. It has just about all the goat paths a car can go down and some info on fishing spots. You can find them online or at Walmart- https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/b2....jpeg?odnHeight=450&odnWidth=450&odnBg=ffffff
 
Nope, there are no public lands like out west.

There are plenty of public lands as mentioned above, but they are not managed quite the same as many public lands out west. You just have to find out which lands are managed in ways that fit your needs. You might not find any public lands that allow you to do all the things you could do on public lands elsewhere. Usage become more restrictive as more and more people want to use (and sometimes abuse) a limited resource.
 
@ljn21
This is located on Highway 521, between the town of Lancaster and the community of Indian Land. We aren’t from the area (from Horry County) but have very good friends in the Indian land/Waxhaw area and are up there probably 10-12 times a year.
We’ve spent maybe a half day there (at the park) and enjoyed it, the boys (we have 4 ages 5-14) wanted to fish but as it was a spur of the moment thing we didn’t have our equipment. We walked the trail around the lake and just explored and it was cool.
 
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