46 state parks and recreation areas in North Carolina

Every North Carolina park in Park Finder. Camping, trails, fees, hours and current alerts are on each park’s own page.

• Bob's Creek State Natural AreaMore than 6,000 acres of sheltered coves, ravines, and rock formations in the Foothills, protecting streams…
• Carolina Beach State ParkHome to the Venus flytrap and to Sugarloaf Dune, a 50-foot rise that once guided river pilots, along with…
• Carvers Creek State ParkTwo accesses northwest of Fayetteville: Long Valley Farm, once James Stillman Rockefeller's winter retreat…
• Chimney Rock State ParkA 315-foot freestanding spire above Hickory Nut Gorge and Lake Lure, reached by elevator or on foot, with a…
• Cliffs of the Neuse State ParkBluffs 90 feet over the Neuse River, their faces banded with sand, clay, seashells, shale, and gravel. An…
• Crowders Mountain State ParkTwo peaks with towering cliffs and long views over the Piedmont, plus rock climbing at Linwood and bouldering…
• Dismal Swamp State ParkThe way into the Great Dismal Swamp, the largest remaining swamp in the eastern United States, with a history…
• Elk Knob State ParkEstablished in 2003 to protect the mountain and the headwaters of the New River's North Fork, with a summit…
• Eno River State ParkSeven access areas strung along a swift, shallow river ten miles from downtown Durham, past landmarks like…
• Falls Lake State Recreation AreaSeven access areas on the reservoir with more than 300 campsites, from lakeside pull-ins to backpacking…
• Fort Fisher State Recreation AreaThe only park in the system with four-wheel-drive beach access, which makes it a favorite for surf fishing. A…
• Fort Macon State ParkA meticulously restored pre-Civil War fort with daily guided tours and regular cannon and musket…
• Goose Creek State ParkCoastal wetlands along the Pamlico River and a cypress swamp seen from a long boardwalk. Remnant boat piers…
• Gorges State ParkOver 8,000 acres of temperate rainforest on the Blue Ridge Escarpment, holding 26 waterfalls, plunging river…
• Grandfather Mountain State ParkSevere weather and demanding terrain, with routes that have hikers scrambling cliffs, gripping cables, and…
• Hammocks Beach State ParkA mainland base and three barrier islands, including four-mile Bear Island, reached by passenger ferry…
• Hanging Rock State ParkA Civilian Conservation Corps park whose trails reach mountain views, rock outcrops, waterfalls, and a cave…
• Haw River State ParkBuilt around The Summit, a residential environmental education and conference center that hosts retreats…
• Jockey's Ridge State ParkThe tallest living sand dune system on the Atlantic coast, and the eastern terminus of the Mountains-to-Sea…
• Jones Lake State ParkOpened as the first North Carolina state park to welcome Black Americans, and still a community destination…
• Jordan Lake State Recreation AreaSeven access areas and more than 1,000 campsites spread across five of them, for tents, trailers, RVs, and…
• Kerr Lake State Recreation AreaEight access areas around a 50,000-acre reservoir, with seven campgrounds and hundreds of sites near the…
• Lake James State ParkTwo accesses onto a picturesque mountain lake, with campsites at both and some reachable only by paddling…
• Lake Norman State ParkThe Itusi Trail's nearly 31 miles of single-track make this the region's mountain biking destination, along…
• Lake Waccamaw State ParkThe shore of the largest Carolina bay, and one of the few of those 500,000 craters holding open water rather…
• Lower Haw River State Natural Area1,357 acres along both banks of the Haw River between Chapel Hill and Pittsboro, rated Exceptional for…
• Lumber River State ParkTwo accesses about an hour apart on a 115-mile blackwater river — the only one in the state named a National…
• Mayo River State ParkA main access at Mayo Mountain with hiking trails, fishing ponds, a picnic shelter, and a group campsite…
• Medoc Mountain State ParkA 325-foot remnant of a range that towered 350 million years ago, now laced with trails for hikers, bikers…
• Merchants Millpond State ParkA 760-acre millpond more than 190 years old, where old-growth cypress draped in Spanish moss turn Lassiter…
• Morrow Mountain State ParkA summit above the Yadkin River and Lake Tillery, in country where Native people worked rhyodacite into tools…
• Mount Jefferson State Natural AreaA mountain that rises abruptly from the surrounding landscape, with views reaching Tennessee from its…
• Mount Mitchell State ParkAt 6,684 feet the highest point east of the Mississippi, and the park that began North Carolina's system. An…
• New River State ParkSeven accesses on a National Wild and Scenic River that flows north through three states, gentle enough for…
• Occoneechee Mountain State Natural AreaA quick escape from Durham, with trails winding through mountain laurel and rhododendron and a summit…
• Pettigrew State ParkLake Phelps and the Scuppernong River, where wintering tundra swans gather beneath cavernous cypress…
• Pilot Mountain State ParkThe geologic knob that beacons over the country northwest of Winston-Salem, with accesses on both the rugged…
• Pisgah View State ParkA new park in the shade of Mount Pisgah, where small spring-fed waterfalls feed rich mountain coves that brim…
• Raven Rock State ParkA 150-foot crystalline outcrop above the Cape Fear River, reached by bluff trails lined with mountain laurel…
• Rendezvous MountainA Blue Ridge forest given over to learning, with magnificent mountain hardwoods above Wilkes County…
• Salmon Creek State Natural AreaAbout 1,300 acres of upland forest and cypress-gum swamp near where the Chowan River meets Albemarle Sound…
• Singletary Lake State ParkA Carolina bay lake built around group camps, with dormitory-style cabins, a mess hall, and a 500-foot pier…
• South Mountains State ParkBackcountry where the Appalachian Mountains meet the Foothills, rising to 3,000 feet past an 80-foot…
• Stone Mountain State ParkA 600-foot granite dome designated a National Natural Landmark, with the restored mid-19th-century Hutchinson…
• Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature PreserveLongleaf pines, some of them centuries old, towering over wiregrass in a remnant of the forest that once…
• William B. Umstead State ParkA wooded retreat ten miles from downtown Raleigh, with an extensive hiking and multiuse trail network and…

Parks in other states

• Alabama22
• Arizona32
• Arkansas54
• California260
• Colorado43
• Georgia64
• Illinois106
• Louisiana38
• Nevada27
• New Mexico35
• Oklahoma38
• South Carolina51
• Tennessee66
• Texas93
• Utah46
• Virginia44
• West Virginia47

All parks by state

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