Uwharrie National Forest

Interesting place and one of the few parks situated for off-​road vehicles. I don’t think I would hike anywhere near where the 4x4s want to go. I went for a large gathering of Isuzu enthusiasts and had on of the three Vehicrosses to make the trails — quite a lot of fun with different degree obstacles to overcome — even my stock VX could handle the easier trails. Of course I also saw a few broken axles and some H2s that had to be pulled by the more trail-​friendly jeeps and Zus. Lots of fun here…

It’s a good national forest.
It has decent campgrounds.
Bathrooms and showers were in good condition.
We went for the weekend and stayed at Arrowhead Campground. Besides the close neighbors it was pretty good.
On the roads it’s very dusty. That’s to be expected.
My only main issue was the 4 wheelers zooming on the dirt roads and roads (which is illegal) and the horses in the roads.
Don’t forget a trail pass ($ 5 at the Eldorado Outpost) it’s a big fine. And no 4wheelers or horses on the gravel roads$ 800 fine per person. They have trails for that reason. There are many trails for hiking and for horseback riding and for off reading. Trail pass is only needed for the off roading

We had a blast driving on the forest roads of Uwharrie National Forest and finding all the tucked away parks and trails.
The off-​road course is fun, but we couldn’t find the entrance to the novice trail and ended up on a moderate-​intermediate trail. We did fine for a while, but eventually turned around and came back out when we realized to get to the novice trail (from the way we came in) required going through a expert area.
It’s nice that there are plenty of back-​in points to make way for others coming through.
I would ask that people make sure they completely douse their fires and pick up their trash. We came across plenty of trash and a fire that was still smoldering and smoking. We picked up what we could and doused the fire.
Everybody we met were friendly and it was a beautiful day.

There are plenty of things to do at Uwharrie National Forest: hiking, fishing, swimming, boating, camping, horse back riding, offroading (wheelin’), etc. And it’s about an hour from the Triad and Charlotte, so rather convenient for a lot of folks.
If you have a Jeep or other 4×4 vehicle, you’ll love the Uhwarrie trailheads. There’s not another place in NC like that that I’m aware of. But beware! If you are totally stock, there are some extremely difficult trails. And if you’re taking youngsters, they might be a little scared. The maps aren’t totally accurate, so it’s best if you go with someone who has been before. If you have a 3″ lift and all terrain/​mud tires, then don’t worry about it, because you’ll be able to go anywhere you need to go. We went in a stock Jeep Wrangler with 31″ mud tires last week and we were able to navigate every trail out there. Though having a lift would have made it much easier.
We started on the most difficult trail, because it said one thing on the sign, and another on the map. I knew that «Daniel» was the most difficult trail, but the sign we came upon said Cotton Place Trailhead. So learn from my mistake. I had planned to avoid it since we didn’t have a lift, and my 11 year old daughter was with us. It was kind of sketchy in our Jeep since we didn’t have a lift, but I decided to make everyone else (5 of us total) get out and attempt it. I made it with the help of one of our crew standing outside of the jeep to help me navigate up the trail. It was a bit scary, but fun at the same time. My daughter was terrified at first, but after she got out and walked up the trail she was fine. And none of the other trails scared her. Some of the trails are marked well and some aren’t. If it wasn’t for that, I would give it a 5 Star. Jeep on!
We also camped at Badin Lake Campground, which had a beautiful view of the lake. The campground was $ 12/​night and has bathroom/​shower facilities. Be sure to bring your own soap to wash your hands. The fish weren’t biting, but other than that it was the perfect overnight trip.

Like Brian L mentioned, this is a national forest and not a park, which I mistook when I first ventured into one of the off beaten paths. It was a little disconcerting the amount of man made damage the park suffered from the clear cutting, presumably for firewood because I didn’t see much development.
For the person who likes off-​roading or camping, this is a great spot for such activities. Hiking would be a little iffy, the map I found online seemed a little outdated and there wasn’t a map at the Forest entrance we went through. Very unsafe for the casual hiker.
Overall, come with the jeep, grill, and the dogs. Don’t come for the hiking since the paths are dilapidated and scarcely marked or easily overlooked.

