Falls Lake Recreation Area - Holly Point Campground

Our next stop was Falls Lake Recreation Area in Wake Forest, North Carolina.  We camped in the Holly Point campground for 2 nights, Sunday May 18, 2025 and Monday May 19, 2025.   Our trip has covered more than 1,000 miles now and we are enjoying it.  But, we are now slowly making our way home with a few more stops after this one before we are home.

This is a very large recreation area just outside of the busy Wake Forest city.  Often hard to believe that there is such beauty so close to the busy city life.  Our stay here was short, just 2 nights, but we enjoyed the area and relaxed a little more than we had at some of the other stops.  The temperatures were slowly getting a little warmer and no rain while we camped here.

Park Details

Holly Point campground is located at 14424 New Light Road in Wake Forest, North Carolina.  One and two miles north of NC 98 and one mile east of NC 50.  There are several different recreation areas within the Falls Lake Recreation Area.  When you arrive you proceed to the particular area of Falls Lake that you have a reservation.

We arrived shortly after 3pm.  There is a small park office/ranger station at the entrance of the campground from 8am - 5pm.  We got our parking passes for the truck and campsite here - then proceeded on to find our campsite.

Phone number 984-867-8000

Open 24 hours a day
 

Campsite Details

Our campsite was on the lake side, campsite #75.  We were on the curve away from the lake and also a little down hill towards the lake.  Our lake view was not great as we had a lot of trees along the shore line.  I did notice that campsite #71 is a very nice site for future reference.  Our campsite was pretty close to the bath house.

Water/Electric (has dump station)

30 and 50 amp electric

Picnic table, Fire ring

Back in sites

Shade/gravel sites

Playground - this is by the boat launch area in the day use

Bathrooms/showers

Checkin is 4pm

Checkout is 3pm

Quiet hours are not specified, but it does say no amplified music/sound period

First walk

The dogs are always eager to take a walk around when arriving at a new location.  After we got everything setup, we took a walk to see what the campground looked like.  At least I did - I suspect the girls were more interested in the smells.....

The lake swimming area is about 4 campsites away from ours.  I see a lot of people and a few dogs out there - it's Sunday, so I expect more people and activity on the weekends.  We walked down to the far end where they have several primitive sites - nice views there of the lake.

The rest of the day was spent just enjoying the quiet and nature.

Sunrise

The next morning, the dogs and I are up early - we took a walk for functional reasons (they needed to go potty) and then we settled down by the lake to watch the sunrise.  While the sunrise itself wasn't showing much the clouds were very interesting.

Trails

After a little while the park ranger came through and we talked with her for a few minutes.  She gave us a map of the area and told us the main trail going through the area we are in is the Holly Point trail (go figure) and that the best place to start is to drive down to the boat ramp area - there is a large parking lot there and hike as far as you want to go - it will take you back to the campground area.

That evening Jim built a very nice campfire.  Abby doesn't like fire - something perhaps happened with fire before we got her, but she just wants nothing to do with fire and it can be as small as a candle or as big as a campfire.  She went inside the camper for a snooze.

For those of you that might not be aware, this is what poison ivy looks like....

Lake and play time

It's Monday, so most all of the people have left the area and there are a few still camping.  Abby is always looking for water to play in, so we let her go into the lake where it is shallow.  I don't know if they have gators in this area, but the water was shallow and there didn't appear to be anything around at the lake edge.

There are some dragon flies around, Jim is much better at catching those action photos than I am but I gave it a try.

There are bugs - always bugs outside and as we got further south, we hit more bugs.  Abby doesn't like flying bugs.  And this fly (a big one) was determined to give her a buzz again and again.  It got to the point that Abby couldn't stand it and was trembling from this stupid fly that wouldn't leave her alone - I finally took her back to the camper so she could be in a bug free area.

Maps

On Tuesday, May 20, 2025 (two weeks since we left home) we torn down our campsite and headed south to Poinsett State Park in South Carolina.

To see more photos of Falls Lake Recreation Area click here.