Four Paws Kingdom Campground

DOGGONE DELIGHTFUL!
I travel constantly with my dogs and have always found that places that permit dogs merely tolerate them rather than welcome them. Not so with the Four Paws Kingdom Campground. You can come here with your RV or rent one of 3 snug little cabins like I did, or one of their little travel trailers, Four Paws is way off the beaten path, but my Garmin GPS found it accurately, so things are getting better finding your way there. Four Paws really only wants guests with dogs, unlike other places, and it has been set up to be a doggone paradise for dogs, There are six dog parks: one small dog park, one main dog park, one private dog park, one simple agility dog park, and one advanced agility dog park, and a dog swim park with a pond that is completely enclosed. There are hiking trails for the dogs (and their humans). There is a dog park channel on the campground televisions, tuned to the main dog park — you can tune to this channel and watch the activities in this dog park at any time. The roads are gravel, I don’t know how many RV sites there were, some of which were pull-​throughs and most which require backing in. Every cabin and every RV site has its own fenced in area for that site’s dogs! The cabin that i rented — the «Bonnie — had a queen sized bed and a futon, You bring your own linen to the cabins if you rent them; this way, there are no issues with sharing other dog’s hair with you or with the campground having to work hard laundering their rentals. You have to clean up the cabin yourself before you leave — they supply a vacuum cleaner, broom, mop, plentiful cleaning supplies. There are no showers in the cabins, but there is a shower house about a block away, The cabins do have plumbing in the bathroom, with a bathroom sink and a toilet. They have hot water and I washed up in the bathroom every day rather than shower because it was starting to get nippy in the mountains during my stay at the end of October (snow arrived two days after I left). The cabins have a window air conditioner and ceiling fan, along with a portable oil-​filled radiator-​style electric heater (which I needed, and it did a good job heating up the little cabin). The TV’s have Showtime and local channels, and a DVD player for your own DVDs. Every cabin has a front porch with a full-​sized grill on it and a little hot plate. Inside, they have dishware, pots and pans, utensils, a larger than compact but not full-​sized fridge with freezer, a microwave and a coffee pot. The floors and walls are wooden.
Four Paws is located in Rutherfordton, and it is about a 13 mile drive to Lake Lure (a nice resort style town on the shores of Lake Lure which is almost arachnid in shape, with miles and miles of waterfront property as a result). Continue on another 5 miles or so and you enter Chimney Rock Village, with lots of quaint shops and the home of Chimney Rock State Park with the iconic Chimney Rock that you can climb 55 flights of stairs to (like we did) with your dogs or take the elevator without your dogs if it is working. I went back to Chimney Rock Village twice — most of the shops there welcomed behaved leashed dogs. About 30 miles away is Asheville, which is a very nice city. The Downtown looks to me like what I imagine Seattle must look like — full of shops with local artists and crafts, sustainable resources and industry, and hippy type shops. Again, these shops, too, were pretty dog-​friendly, and my dogs got spoiled with all the dog biscuits the shop keepers fed them during our visit. I spent most of my money for souvenirs in Asheville — nice stuff. They also have many restaurants with outside dining that permits dogs, and we ate there for lunch and dinner. I would go back to Asheville again.
This whole area has very winding, curving, steep, roads, which almost made me motion sick the first day and I was the one driving, but by the second, third and fourth day, I was having a blast driving along them. Gave my stick shift a real work out.
Four Paws is seasonal; they close for the winter, and close for a month during the «dog days of summer.» Check their website to find out what their schedule and availability is for when you want to come. And you WILL want to come if you have a dog. Oh yes! Check out my pictures!
Room Tip: N/​A. If you have an RV without a shower, you will want to request a site near the shower house.