Vacation: Blackberry Blossom Campground

This is from the drive to our next camping location, Blackberry Blossom Campground in Unicoi.

While we enjoyed the campground we previously stayed at near Erwin, we wanted to try this place.

Oh my! It may be our new favorite campground.

This place set the bar pretty high (no pun intended).

A little perspective on the elevation in Unicoi.

According to the weather stations on Wunderground:

Home is 699 feet.

Newport, where we stayed for four days, is 1312 feet.

Erwin is 1923 feet.

Unicoi is about 20 minutes from our family in Erwin.

I don't think we've ever camped this high.

This place is a hidden gem in the mountains.

We found them via a good old fashioned internet search and I'm so glad we did!

Dwayne and I enjoy camping more when there's fewer people around.

It's more peaceful when you're not camping in close proximity to each other.

If I can hear my tent neighbor talking (or yelling) to their kids, they're too close.

This place is private and by reservation only.

So no rowdy families pulling off the interstate at the last minute looking for place to stay.

Plus it's tent camping only! Which is hard to find sometimes.

Our kind of place.

There were other campers and families there.

We met a nice family with one son. They fished at the pond a few times.

The other family was in and out and we didn't see much of them.

We learned that the son was proposing to his girlfriend...

and later found out he used painted rocks on the hiking trail to propose.

This place is a farm that part of it has been turned into a very nice campground.

They have an inn here too for those who don't like to rough it.

It's family owned and operated.

The staff is very friendly and treats you like family.

All the campsites were very well shaded.

Our campsite was nestled just inside the tree line.

I'm standing in the shadow of it looking across the pasture.

We chose one of the bigger sites that we were confident would house our tent.

Plus it was closest to the bathhouse. :)

Beautiful spot.

This is the tiny creek that ran beside the campsite.

You could hear it trickling.

All set up.

That's the bathhouse up the hill from us.

This is quite possibly the best camping bathhouse ever.

Seriously.

First and foremost this bathhouse has an outdoor kitchen washing station.

Although we didn't really need it we thought that was a brilliant idea.

I should have taken more pictures of it.

The boys are sitting in the shade at the front of the bathhouse.

Each bathroom had a room for the shower and a room for the toilet.

The main area had the sink.

Not only was this bathhouse clean, it had some extra touches to make it special.

There was a blow drier and travel size things in case you lost yours.

A little step stool for kids.

The shower room had a stool inside the stall and a table and hooks just outside the shower.

We found out that the family that owns this place used to camp with their family.

They used their years of camping experience to make their campground.

These people really thought things through.

This is their camp store. Also special in its own way.

It's so humble looking.

It is an amazing little store.

I can't believe I didn't take more photos of the inside of this store.

Think small country five and dime.

They had everything you could think of in here.

Everything from camping supplies to artisan soaps.

There was a microwave for the campers to use! (We've never seen that.)

There was a charging station for your electronic devices.

Snacks to buy.

Maps and pamphlets with local history.

There was a bookshelf of books and kids games to borrow.

(The only rule for the borrowed things was to use it at the store.)

How cool is that?

Oh, and the store is open 24 hours.

Above the shelves in the store there were all sorts of cool nick-knack things to look at.

I loved this old sewing machine.

Confession time. We didn't tell the kids there was Wi-Fi until the second day.

We're such horrible parents. (If you didn't read the sarcasm there please add it.)

It didn't reach our campsite but that's OK. We didn't need it.

Friendly kitty.

Sign above the store door.

We most certainly felt welcome.

The front porch on the store was like sitting at a friend's porch.

This little pond is near the bathhouse and camp store.

Very peaceful!

I should have gotten a better picture of that sign.

It basically informs you of the wildlife that lives in the pond.

The noteworthy one being non-poisonous snakes.

We saw several.

We spent a lot of time walking around or sitting by this pond.

View from the store.

View from the bathhouse.

This pond housed many large bull frogs.

They sang most of time...

including all evening and maybe all night.

It was fun to try to spot them around the pond.

We even saw some bull frog tadpoles.

Largest tadpole we've ever seen!

Connor and I decided to go exploring.

We were heading to one of the trails on the farm.

Not the greatest picture but it's the trail up to the other campsites.

These camp sites are more secluded than ours.

The campground loads your gear on a wagon and drives it up here for you.

That keeps the trail from getting torn up by vehicles.

Another reason we opted for the campsite we picked.

One of the sites.

All of the fire pits we saw were like this.

Large rocks piled around in a circle.

This one was lined by a boulder.

Just beyond the upper campsites is a trail.

I love the overgrowing trees.

It makes it look like a tunnel.

Yes, I found mushrooms!

It's hard to read but this is a little graveyard.

Apparently there was some sort of feud in 1898.

Sadly it ended the lives of this family.

We couldn't find any writing on these stones.

It was difficult to make out the headstones.

We think we found them all.

Interesting plants.

They were soft.

 I found another mushroom.

This one was a little larger than the others.

Connor's hand for comparison.

It was getting dark by the time we headed back.

Truth be told, this photo was from the second time we went.

I managed to lose my charging cable and thought I dropped it on the trail.

After hiking this trail the second time and not finding said cable,

I realized I put it down and Dwayne picked it up.

I had used his cable and not mine.

So we hiked the trail looking for my cable not realizing

I had used Dwayne's and already put it back!

Geesh.

Thankfully, the hike is only 15 minutes round trip.

I cannot say enough good things about Blackberry Blossom Campground.

We really enjoyed our stay and look forward to staying there again.