Great Smoky Mountains National Park Camping: Every Campground, 2026 Guide

Great Smoky Mountains National Park camping is one of the best deals in the national park system. There's no entrance fee, and a campsite costs $30 a night. The park has ten developed campgrounds across Tennessee and North Carolina, from the huge, busy Elkmont and Cades Cove to small, quiet spots like Big Creek and Abrams Creek.

This guide covers camping in the Smoky Mountains in 2026: every campground in the park, what it costs, how reservations work, where to find campground maps, and what's closed right now.

Is Camping in the Smokies Open Right Now?

Yes. Cades Cove and Smokemont campgrounds are open all year. The other eight campgrounds are seasonal. They usually open in spring and close between mid-October and late November. Here's what's behind the "Smoky Mountains campground closed" searches:

• The smaller campgrounds are back. Abrams Creek, Balsam Mountain, Big Creek, Cataloochee, Cosby and Look Rock were all closed at some point in 2024–2025, for storm repairs, road work or staffing. All of them are on the park's 2026 operating schedule.
• Look Rock reopened in 2025 after a nine-year closure, and it's the only campground in the park with electric sites.
• Trail closures. The NPS alerts page (last updated August 2026) still lists the Laurel Falls Trail as closed for rehabilitation. The Bullhead Trail is closed Monday through Thursday through November 19.
• Winter road closures. Newfound Gap Road, the main road over the mountains, can close for snow and ice. If you're driving between Gatlinburg and Cherokee in winter, check the road status first.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Campgrounds

All ten frontcountry campgrounds have flush toilets and cold running water. None of them have showers. Here's how they compare:

Exact opening and closing dates change every year, so check each campground's page on nps.gov before you book.

Elkmont Campground

Elkmont Campground is the largest campground in the Great Smoky Mountains and the most searched. It sits along the Little River, about 8 miles from Gatlinburg. Sites are shaded, and several are right on the water. In early June, Elkmont hosts the synchronous fireflies. To see them, you'll need a parking pass from a Recreation.gov lottery, but campers already at Elkmont are right in the middle of it. Book as early as you can for June and October.

Cades Cove Campground

Cades Cove Campground is at the start of the 11-mile Cades Cove Loop, the best place in the park to see deer, turkey and black bears. It has a camp store, bike rentals and a dump station. The loop road is closed to cars on Wednesdays from early May through late September, which makes it a great morning to bike it straight from your site.

Smokemont Campground

Smokemont Campground is on the North Carolina side, along the Oconaluftee River about 6 miles from Cherokee. Like Cades Cove, it's open all year, which makes it one of the few places to camp in the Smokies in winter. The Oconaluftee Visitor Center and the elk fields are a short drive away.

Deep Creek, Cosby and Look Rock

• Deep Creek Campground is just outside Bryson City, NC. Three waterfalls (Juney Whank, Tom Branch and Indian Creek) are an easy walk away, and the creek is known for tubing.
• Cosby Campground is in the quiet northeast corner of Tennessee. It's a good base for the Mount Cammerer and Hen Wallow Falls hikes, and it usually has more open sites than Elkmont.
• Look Rock Campground is off the Foothills Parkway on the western edge of the park. Its electric sites cost $36 a night.

Small Campgrounds: Balsam Mountain, Cataloochee, Abrams Creek and Big Creek

• Balsam Mountain is the highest campground in the park at 5,310 feet. Pack for cold nights even in summer.
• Cataloochee is at the end of a long, winding gravel road in a remote valley. It's the best campground for watching elk at dawn and dusk.
• Abrams Creek has just 16 sites at the far western end of the park, near the Abrams Falls trail.
• Big Creek has 12 tent-only walk-in sites near the Waterville exit off I-40. The Midnight Hole and Mouse Creek Falls hike starts right there.

Great Smoky Mountains Campground Reservations

Reservations for all park campgrounds are made on Recreation.gov, up to six months in advance. For summer weekends, Elkmont in firefly season and October leaf season, sites can be gone within minutes of release.

Key rules:

• Fee: $30 a night for a standard site at every campground. Look Rock electric sites cost $36. Group camps cost $38–$94, depending on the site.
• Check in at 1 p.m., check out at noon.
• Stay limit: 14 nights in a row, with no more than 60 nights in a calendar year.
• Quiet hours: 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Generators can't run from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
• Firewood: Only heat-treated firewood that's bundled and certified by the USDA or a state agriculture department. Buy it at the camp store or a nearby dealer. Don't bring wood from home.
• Parking tags: There's no entrance fee, but any car parked in the park for more than 15 minutes needs a parking tag. You don't need one while you're parked at your own campsite. If you drive to a trailhead, you do.
• Bears: Store all food, coolers and trash in a hard-sided vehicle or a bear-proof locker. This rule is enforced.

Great Smoky Mountains Campground Maps

Each campground's page on nps.gov has a campground map, and Recreation.gov shows a site map you can use to pick a specific site. The loop layout matters most at Elkmont, where the riverside sites book up first, and at Deep Creek, which has a separate tent-only loop. The official park map is on the NPS "Maps" page. Download it before you go, because there's little or no cell signal in most of the park.

Best Campground in the Smoky Mountains

The best choice depends on your trip:

• Best for first-timers: Cades Cove, for the wildlife and the loop road.
• Best for families: Elkmont, for creek play and the short walk to the Elkmont ghost town.
• Best in winter: Smokemont or Cades Cove, the only two that stay open.
• Best for RVs: Cades Cove, Smokemont or Elkmont. Look Rock if you need electricity. None of the park campgrounds have full hookups.
• Best for solitude: Big Creek, Abrams Creek or Cataloochee.

Is Greenbrier a Campground?

Not in the park. Greenbrier is a section of the national park near Gatlinburg. It's the trailhead for Ramsey Cascades and Porters Creek, and it has a picnic area, but there's no NPS campground there. Most searches for a "Greenbrier campground" in the Smoky Mountains lead to private campgrounds on US 321 outside the park. The same goes for the Smoky Mountains KOA sites and the private RV resorts in Pigeon Forge and Cosby. They aren't national park campgrounds, and you can't book them on Recreation.gov.

Recommended Gear

Mountain nights in the Smokies are cooler and wetter than people expect. The park gets more rain than almost anywhere else in the lower 48. A dependable tent with a full rainfly, like the Coleman Sundome, handles the afternoon storms. At Balsam Mountain, and from October onward at any campground, a warm bag like the Teton Celsius Sleeping Bag is worth packing. You'll also want a bright headlamp like the Black Diamond Spot 400-R for walks to the bathhouse and for keeping an eye out for bears after dark.

Heading across Tennessee? See our guides to Fall Creek Falls State Park camping and Tims Ford State Park camping, and the status update on David Crockett Birthplace campground. For more Southern Appalachian camping, read our Grayson Highlands State Park camping guide. Before your trip, brush up on camping in the rain and how to stay warm camping.