The walk up Hanging Rock follows the quartzite onto the exposed cliff. Upper Cascades, Hidden Falls, Window Falls, and Tory's Den keep the afternoon on the trail, and a swim lake below the dam takes the heat after the cliff. The park is in Stokes County, 30 miles north of Winston-Salem, and there is enough trail around those falls to fill a day.
The Family Campground is the only loop a van can use, and it is closed for construction as of September 2026 for most of a year while the park builds new shower houses and improves campsites. Cabins and group tent sites still run, and neither is a van night. You sleep at Tanglewood in town or on Stone Mountain's hookup loop, then come back for the cliff and the waterfalls. Book that other pad first, because Hanging Rock is not the overnight while the family loop is closed.
Pilot Mountain State Park
You see Pilot Mountain's bald summit plug from US-52 long before you park, an isolated knob above the tree line. The walk to the top is the day, and the rock around the plug is a climbing area.
The campground runs mid-March through late November with no hookups and no dump station. Some driveways take an RV, though length varies by site, so check ReserveAmerica before you book. The park is in Surry and Yadkin counties, 20 miles northwest of Winston-Salem, with NC-89 continuing toward Hanging Rock. If you need more sleeping space or a longer rig than those driveways allow, look at North Carolina RV rentals.
The Swan Creek and Yadkin River wine trails are the day in this same corridor, with JOLO Winery in the town of Pilot Mountain and no camping on the trails. Mount Airy is Andy Griffith's hometown farther along the run, and fans come for the Mayberry resemblance.
Stone Mountain State Park
The granite at Stone Mountain is bare to the summit, a National Natural Landmark, and the falls run down that sheet rock in a long slide. Trout streams work the base of the park.
As of September 2026, the falls-area trail is partly closed for stair replacement from the chimney near the upper trailhead down to the middle and lower falls. The summit is still reachable on a strenuous route from the lower trailhead.
The B loop has full hookups and runs all year, while the tent loop closes November through February. This is the northwest night, in Alleghany and Wilkes counties 60 miles northwest of Winston-Salem, and the state-park pad that still takes a van with hookups when Pilot Mountain's campground is shut for winter.
Tanglewood Park
Tanglewood Park's county RV campground is the in-town night in Winston-Salem, with full hookups at every site and a season from March through early December. Use it as the first night, and as the Hanging Rock night while that family campground is closed. In summer, book the hookup site ahead.
Old Salem is the town day from those sites, a Moravian living-history village you walk without moving the van. Boone and the High Country are North Carolina's, with Greensboro, High Point, Elkin, and Danbury as the nearby towns.