We recently (April 2021) took a family camping trip to Goose Creek State Park in Beaufort County, North Carolina. We spent two nights at camp site #7 right in the center of the primitive tent campground within the park.
Our canvas pyramid tent from Reliable Tent and Tipi
We spent two nights in the middle of the week camping. Due to increased outdoor recreation during the Covid situation, the park was surprisingly crowded. More so than I would have thought for weekday camping. Speaking to staff, it appears that they were indeed experiencing more traffic than normal. The campground was actually booked full the entire time we were there. Despite the uptick in traffic, the park was super clean and everyone was respectful. The primitive tent campground is in it’s own area of the park so there is limited day use visitors there. The campground has its own access to the water (Goose Creek) and many of the trails have trail heads within the campground area. The park also has a separate campground area with camper’s cabins for rent and RV spots. This campground is a treeless parking lot near the front gate of the park. That must appeal to some, but not me.
Scenes from our hike along the Ivy Gut Trail
We chose to hike the Ivy Gut Trail. Some of the trails in the park are still closed due to damage caused by Hurricane Florence in 2018. Flatty Creek Trail and the Palmetto Boardwalk were closed at the time of this writing. The Ivy Gut Trail has a trail head the the campground entrance and and trail head out on the main road through the park. The trail is roughly 2 miles one way and includes a spur loop that takes hikers along the shores of Goose Creek proper. The trail is marked by red triangle blazes and eventually connects with the Palmetto Boardwalk (closed) and the Tar Kiln Trail (unknown status, we did not hike this). The trail is scenic and not strenuous at all. We only saw one other set of hikers on the trail. Instead of hiking the trail back, we walked the road back to the campground.
Scenery along Goose Creek in the primitive’ tent campground.
The camp sites themselves are spacious, clean and well spaced apart. I was impressed by the distance between camp sites. There is two pit toilets located within the primitive campsites and plenty of water wells spaced out along the campground road. Firewood is for sale on the honor system within the primitive campground but there was a lot of deadfall around for collecting firewood. Each campsite has a tent pad, picnic table, lantern hook, charcoal grill and fire ring with grill grate.
I imagine that like most places in Eastern North Carolina, the bugs and snakes would probably be pretty bad here during the warmest months. But as a spring/fall destination, it is pretty hard to beat. I am not sure if NC State Park campgrounds stay open year round, but it would be an awesome winter camping destination also. Either way, we are looking forward to going back someday!
For more information on Goose Creek State Park, or to reserve a campsite, visit their website: Goose Creek State Park Website
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