An evening on Douglas Lake ends with the water gone flat and the Smokies turning blue along the southern skyline, close enough to trace the ridgeline from a lawn chair beside the rig. The day before it runs on boat time: jet skis off the docks, kids trading the pool for the sandy lake beach and back, a pontoon idling toward the ramp while somebody lights the grill. It's a lake for settling in, and most families who bring a motorhome or a trailer here back it onto the pad once and leave it there until checkout.
Anchor Down RV Resort on the Dandridge shore
Anchor Down RV Resort at Dandridge keeps the pool, the beach and the boat ramp inside one gate, with the mountains across the water from the sites. The resort's season runs from the first Friday in March to the first of December as of October 2026, and the pool opens Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend, so a June or July week gets the full rotation of lake, pool and beach. Spring and fall weeks trade the pool for quieter docks and cool nights with the windows open.
Douglas Lake Marina sits about 2.5 miles from Anchor Down, the other Dandridge landing when the resort ramp is busy or the morning calls for a longer run up the lake. It's close enough to be out on the water early and back at the site for lunch.
Anchor Down is the lakeside resort most families look at first, so hold the dates there before you shop listings. The site you get decides the rig, and the rig is easy to find once the site is settled.
TVA campgrounds at Douglas Dam
Down at the dam, TVA's Douglas Dam Headwater and Tailwater campgrounds are the public way to sleep beside the water, Headwater on the lake side and Tailwater on the French Broad below the spillway. They make a good alternate first night when the resort is full, and they suit a family that wants the lake and the river without a resort wrapped around them.
Confirm hookups and site lengths with TVA before you choose the rig, since the length of the site decides how big a motorhome you can bring. If it's just the two of you, or the site you land turns out short, something smaller and easier to back in is the simpler fit.
Pigeon Forge and Dollywood, a day off the lake
Sometime midweek the kids will want the Parkway, and Pigeon Forge is close enough to do as a day trip and be back at the lake by bedtime. By dusk the strip is neon, go-kart tracks and dinner theaters, and two of the big shows are an easy evening out: Pirates Voyage is 16.1 miles from Anchor Down and Dolly Parton's Stampede 19.2 miles. Dollywood takes the whole day, so check its festival dates on the park's own calendar before you settle the lake week. Families who would rather wake up closer to Dollywood can book a Sevier County RV resort for part of the trip instead, in the same order: the site first, then the rig.
Past Pigeon Forge the road climbs into the national park, where Cades Cove's loop of hayfields, log cabins and deer at first light is the slow drive most first-timers want. The park's campgrounds carry their own length limits, which the Knoxville RV page covers from the Townsend side and the Great Smoky Mountains page covers from North Carolina.