Nolichucky River Camping: Riverpark Campground in Jonesboro, Tennessee

If you're looking for a great camping get-a-way for a quick weekend trip or an extended vacation, you can't beat the Riverpark Campground situated along the banks of the Nolichucky River in Jonesboro, Tennessee. The campground is a family owned and operated property that offers a number of shaded or sunny campsites for tents as well as campers and RV's all of which have a gravel pad, a fire ring and a picnic table. Many of the sites are located along the river and all of the sites provide a spectacular view of the surrounding Smoky Mountains. Amenities offered are electric and water hookup for campers and RV's as well as full RV hookups and cable television (in the upper campground).

The centrally located bath house has coin operated laundry facilities and the cleanest private stall toilets and shower facilities that we have ever encountered. In addition, they have a well stocked camp store for those forgotten essentials (and several non-essentials like ice cream bars and snacks - but we were very glad that they had those as well). The weekend breakfast buffets and lunchtime meals offered at the onsite restaurant were a welcome escape from cooking and doing camp dishes. More information can be found at their web site at http://www.riverparkcampground.net/ regarding directions, amenities and rates.

The area offers several opportunities to hike or bike, but the most thrilling adventures that we encountered were the white water rafting and kayaking excursions offered by Cherokee adventures and one of their pickup points is the river access located at the campground. For additional information, you can check out their website at http://www.cherokeeadventures.com/ to see the various trips and rates that they offer. We took our 15.5 foot canoe along with us and launched it at the campground.

The current wasn't strong in mid July so we had no problems navigating back up the river to take out at the same place. The water was cool and refreshing after a few hours of paddling and we found a great beach to relax and have lunch. I would recommend watching the weather for a few days prior to your trip so that you can know what to expect from the river. As this river is not regulated by TVA, the water levels and current strength are completely dependant upon the rainfall that occurs within the river basin. This can include rain from as far away as North Carolina, and we have seen the river rise up to a foot overnight becoming very muddy and strong due to rain from up river.

The fishing in the Nolichucky river is phenomenal with a plethora of small mouth bass that are easily taken on a crawdad or shrimp imitation streamer for the fly fishermen or for the spin fishermen, a black and white floating Rapala is a deadly choice when fished around dawn or dusk. You can also expect to catch some very strong fighting bluegill, sunfish, and rockbass that are as big as your hand.

There is a population of both rainbow and brown trout throughout the river and I was very pleased to catch a 14 inch rainbow in mid July that low on the river on my old standby of a blue wing olive with a pheasant tail bead head dropper about 12 inches below. Several of the local fishermen were fishing for the large brown trout that are present in the river and a few of them mentioned musky as well which I have never caught, but wouldn't be surprised at the possibility due to some of the deep, slow moving pools throughout the river.

The water temperature is relatively mild and on a hot summer day, cool and refreshing. There are several points along the river that can be waded that are from ankle to knee deep. I wet wade this river in the summer months but ensure that you install the spikes on your wading boots as the larger rocks and boulders in this river can be challenging and technical. Progress is generally pretty slow so pick your spots well from the shoreline or your canoe and a wading stick helps to maneuver over and around the footings as well.

We have visited this campground several times in the past two years and consider ourselves fortunate to live so close to such an amazing opportunity to camp, fish and canoe. The owners are very courteous and hospitable (they rescued our fish fry by giving us a package of crackers to make some batter on our most recent trip) and the rates for the camping sites are very affordable for the amenities that they provide.

We always call at least a week in advance to make reservations to ensure that we have a nice riverside spot and the campground seems to fill up quick on Friday and Saturday. We hope you enjoy the experience as much as we do and remember to leave no trace.