Poplar Point's campsites look out through loblolly pines to flat water, with the first boats easing out of the coves. Jordan Lake spreads across some 14,000 acres west of Apex, and its east shore holds two big state campgrounds, Poplar Point and Crosswinds, where a family can back the rig onto a shoreline pad and leave it there all week. Bald eagles nest around the reservoir, and the observation platform makes a good first outing once the awning is out.
Crosswinds is the one to book when the week is about swimming. Its beach and boat ramp are set aside for people staying in the campground, so a hot Saturday doesn't bring the day-trip crowd onto your sand, and the boat goes in close to where the kids are swimming.
Poplar Point is the bigger campground, with loop after loop spread back from the shore. North Carolina State Parks lists 363 of its 579 sites with electric and water, against 134 of 182 at Crosswinds. In July and August those are the sites to want, because the air conditioner runs from lunch until well after dark.
Reserve the site before you book the rig. State park campsites open for reservations up to six months ahead, and the electric loops are the ones worth grabbing early for a summer week.
Fall thins the crowds, and the loops shut in stages. As of October 2026, the park's operating schedule keeps Crosswinds open all year, while Poplar Point closes most of its loops after Labor Day and runs loops C, E and F into early November. That makes Crosswinds the lakeside pad for any week later in the autumn.
Across the water, Parkers Creek and Vista Point on the west shore belong to the Chapel Hill RV page. Jordan Lake as a lighter, smaller-vehicle trip, along with Raven Rock, is written up from Holly Springs. A couple on a two-night weekend may not need a full-size motorhome at all, and the state's smaller rentals cover that trip.
NC State home weekends at the State Fairgrounds
On a home Saturday in the fall, the grass lots at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh go red and white hours before kickoff, tailgates set up in rows with the I-40 hum behind the RV pads. NC State's stadium guide sends rigs to the fairgrounds for non-reserved RV parking, because every space on the stadium grounds needs a permit. For the whole weekend rather than the game alone, the fairgrounds campground has 100 full-hookup sites, so the fridge stays cold and the tanks never become a Sunday problem.
Home weekends and fall lake weekends draw on the same pool of rigs around the Triangle, so book the motorhome once the schedule is out rather than the week of the game. The fairgrounds campground closes each October for the State Fair, which sends a home game that month back to the lake, with Crosswinds about 24 miles west of downtown Raleigh.
Falls Lake, Umstead and the Cliffs of the Neuse, the outdoors on Raleigh's side of the Triangle, are on the Raleigh page.