Jackrabbit Campground, NC
This past weekend we visited Jackrabbit campground, located in Hayesville, NC for the first time. I always get a little nervous not knowing exactly what to expect at a new site and if I made a good choice when booking online. While the maps are super helpful, they don’t tell you tons about a particular site.
There are three different loops in Jackrabbit Campground (loops A, B, & C). We stayed on Loop B, site 56 and loved the privacy we had. It was a good-sized site and we also had our own lake access. Sure, we had to go down a little wooded path to get there, but for us that just means more privacy.
While we are very familiar with the Jackrabbit cycling and hiking trails, we had never stayed at the campsite. When we first arrived, there is a host motor home set up, but basically no directions as far as how to check in or anything of that nature. We stopped and got the attention of the host to find out exactly where check-in was. To our surprise, you don’t check in there. You make your first reservation online and the sites are marked as reserved with your name and the days you are staying. Don’t have an advanced reservation? No worries at all. You can always check with the host for availability.
I hope that I’m not alone in that I always check the bathrooms out. With kids, it’s just something that I do. These are single person bathrooms, but let’s just say they aren’t that clean. They were rather dirty when we arrived and I’m pretty sure that they weren’t cleaned for the two days of our stay. The showers are separate and private as well.
Jackrabbit Campground like many other campgrounds do have a quiet time from 10pm-7am, but was never enforced. Like I mentioned, we may had seen the host once the entire time. It didn’t bother our family, but I know some people need that quiet time to get the little ones to sleep or even themselves. There were kids riding bikes, scooters, etc and people talking loud way up into the night. Also, you have to remember that anytime you camp around the lake you’ll get noise from the boats all through the night. This didn’t really bother us since we are used to hearing that, and obviously the campground can’t have the boats not go on the water.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with the area, Jackrabbit does offer hiking trails as well as mountain biking trails. The hiking trails are for all fitness levels. We started taking our youngest on the trail when he was three and never had a problem. It takes him awhile because he likes to stop at the water and then check out every plant along the way, but he enjoys it. We just make sure we have our hydration packs and snacks.
The Jackrabbit Mountain Bikes trails are great for all fitness levels as well. My oldest son started riding these trails on his own bike when he was almost 7. He doesn’t ride all the trails, but he does great on the ones we take him on. I think the longest he has done is 6-7 miles at one time and that’s plenty for him. We also take our other son in his Weehoo! They have a blast and always look forward to it.
They also have a really nice “beach” area for those that don’t like putting your toes in the mud of the lake. The shore area is sand and as you go into the water the shallow part is sand. Perfect for the kiddos to play. Not deep at all. Adults or kids that swim can go out further. There are steps that lead from the shallow to the deeper end. If you don’t care to get a little mud between your toes, then you can always just go in at your site (that’s what we did every time, except for once)
Yes, the place had a few flaws like dirty bathrooms, high grass, and lack of enforcing quiet time, but would we go again? Yes we will! In fact we already booked for next month. In the end it really comes down to spending time with the family, unplugged and just enjoying the outdoors. Even with all the not so great areas, our boys had a blast! They love bike riding, swimming in the lake and just being outdoors in general. And how often do you get to see this amazing view first thing in the morning……
