Top of the World RV

Top of the World RV in Tellico Plains, Tennessee, is a picturesque campground in the tranquil Monroe County community that serves as the gateway to one of America's most celebrated scenic byways — a camping destination in the Cherokee National Forest corridor where the Cherohala Skyway's 36-mile mountain drive, the Hiwassee River's wild trout fishing, and the Citico Creek Wilderness give guests the most concentrated southern Appalachian backcountry access available from a campground in the eastern Tennessee mountains. Tellico Plains's Monroe County position at the southern terminus of the Cherohala Skyway on TN-165 gives the town its specific character as the outdoor recreation gateway to the Tennessee side of the Cherokee National Forest — the most underappreciated and most geologically rugged section of the southern Appalachian National Forest system east of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Spacious RV sites and tent camping with the complete practical camping infrastructure give Top of the World RV the comfortable Tellico Plains base from which the Cherohala Skyway, the Hiwassee River, and the Cherokee National Forest's trail system extend in all directions from the Tennessee mountains' southern foothills — the campground's Tellico Plains location puts guests at the literal and figurative base of the Cherokee National Forest's most dramatic terrain, and the town's small-scale mountain gateway character gives the property the specific feel of a campground at the edge of serious wilderness rather than a polished resort at the edge of managed recreation. Pets are welcome. The Cherohala Skyway, beginning at the Tellico Plains city limits on TN-165 and extending 36 miles to Robbinsville, North Carolina, is one of the most dramatic mountain drives in the eastern United States — an All-American Road designation (one of only 31 nationally designated scenic byways at the highest federal designation level) that traverses the ridge crests of the Unicoi Mountains between Tennessee and North Carolina at elevations from 3,000 to 5,390 feet, crossing through the Citico Creek and Slickrock Creek Wilderness areas and giving the most sustained above-treeline ridgeline driving experience on the eastern seaboard outside of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Skyway's absence of commercial development along its entire length gives it the specific unspoiled character that the wilderness and national forest land on both sides sustains. The Hiwassee River and Ocoee River, within 20 miles of Tellico Plains in Polk County, give the southeast Tennessee area the most concentrated whitewater and wild trout fishing access in the state — the Hiwassee's tailwater trout fishing below Apalachia Dam is one of Tennessee's premier wild brown and rainbow trout fisheries, managed as a delayed harvest catch-and-release section in the upper river that sustains the trophy-size trout population that the cold TVA dam release supports. Top of the World RV serves guests through Monroe County's mountain camping season from April through November, with the Cherohala Skyway spring wildflower blooms from April through June and the October fall foliage on the Unicoi Mountain ridgeline representing the two most spectacular visual seasons in the Cherokee National Forest. The Tellico River corridor north of town through the Cherohala Skyway approach sustains the most popular kayaking and canoe day runs in the Cherokee National Forest's Tennessee section. Reserve sites ahead for the spring wildflower season and the October fall foliage peak along the Cherohala Skyway ridge.