Below John H. Kerr Dam, bald eagles and waterfowl work the open water at Tailrace Park, and behind the dam Kerr Lake runs back into forest along the Virginia shore. The Corps of Engineers keeps two campgrounds on this side, North Bend Park and Longwood Park, with gravel pads under forest shade where the motorhome backs in and plugs in for the week. Days go to the swim beach and laps on a paved bike trail, with a run over to the dam whenever someone wants another look at the eagles. A family week splits nicely between the two parks, a few nights at the big one with the most to do, then the back half on Longwood's quieter waterfront.
North Bend Park, disc golf and the bike trail
North Bend is the busy campground, with more than 200 sites for tents and RVs spread through the woods and a swim beach at each camping area. The day-use side has a disc golf course and a 1.5-mile paved bike trail, which fills a couple of afternoons for kids who have already worn out the beach. The Corps' Visitor Assistance Center stands beside the park, and it's the place to grab the lake map before you start exploring.
Sites are listed as Standard Electric or nonelectric, and in a Virginia summer the electric ones are where a family motorhome wants to be, with the air conditioning carrying the afternoon. In Loop C, a 50-amp back-in gravel pad on North Bend's campground listing takes RVs, trailers and fifth wheels up to 30 feet. The limit moves from site to site across the park, so read the listing for the exact pad you're booking.
Longwood Park on the waterfront
Longwood is the smaller of the two, with 66 sites, and the reason to move over for the last nights is a lakefront pad with the water right beside the rig. Mornings start with coffee at the shoreline and drift toward the swim beach. Once generators and music go off at 10 p.m., the campground gets quiet enough to hear the lake.
Aim for a lakefront Standard Electric site with water at the pad, and the back half of the week runs plugged in and topped up. One lakefront 50-amp site with water takes RVs, trailers, pop-ups and fifth wheels up to 35 feet, a little more room than that Loop C pad at North Bend.
Booking a Kerr Lake site before the rig
Lock the site first, then rent the motorhome. Both parks set the maximum length pad by pad, so the site you land on decides how long a rig the family can bring. As of October 2026, the North Bend and Longwood pages both carry a drought caution, with the lake below normal, some boat ramps closed and swim areas dry, so check them before you promise anyone the beach.
If the site you want caps out short, or the trip shrinks to two people, the Durham campervan page has the smaller rig, the North Carolina shore's state recreation areas, and Eno River, Medoc Mountain and Duke Forest. When both Corps campgrounds are full for your dates, Jordan Lake is the closer lake week, with its east shore on the Apex RV page and its west shore on the Chapel Hill RV page. Lake Gaston, the next big lake east along the state line, has its own lakeside campgrounds on the Lake Gaston RV page.