We love bringing our Jeep up here to ride the trails. The area is very beautiful and nicely kept. There are plenty of campsites and trailheads with bathrooms. It is always a good idea to bring your own toilet paper just in case. You can get a pass and everything that you need at Eldorado Outpost.

Kinda hard to navigate… there aren’t any maps or anything at the forest entrances, so you have to find your way to one of the boat launches in order to see a map. Hardly any info online either (since it’s a national forest, it’s not run by the Park Service so none of those nice amenities. No visitor’s center either.)
If you don’t already have someone in your group who’s been there before and knows where they’re going, expect to spend an hour or so driving around figuring out where to go.
This is a heavily used forest… you can camp pretty much anywhere so there’s trash EVERYWHERE. Beer cans, fishing equipment, empty food containers, diapers… all sorts of disgusting stuff along the lake where people camp. Further out in the forest there was hardly any trash at all though — mostly just along the lake.
Once you find where you’re going and wade through the garbage to the less-​camped areas, it’s a good place to spend the day. :)

Hubs has been looking for a place to take his jeep off roading since we moved to Charlotte! He contacted a local 4X4 parts store and they told him to visit the Uwharrie’s.
This weekend we packed up and headed out with some friends for a weekend camping trip and off road fun. The campsite was good, but very hard to find where you are camping. Print out maps before you come and make sure you know what your campsite is. Most campsites have a check-​in with information but this place did not. Calling the number doesn’t help either… they are closed on weekends.
Once we got settled, we were on the hunt for the place to get our day pass for the off road trails. We couldn’t find it. Frustrated, we went on the trails anyway. Very cool, but crowded with lots of dirt bikes and ATV’s. Also the trails were more for jumping and they were to «woopty do» for a Jeep. We did find a big muddy hole, though that Hubs loved. He was able to go through it with ease and he had fun doing that over and over… and over.
Campsite was close to other sites making it hard to actually sleep in for people woke up at 6 to hunt. Gun shots rang out like a bell come 6:30 am. Not sure what they were hunting… but they was huntin!
Over will visit again… but will try to pick a more secluded section.

Unlike a National Park, National Forest’s are actually run as a semi-​agricultural enterprise (run by USDA) so you usually can’t set your sights that high when you enter one. This one shows a lot of the scars of harsh land-​use policies such as mining, clear-​cutting, and worst of all… commercial and residential development. Those negatives out the way, a chance to get off the beaten path and onto a dirt path is more than enough reason to make a visit. The campground/​picnic area/​swimming hole on the east side of Badin Lake was the site of a great experience grilling for us yesterday.
We putted around some various parts of the forest and were able to see quite a few areas with nice scenery and plenty of forested land. We spotted a female wild turkey and three chicks in addition to a handful of more common animals. Unfortunately use of the OHV trails requires a daily permit costing $ 5 ($ 30 annually I think), which makes sense for some heavy use areas and people with vehicles like dirtbikes and 4-​wheelers, but was disappointing for someone in a stock vehicle who would’ve liked to briefly check out some of the easy/​moderate trails (it’s already survived much worse).
Official information is hard to come by since the gov’t run website is permanently down and there aren’t any real visitor services beyond the campsites and privately run facilities. I’m not sure where one procures the permit either, although the office in Troy, NC might be the place.
Considering the sprawling urban wasteland of Charlotte has gobbled up most of the surrounding land and the Smokies are a bit far away, this place was a welcome respite from the strip malls and tract homes that blanket the area. The area is fairly large and slightly difficult to find points of interest so come prepared. Hiking, off-​roading, and water related sports would be ideal here. Flies were quite active around 5pm in June so adjust accordingly if planning a BBQ.