Agency-listedMunicipalFree
Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite
Drive-up · public land · NC · 36.17386, -79.99927
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →The land manager lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
This is a FREE campsite -- but read the two catches first: it is ONE walk-in TENT site the Town of Oak Ridge keeps for Mountains-to-Sea Trail HIKERS (not an RV or drive-up road-tripper stop), and although there is no charge, you MUST register with the Town first through their website (oakridgenc.com/mst-campsite) to be allowed to camp. Oak Ridge is a small town in Guilford County, in the Piedmont northwest of Greensboro, and this site sits at the Oak Ridge Town Park (8315 Linville Road), about 407 feet off the sidewalk behind the gray barn, right on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. There are restrooms adjacent and potable water available -- a genuinely welcoming free stop for a thru-hiker walking across North Carolina. This is the honest camp-free, shop-and-eat-in-town spirit: the town offers it at no cost and hopes you'll spend a little locally. It's a HIGH-confidence lead (the free/register-first policy is stated outright on the Town of Oak Ridge's own official page), but town rules change, so please register as required, confirm the current rules with the Town before you go, pack out everything, and leave it better than you found it so Oak Ridge keeps welcoming hikers.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 925 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail CampsiteNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite · public land · NC
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail0 mi
- GGrocery0 mi
- MMechanic0 mi
- FFuel1 mi
- RxPharmacy1 mi
- WWater4 mi
- HHardware5 mi
- +Urgent care5 mi
- EVEV fast charger6 mi
- AAir-up8 mi
- LLaundry8 mi
- OOutfitter10 mi
- ShShower19 mi
- DDump25 mi
- PPropane31 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 0 mi out.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
925 ft
Ground slope
11.7% · noticeable
Nearest rail line
~4.3 mi · main line
Nearest highway
~2.5 mi · Interstate 73
State
NC
Coordinates
36.17386, -79.99927
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite · public land · NC (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLinville Lake · ~0.8 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Haw River (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townOak Ridge · ~0.6 mi
- Nearest rail line~4.3 mi · main line
- Nearest highway~2.5 mi · Interstate 73
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~4.3 mi
- FuelSheetz · ~4.6 mi
- Propane / LPGQuality Oil Company · ~11.6 mi
- Dump station~25.3 mi · fee · customers only
- GroceriesLowes Foods · ~0.4 mi
- PharmacyCVS Pharmacy · ~0.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicLeBauer HealthCare · ~6.2 mi
- HardwareNorthern Tool · ~5.6 mi
EV charging — from Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite · public land · NC — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger5.5 mi straight-line S — Colfax, NC - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach34 within 25 mi · 71 within 50 · 271 within 100 · 448 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS5.8 mi — GM - Parks Buick Kernersville, Kernersville
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO9.0 mi — Quality Oil Company, LLC-1980 Pecan Lane, Kernersville
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)5.6 mi — Carmine’s Import Service - Tesla Destination, Kernersville, NC · Tesla Destination · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 8 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-08-27 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles.
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 187283 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite · public land · NC — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomVisitors Center · ~9.0 mi E · NPS
- RestroomComfort Station · ~9.6 mi E · NPS
- Highway rest areaDavidson County Rest Area SBL · ~23.9 mi S
- Highway rest areaDavidson County Rest Area NBL · ~24.2 mi S
Coming out here — Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite · public land · NC
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Linville Lake as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.8 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 11.7% — noticeable. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (3 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- Rail line mapped ~4.3 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- Interstate 73 is mapped ~2.5 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite elsewhere
Who holds the land at Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists 2 overlapping holdings at this pin: Guilford County Park, manager on record: a county · Town of Oak Ridge Open Space, for which PAD-US names no manager; it records the owner as City Land. That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite
Permit
There is no charge to use the site; however you must register with the Town via this website in order to be allowed to camp there.
Source
municipal park records
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
Source: the TOWN's OWN official page, oakridgenc.com/mst-campsite (read 2026-07-27, verbatim): 'There is one campsite at Oak Ridge Town Park available to Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST) hikers ... There is no charge to use the site; however you must register with the Town via this website in order to be allowed to camp there.' 'Restroom facilities are adjacent to the site and potable water is also available.' A FREE self-registration (not a paid permit) is allowed under the mission => banked fee=0, status pending. HIGH: the town's own authoritative page states $0 outright (not silence). Coordinate 36.173863,-79.999268 = the town page's own GPS 'N 36 10.4318', W 79 59.9561'' (= 36.173863,-79.999268), cross-checked against OSM way/670071497 'MST Campsite' operator='Town of Oak Ridge' center 36.17367,-79.99923 (~0.015 mi) -- same spot. Park mailing address 8315 Linville Road, Oak Ridge, NC 27310 (Guilford Co.). land_manager='Municipal' (Town of Oak Ridge). LEGAL check per the mission: NC has NO in-force statewide public-camping ban (HB 781 passed the NC House 2025-05-07 but stalled in Senate Rules 2025-05-08, NOT enacted -- ncleg.gov/BillLookup/2025/H781; and it exempted recreational camping regardless), unlike TN's in-force felony law -- so this recreational town-park site is legal; Oak Ridge affirmatively DESIGNATES + invites this campsite. dispersed=0, camp_type NULL, water='yes' (potable water available). Ingest 2026-07-27.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Oak Ridge Town Park - Mountains-to-Sea Trail Campsite
Finding water out here →Fire rules & restrictions →Off-grid communication →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →