Scales Campground

Alex Whinnery

Excellent campground. If you have a high clearance vehicle, put scales on your list for camping destinations. I did see some crossover-type vehicles up top, so it’s doable, but if you pick the wrong line on the climb up, your car could definitely be damaged. Wide open sky and beautiful 360 views. Awesome hiking routes that can be taken right of the camp as the AT cuts through the center of Scales. Plenty of space with about 10 fire pits so I can’t imagine the place ever fills completely up due to the roughness of the road leading up.

B Davis

The road up is very rough and slow as stated in the reviews. I have a 2” lifted 2015 Toyota Sienna AWD and was able to traverse the road without any clearance issues. It took about 45 minutes to reach the top. Once on top you have a large corralled area where you can choose your campsite. The ponies were there as were a few new colts. I was the only non-AT hiker there that night. Be sure to bring your own water as the water source was only a trickle while I was there.

Joshua Reid

Beautiful place to camp. Drove up in mid October and enjoyed amazing views and changing foliage. The road up is very rough. I did see some smaller AWD vehicles at the top, but I would be scared to take the road with a low clearance vehicle as it is extremely rocky (some of which were sharp so watch the tire side walls). It took us 45 minutes to make it up the 4 mile road in a 4Runner. There are bathrooms at the top (no toilet paper though) and I did get spotty cell service with Verizon, enough to send texts and load the weather, etc. There are several fire pits at the top and gathering wood is allowed.

Jessica Griffith

This place is an absolute GEM. If you've got a 4wd vehicle - definitely check it out.. Think it's about 3-4 miles to the top, took a little over 40 minutes or so to get up there.. But so worth it. Wild Ponies, Longhorn, plenty of trails, the Appalachian runs through it... Can't beat the mountain views.