We recently camped in Great Smoky Mountain National Park at Cataloochee Campground. On our last day there, it rained, so we took our truck camper to explore other areas of the park because we usually don’t drop the camper when we camp. After a white-knuckle drive on the way out of the Cataloochee Valley, we decided didn’t want to do that drive again. So we started looking for a place to stay on our last night of the trip. We ended up at Harvest Host site Mercier Orchards.
If you haven’t heard of or tried Harvest Hosts, joining has pros and cons. If you can travel more often than we do, it’s worth considering. We are weekend campers, and sometimes the weekends our schedules allow us to go camping are few and far between. Last year we didn’t use the service even once. But we keep our membership up because the times that we have used it have been fun. This time was no different.
After leaving the Smokies, I started using all the camping apps to research our route home and find a place to stay. I saw that Mercier Orchards wasn’t too far off our path and it was a host site I previously favored in the Harvest Hosts app to consider for a future stay. I contacted them through the app to see if they had availability, even though we likely wouldn’t arrive after they closed. They quickly approved our request, so we headed that way.
What we liked about our stay there was the privacy, even though a fifth wheel pulled up about two hours after we arrived. We like our space when we go camping, and we had just left a national park, where it felt like we were on top of the other campers around us. We were also treated to beautiful weather and a beautiful sunset. The next morning we visited their store and grabbed some food to go.
Things to keep in mind about Harvest Hosts:
- You must be fully self-contained with a toilet and water tank.
- You can’t just show up. You must contact the host to request a stay.
- You can usually only stay one night.
- While not required, it’s suggested that you spend $20 at the host site since you’re not paying camping fees to stay there.
Check out more information and FAQs about membership on the Harvest Hosts website. Even though we don’t get the opportunity to use them often, we plan to keep our membership. If you’re considering joining Harvest Hosts, we have a referral code for $15 off.
