Grumpy Bear Campground & Gem Mine — Hotel in Bryson City

If you're looking for a relaxing getaway for tent camping, look somewhere else. I went here with my dad for this past Labor Day weekend and we won't be coming back.

The Pros: The amenities at Grumpy Bear are fantastic. Bathrooms are spotless and there are 4 private rooms with showers, toilets and sinks. It's in a good location, close to Cherokee and the Smokies, with lovely views of the river. Our interactions with the staff were generally positive. The farm across the street is easy to walk to and has great icecream (though their dog needs to work on his manners).

HOWEVER, We were told our campsite would be "marked off with cones" and, when we arrived, we discovered this was because our campsite was basically an up-cycled parking space. It was right next to the teepees and our tent ended up right alongside the path to and from the teepees, so we had constant foot traffic within a foot of our tent door. The site shared water with the teepees and electrical with the cabin. We didn't need either, but these were further signs that this was a parking space they'd decided to rent out. Or picnic table was placed on a hill at such an angle that anything you put on it slid right off. We moved it and leveled it with some rocks from the river. That helped a little, but it was still wedged between our firepit and a nearby tree. I wish I had taken some photos of the site to attach, but I only have this one where you can see the proximity of the table to the fire.

All in all, we were rolling with the punches and having a decent enough time until Saturday night rolled around. There were about 15 people crammed in and around the cabin next to us. About 9 o'clock, they started absolutely BLARING the WORST drunken karaoke from their porch. They had a microphone and speaker and the occupants were taking turns coming OUTSIDE for the whole campground to hear, rather than partying within the cabin where their noise would've been muffled. We're early risers and had lied down for the evening when the intention of relaxing for a while and then drifting off. So much for that. After enduring the progressively-increasing volume from outside for close to 2 hours with no end in sight, we just decided to leave. We'd planned on packing up the next morning anyway, so we quickly disassembled our tent via headlamp, crammed everything into the truck, and drove home.

To be fair, we didn't try to ask the staff to intervene or to ask the yodelers to quiet down. But we shouldn't have had to.

If we'd been in an RV, I don't think the proximity to other neighbors would've been as much of an issue. Likewise if we'd had a proper site and not a parking space. For what we paid ($80 a night), we expected more. Grumpy Bear needs to enforce quiet hours (within their office hours would be fine) or offer alternative rates to tent-only campers.

TL;DR: If you're a tent camper looking for a relaxing experience, don't risk staying here. The sites are too close together and you may end up having headlights through your tent and footsteps by your door all night. If you don't mind the possibility of noise and a party atmosphere, then come to Grumpy Bear for the amenities, river views, and location.

Update 9/22: Following the owner's response, I'll acknowledge that I may have gotten the price wrong. I can't confirm that. But our reservation was NOT short notice. We had heard about the site a year in advance from a relative and made the reservation in November the year prior to our stay. We were not told before our stay that it was an overflow campsite and we made the reservation online for "Campsite 10". This was on the reservation we printed and had with us in the truck. I don't remember seeing anything about tent camping not being allowed AND another group of guests was tent camping during our stay. The site was booked under my dad's name, but we sat down together to make the reservations, I was the one called prior to our arrival, and I was present for every conversation we had with the owners except for one exchange when my dad...

Great 1st Night but NO CROWD CONTROL OR QUIET HOURS ENFORCED!

We were really looking forward to our stay here and our first night was perfect. My husband and I were tent camping with our 6 month old son and got a spot right on the river with plenty of room and a quiet couple staying in the campsite next to us. The bathrooms were fantastic as previously reviewed and the while the owner was offsite many times when we tried to check-in, he was very pleasant when we finally met him.

OUR SECOND NIGHT WAS FAR FROM PERFECT. We were the only ones in the tent camping area and my husband and I were enjoying our campfire out near the river while our baby was asleep in the tent. Around 9:30pm, a Jeep pulled up with a father and three boys and they began unloading. About 10 minutes later, a 15 passenger van pulls up with a Boyscout troop and that's when the chaos began!

THERE WERE ABOUT 20 BOYS AND 3 ADULTS THAT SWARMED US. THEY SET UP 11 TENTS IN THE 3 CAMPSITES SURROUNDING US AND WERE ALL OVER OUR SITE, STANDING NEAR OUR FIRE AND PUTTING THEIR THINGS ALL OVER OUR PICNIC TABLE. IT WAS MADNESS AND COMPLETELY OVERCROWDED.

My husband went over to speak to the adults about the invasion and noise (he very nicely asked them to respect our space and keep the noise level to a minimum as it was 10PM and we had a baby sleeping in the tent) and they simply brushed him off with a "boys will be boys" attitude. I attempted to call the owner with the phone number he provided (it went straight to voicemail) and even knocked on his door to see if something could be done and there was no response. For single tent campsites, the owner should not have allowed such a large group with 11 tents in 3 campsites, with multiple tents almost inches from ours. We should have been disclosed this information that a large group was coming when we arrived so we could have found a different campground.

They were up yelling and laughing well past midnight and were at it again at 6AM the next morning - my husband and I both had ear plugs and it still kept us up - so much for the peaceful, restful camping...

So disappointed with the owners. Because of previous reviews stating the driveway was tricky we called before booking to ask specifics- we have an adapter on our trailer that makes sharp inclines impossible to do without putting the truck bed into the trailer. We were assured we could make it still so we booked a week long stay.

When we got into town we decided to go check it out before bringing the trailer over (we were staying at a different campground for a few days since they didn’t have availability right away). After seeing the condition of driveway we decided there was absolutely no way we could enter without damaging both the truck and the trailer so we called to cancel. They assured us “no one has ever done that before” so we went back to the campground for a second time to reallllyyyyy see if there was a way we could get in, but still decided it just wasn’t possible.

Before we even had a chance to call back again, they canceled our site and charged us the full week. We didn’t know it at the time (or we wouldn’t have bothered going back to try and figure it out) but the time stamps on the email show it was after the first phone call. So even if we had decided we could get in, they had canceled our reservation and took all of the money.

We have made multiple phone calls to them after the second visit to try and resolve this- the wife actually hung up on us and then forwarded all of our calls. When we were finally able to get through to the husband he said he would call back and never did.

We never signed the agreement form, never gave them permission to charge the full amount or cancel the reservation. We were still willing to work with them even though they couldn’t provide us with any services, however the way they have handled things have forced us to take legal action.

Such a shame- we were looking forward to staying with this smaller family campground, instead they stole $350 from us and refuse to even speak to us. Stay far away...