brown mnt. camping?

Wilson Creek is right around the corner from the OHV area, maybe 5miles? The gorge is a great place to go swimming and fishing can be good at times. If you go, just pay attention to the regulations on bait and catch and release. It varies in different areas, and the fish and game will check you.
 
It is also worth the ride to the top of the gorge. Awesome views and the gorge gets very deep in places, almost looks like something in the rockies out west. There is a Nat park campground at the very end of the road in the old town area called Mortimer. Lots of cool history there. It was flooded completely out a few times and they gave up on it. Take a left at the dead end of the road and there is a real country store a few miles down. The store washed 2 miles downstream durring the last flood in the late 1800's. Stayed intact, so they bought the property where it landed and reopened it. It was sitting backwards where it stoped, so they cut in a new door and went back in business again. I have been camping there since the 70's as a kid. There is a 20 foot plus waterfall in the very back of the campground. just follow the trail at the end of the road. Maybe a half mile hike.
 
We went last weekend , trails were pretty fun camoing with bathrooms on the road up to ohv parking lot, atv guys seemed annoyed we were out there In jeeps but we had a better time then expected

River was nice to swim In and saw guys fishin didnt do any ourselves

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk 2
 
nctom said:
It is also worth the ride to the top of the gorge. Awesome views and the gorge gets very deep in places, almost looks like something in the rockies out west. There is a Nat park campground at the very end of the road in the old town area called Mortimer. Lots of cool history there. It was flooded completely out a few times and they gave up on it. Take a left at the dead end of the road and there is a real country store a few miles down. The store washed 2 miles downstream durring the last flood in the late 1800's. Stayed intact, so they bought the property where it landed and reopened it. It was sitting backwards where it stoped, so they cut in a new door and went back in business again. I have been camping there since the 70's as a kid. There is a 20 foot plus waterfall in the very back of the campground. just follow the trail at the end of the road. Maybe a half mile hike.
Click to expand...

Where is this place you are talking about ?
 
Go past the Brown Mountian riding area. I think it is a few miles. On the left will be a campground called Rose Creek. (Last time I was there) There should be a Nat. Parks sign out there too. Then you follow the road as it follows Big Wilson Creek. Probably 7 or 8 slow miles. Great views, photo ops, and trails down the bank to the swimming holes. After a few miles, you cross the 1st concrete bridge, you will be at a fork, bear right. (I think that is Pineola rd to the left) just keep following the creek, which is on your right after you cross the bridge. You will go for a while after you bear right (3-4 miles maybe). You will pass the remains of an old factory that was flooded out, on the right. It gets tight in a few spots if you are pulling a camper. Go to the dead end. You will have a campground and small store (with a pond behind it) to your right at the stop sign. Turn LEFT and the you will see the Mortimer campground immediatly on the right. It is primative camping. No power, no shower. Water available in community spots. Outhouses for your pleasure. Keep heading to the left at the stop sign for more sight seeing. Neat old church on right, old white country store a few miles down, rope bridge, etc... Neat place, off the beaten path.
 
Last edited:
Its changed Tom, They now have flush toilets and showers, a full time person that camps(monitors) there during the busy season and the fee is now $10 per night. The campground "Monitor" got out of his chair twice to yell at me for going too fast, I must have been going 8mph instead of 5mph, coasting down the drive to the exit. I'm smart enough not to speed through a campground. I think the guy was just showing his ass, if he had a real problem he would have come found me when I returned eh? My wife wouldn't let me ask him what his problem was:(.
I've been camping up there for over 20yrs and don't visit near as much as I used to. The forest service bought out alot of peoples camps and its just not the same. Two friends and myself rented a lot from a man for $75 a year when I was in high school. We put alot of work into that spot and the green porta john we aquired is still standing there today:D

There are alot of nice, legal, unmarked primitive camping sites along a creek on SR1336, If going up Brown Mtn Beach Road this will be the left turn over the big concrete bridge. This road runs the whole way back to hwy 181 and most of the camping is on that end of the road. Before things got crazy strict you could pack up a mildly built 4x4 and drive to some awesome sites, those have all been blocked off in the last 10yrs.

If someone were to pick up a Nat Geo Trails Illustrated map 779 they could spend a few days up there exploring dirt roads and hiking trails. Lots of waterfalls in the area if you don't mind a short hike.
 
I was just down there last month. I didn't do much exploring in that area but a few miles past it and up a rough road is where I was camping out in the wilderness.
 
GONOVRIT said:
This road runs the whole way back to hwy 181 and most of the camping is on that end of the road. Before things got crazy strict you could pack up a mildly built 4x4 and drive to some awesome sites, those have all been blocked off in the last 10yrs.
.
Click to expand...

Those were my highschool days. A lot of stuck jeeps and toyotas while camping around wilson's creek. Sucks that most of that is done now.
 
I have an old school picture or ten I need to show you. One of my friends recently dug up a great one where we always pulled off 181 and did our little tradition where the pavement ended, it was 12yrs ago this august. Lots of good times up there.
 
I try to go up to that area every few weeks. The boys like riding the roads/trails up there. I usually half way plan a route with google maps and then explore from there. I wish I knew more about the area, but I guess that'll come with time.
 
I found the area by accident coming down 181, went exploring the fs roads at 3AM, lost an alternator in the sam, then just plain old got lost. Was a nerve racking four hours to get back to fallston (by luck at that). I intend to go back out there in the daylight. Its an interesting area, and it hadnt been pitch dark, I would've stopped and looked at a few things for the heck of it.
 
all the camp grounds with the exeption of one is beside a stream stocked with trout every year and i have been camping there and riding there the past 7 years no fees for camping 5 dollars a day per vehicle and thats only if you hit the trails the camp grounds are great and clean, out houses every couple of sites and at the parking lot for the trails. the fishing is great up there on that stream.
 
Went up there a couple weeks ago to the campground. They have closed all the low lying drive up sites beside the creek. You can still camp further on up the same road towards the water fall trail. Then I heard on the news that the whole place flooded out with all the rain last week. (over a foot in 2 days) The old town of Mortimer was washed away 2 or 3 times over the last hundred years or so and they never built it back. You can see remnants of the train trestle and old factory as you drive up.
 
I own a cabin on Brown Mountain beach road, the one that says Killian and Friends across the porch. The cabin is shortly after the shop that sells trout fishing supplies on the left and I will be the first to tell you that after it floods really hard like it did around a month ago, it is impossible to get to the cabin because Wilson's Creek creates full blown white water rapids across the road near the entrance and they have to close down the entire road until they can fix the washed out roads.
 
I believe it. Been camping there since the early 70's as a young kid. I know where your place is.
 
Back
Top