Roamstead Smoky Mountains Campground
04.09.25-04.13.25
Modern camping, glamping, and cabins in the Smoky Mountains just outside of Gatlinburg, TN—you will find it all at Roamstead Smoky Mountains Campground.
Roamstead Smoky Mountains Campground is located in Cosby, TN right off highway 321. The campground has 30 RV campsites, 18 cabins, 9 yurts, 6 tent sites, 3 lodge rooms, and 1 airstream rental. Amenities include a swimming pool, restaurant with bar, activity yard, pavilion, playground, and hiking trail. Located between the RV sites, tents, and yurts is Indian Camp Creek with another smaller branch of the creek running between the cabins. In our opinion, the creeks are the most appealing aspect of the campground. They are great for kids to play in and the constant quiet moving water creates a relaxing ambiance.
Roamstead has worked hard to make the experience on their property enjoyable for all levels of campers. They pride themselves on encouraging others to experience and feel included in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. There’s accommodations for every level of outdoorsy person. Roamstead makes you feel welcome with the availability of drip coffee and granola every morning, their restaurant, entertainment, clean bathhouses, and assistance/escort to your RV site. They even come every morning to collect your trash from outside your cabin, tent, or RV site.
Entertainment throughout our stay at Roamstead Smoky Mountains Campground included movies in the pavilion, lawn games, trivia, rock painting, an activity book for the kids, and scavenger hunt in the app. We downloaded Roamstead’s app upon our arrival and all the information you could possibly need for the campground can be found there in one place. Using the app, I located the activities that were hosted in the lodge or pavilion. There is a photo of the menu, a map of the campground, a place to report an issue, FAQ section, and our favorite—the scavenger hunt.
The scavenger hunt at Roamstead Campground includes 17 spots throughout the property to find QR codes, take photos, or answer questions. Our five-year-old LOVED this activity, but even the adults enjoyed taking in the whole campground through the hunt. Some spots and questions were rather difficult so we used the hints that were also located in the app.
The kids’ activity book was also a huge hit for our kids. Once the book is completed the kids receive an ice cream or hot chocolate, plus a Roamstead Campground pin. The pages include a bingo sheet of what they did or saw in the campground or surrounding area, a word search, crossword puzzle, and another hunt to find the bear stickers around the park. We went by the lodge to enjoy our ice cream after dinner on Saturday when we also enjoyed picking out some items from the store.
Roamstead Campground has some great t-shirts and other merchandise for sale. Heather found the softest hoodie and we loved their national parks t-shirts. We even bought a cute s’mores plush to keep in the camper. If you are in need of any packaged snacks, bottled drinks, or gear for your RV, they have it.
Friday it rained the entire day and we planned to purchase pizza from Roamstead instead of trying to cook between the showers. We tried the cheese pizza, hot honey pizza, and a regular pepperoni and enjoyed them upstairs in the lodge. I’m still having major regrets about not ordering the s’mores pizza. During our reservation we also ordered drinks from the bar and tried a couple local craft beers.
We picked our campsite based on the location to cabin 16 where our friends were staying.
Campsite 40 is a 34-ft back-in site with plenty of parking. This campsite was fantastic for enjoying the creek behind it. Our kids could access the rocks and water from multiple spots and it created an amazing
atmosphere listening to the creek next to the campfire. The campsite was easy to back into for our 26-ft camper. The camper created privacy from site 41, where the RV was parked close and at an angle to our camper. Our site was level side to side when we backed in. Campsite 40 is close to the playground
and bathhouse as well.
A favorite campsite by many RVs is 43. This one is tucked into the back of the campground and the angle of the site gets the creek to the left of the camper and woods with another smaller creek behind the camper. Campsites 43-45 are more difficult to get into because you will have to back the RV a long distance from about cabin 16 to the campsite.
Campsite 43 is right across from the tent sites—so if those are booked you are looking across the creek right at other campers. Campsites 44 and 45 back up to the smaller creek that our 5 year old had an easier time playing in since the water was not as high or fast.
The cabins and yurts did not have parking right next to the lodging, however Roamstead provided many large gorilla carts to unload your things from your car and roll over to your accommodations. The yurts had the most beautiful string lights at night and we enjoyed them from across the creek.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Hiking
Due to the rainy, cold weather we did not get to enjoy as many hikes as we had researched before our stay. We wanted to hike Maddron Bald Trail, but with limited time chose to drive over to Porter Creek Trail and hike to that waterfall. I would highly recommend this hike, but the reviews did not do a good job of preparing us for the drive in.
When you turn onto the national park road you will drive about 4 more miles to get to the trailhead. Those 4 miles are a mix of gravel and poorly paved road that often narrowed to a single lane. This was a little nerve racking for us in the F250 that we don’t usually take on trips. Parking was also very limited and we had to walk about a half mile in to get from the truck to the trailhead.
Porters Creek Trail
The hike itself was fantastic with rhododendrons surrounding the path. It starts with a wide gravel path slightly uphill and levels out. Due to the recent rain it was muddy in some sections. At the fork, we took the trail to the left, and at about 1.7 miles from the trailhead there is a large bridge made from the side of a tree to cross the river. Another 3/10s of a mile (mostly uphill with lots of roots) you will get to Fern Branch Falls. A small water crossing will take you to the side of the waterfalls where you can climb up to get to the true base. There were so many people on the rocks at the base of the falls on Saturday that we couldn’t make our way up as high as we wanted.
We didn’t drive in to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge during our stay at Roamstead Campground, however it is a great location to be able to stay away from the hustle and bustle, and still easily get to the towns.
Sunday check-out day came around and we didn’t want to leave. We wished we had a couple more days to enjoy Roamstead Smoky Mountains Campground and highly recommend it to other campers.
