Best check on the potential locations before committing to them. I looked at two in places that I am familiar with "Back Home". One in Westminster SC (small world...we used to live in tiny Westminster) is a doable but the one in Highlands NC (we used to work in Highlands and live in neighbouring Franklin... like I said... small world) there is no way I would put my bus up in that town. It's a traffic nightmare. Too many vehicles and narrow streets with filled up parking all over. The people in that town looks down on the working class. To the point they have refused to serve workers in a sandwich shop on main street (I was there and witnessed it). As a matter of fact, there are only two restaurants in town that will serve workers. Okay, I dislike Highlands. Can you tell? Full of scary folks who either think they can buy anything they want from young kids for sex to any drug OR will do anything for enough $$. Nice town. To be honest. I do not think you would be allowed to park a bus on the streets of Highlands. And IN TOWN, there are few driveways you could park in. Too much NF land up in that area anyway.
For anyone traveling near Franklin NC, I would suggest
Needmore Rd. Lots of turnouts next to the Little TN river to boondock in. And since they fixed the road, you don't need a 4WD vehicle of get down the road. Needmore Road runs from Lost Bridge on Hwy 28 and Tellico Rd in Franklin and the other end is between Bryson City, Almond and Murphy near intersection of Hwy 74 & Hwy 28. Great (free & unlimited) camping spots but some are right on the road. Not a whole lot of traffic on that dirt/gravel road though. Good canoeing/tubing in the Little Tennessee River. We used to live near there (instead of turning right onto Tellico Rd after crossing Lost Bridge, we turned left onto Carnes Rd and our old driveway is now called Duvall Trail). The BlueBird we bought in NC was on the far end of Needmore and we brought it back to Franklin (Iotla Valley near the airport) via Needmore/Lower Burningtown Rd. That was in 2009 so it was fairly recent. The boondockable section is wide and graveled. The section closer to Hwy 74 is a little narrower and paved. But David had no problems keeping it between the lines on his side of the road. School buses run that road all the time.
From the end of Lost Bridge on Hwy 28: you are roughly 14 miles from Franklin and 16 miles from Bryson City. Road to Franklin is less curvy and you will hit a convenience store/gas station in Cowee Valley across from the church (Cowee is where you go to play in the mud looking for gemstones). Lost Bridge to hwy74/Bryson City can be a bit nauseating from the monotonous turns (back and forth, left, right, left, right... makes you seasick)
You know, we all probably know of one or two boondocking sites that aren't on any list anywhere.
Linear Mode
