Appalachia Ridge RV park welcomes first campers
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Angela Ray sits at her campsite at the new Appalachia Ridge RV park in Norris on Friday, Aug. 30. She and her family were the first campers to arrive as the campground opened for business on Thursday. The park has been under construction for about two years, and still is a long way from being finished. - G. Chambers Williams III
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Campers are lined up along a row in the new Appalachia Ridge RV park next to the Museum of Appalachia on Friday as the spaces available in the park were nearly filled for Labor Day weekend. - G. Chambers Williams III
Just in time for the Labor Day weekend, the new Appalachia Ridge RV park next door to the Museum of Appalachia in Norris opened Thursday with 24 back-in sites available for recreational vehicles.
The first to check in was Knoxville-based travel blogger Angela Ray, along with her husband, Terry, and 16-year-old daughter, Cathryn.
“We’re excited to be here, but it’s hot,” she said while sitting at a picnic table at the park Friday just outside her family’s pop-up tent trailer.
“We just spent our first morning here, and we’re impressed,” she said. “The bathhouse has four private bathrooms, each one with its own sink, toilet and shower, and it’s very nice.”
Most of the weekend’s campers came in travel trailers with their own built-in bathrooms, and there also were a few motorhomes, also self-contained.
Ray said she chose to spend Labor Day weekend at Appalachia Ridge because it was the park’s opening weekend, and because her mother, who’s originally from Norris, works next door at the Museum of Appalachia.
A few spaces away from the Rays’ campsite, Ben Stewart was camped out with his family in a travel trailer they brought down from their home in Barbourville, Ky.
“My wife heard about this opening for the weekend, so we decided to come down to check it out, see the Museum of Appalachia, and have something for the kids to do,” he said.
“We brought two of our kids and three grandkids, and we’ll be here till Monday,” he said Saturday morning.
“The facilities are nice,” he said. “It’s a really nice place.”
Wayne and Arlene Dove came to the park from Knoxville on Friday in a travel trailer, bringing some grandchildren, they said Sunday morning.
“We’ve stayed at this same company’s RV park in Sevierville, so we wanted to check this one out,” Wayne Dove said. “It’s a nice place, and we’ve already taken the grandkids to Norris Dam and the Anderson County Park.”
The park posted its site map on its Facebook page in July, and its website (appalachiaridge.com), said booking reservations were being accepted, with 24 back-in RV sites showing available for stays beginning Aug. 30. The first campers arrived Aug. 29, however.
The standard rate for each site was listed at $60 per night. Each site can accommodate a travel trailer, fifth-wheel trailer, motorhome, pop- up camper, truck camper, or a camper van, the website notes.
Also, according to the website, these are full hook-up sites offering electricity, water, sewer, Wi-Fi, wood-burning fire pits, and picnic tables, and they are pet-friendly.
“Enjoy top-notch campground amenities including a modern bathhouse, guest laundry facilities, a dog park, and an on-site registration office,” the website says, adding that Appalachia Ridge is “Located just moments from the stunning Norris Lake and within walking distance to the world famous Museum of Appalachia.”
Plans are to open a total of 107 RV sites, eventually, but some rows were still blocked by big piles of gravel this past weekend, and were not ready for campers.
Also still to come will be four glamping tents, three tiny homes and two tree houses, said Mandy Conner, one of the park’s owners.
“We will be constructing them this winter,” she said in July.
“The concrete platforms that can be seen through the trees up on the hill will be for the glamping tents, which will be built first,” she added. “The treehouses and tiny homes would be next.”
Conner also noted that Appalachia Ridge will not allow long-term RV space rentals. The city of Norris zoning for RV parks allows only rentals of up to 30 days.
Appalachia Ridge will not have tent sites for rent, either, she said. “We don’t allow tents.”
The park, just west of the museum, originally had planned to open by spring 2023, but faced several delays, Conner said.
Most recently, the developers had to widen the entrance and exit roads a bit. Work is still underway to finish spreading gravel on the park roads and complete other details.
Construction of the main entrance building and the separate bathhouse were completed in June.
Besides four bathrooms, the bathhouse has a laundry facility for the campers.