Click the links below to view information about activities for this park.
| Accessible Activities | Fishing |
| Boating | Hiking |
| Camping | Picnicking |
| Community Building | Swimming |
| Cycling | |
| Education and Events |
Accessible Activities: Persons with disabilities will find access to a wide range of recreational opportunities at Falls Lake. All parking lots have spaces set aside for persons with disabilities and the restrooms are accessible as well. An accessible fishing pier is located at Beaverdam and Rollingview. Accessible picnic shelters are also available at Beaverdam, as well as at Rolling View and Sandling Beach. Accessible swimming is available at Beaverdam, Rolling View and Sandling Beach, and accessible campsites are available at Holly Point, Rolling View and Shinleaf. Park staff can guide you to facilities best suited to your needs.
Boating: Highway 50, Rolling View and Beaverdam recreation areas have boat-launching ramps. Only boats with non-gasoline motors are allowed in Beaverdam. B. W. Wells and Holly Point provide similar services for campers only.
Sandling Beach offers a beach to launch non-motorized watercraft, but paddlers must carry canoes across the beach to the water by hand.
A privately managed concession near Rolling View State Recreation Area, offers boat launching, slips and mooring, as well as a snack bar, supplies and gasoline.
Camping; Family camping: With more than 300 sites, pitch your tent or park your RV at Falls Lake. Many sites offer water and electric hookups. Showers, restrooms and dump stations are located nearby.
Holly Point offers 153 campsites, 89 with water and electric hookups. Centrally located washhouses and a comfort station are nearby. Similarly, Rollingview offers 80 campsites with water and electric hookups for RVs and 35 campsites for tents and trailers. Rolling View and Holly Point campsites include picnic tables, outdoor grills and tent pads.
Backpack camping: For people who desire a more primitive camping experience, Shinleaf offers tent camping in 47 hike-in sites and 5 group sites. Shinleaf is closed for the winter and will re-open in spring.
Group camping: Rolling View and B. W. Wells (reservations only) have special areas for camping clubs and groups. At B. W. Wells, 14 group campsites have a centrally located shower house, and each site accommodates up to 35 people. Each Rolling View site accommodates up to 30 people and offers four sites with drinking water, picnic tables and fire pits. Both campgrounds have picnic tables, benches, grills, water and a campfire ring. Showers are centrally located.
Community Building: Reserve the community building on the lakeshore at Rolling View for your next group gathering. The facility has a meeting room, kitchen facilities and restrooms.
Click here for a community building reservation form as a printable PDF file. Or, contact the park office for assistance.
Cycling: Enjoy riding your mountain bike through Falls Lake State Recreation Area! A total of 13 miles of trails through a variety of terrain are open for single-track mountain biking. Located in the Beaverdam area, the park offers three loop trails totaling a distance of 6.5 miles of easy/intermediate riding, as well as a 6.5-mile trail for advanced riding.
The trails close for wet weather. Call the park office or visit the Trianglemtb.com website to check on the trail's status.
Education and Events: Rangers hold regularly scheduled educational and interpretive programs about Falls Lake and its aquatic environment. Click here to search our database of park events.
To arrange a special exploration of Falls Lake State Recreation Area for your group or class, contact the park office.
Educational materials about Falls Lake have been developed for grades 3-5 and are correlated to North Carolina's competency-based curriculum in science, social studies, mathematics and English/language arts. The Falls Lake program focuses on the food chain. Accompanying the program is a teacher's booklet and workshop, free of charge to educators. To learn more about environmental education or to search our database for upcoming workshops, click here.
Fishing: Bass, bluegill, catfish and crappie—as well as numerous artificial reefs and fish shelters, and continuous stocking programs—attract anglers to Falls Lake. N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission regulations apply. See the "Links" page for information about the reservoir or for current water levels.
Hiking: Falls Lake Trail will eventually travel the entire south shore of the lake. A portion of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the trail will connect two recreational areas and provide camping for backpackers. Portions of the trail travel through state parkland where all state park regulations apply. The remainder of the trail travels through N.C. Wildlife Resource Commission gamelands. For your safety, wear blaze orange while hiking this trail during hunting season.
A one-mile loop trail at B. W. Wells passes the naturalist's home and an interpretive area. Short trails at Rolling View and Sandling Beach allow a closer look at the aquatic environment. There are also short trails at Beaverdam and Holly Point.
Picnicking: All recreation areas offer picnic sites with outdoor grills and tables. Drinking water is located nearby. Sandling Beach, Rolling View and Beaverdam have picnic shelters of various sizes with drinking water and restrooms nearby. Highway 50 offers picnic tables, grills, trash receptacles and nearby restrooms.
Use of picnic shelters is free on a first-come, first-served basis; a fee is charged to reserve a shelter. For more information or for a reservation form, contact the park office.
See the "Forms & Permits" page for a reservation form as a printable PDF file. Or, contact the park office for assistance.
Swimming:Sandling Beach, Rolling View and Beaverdam provide sandy swim beaches with nearby restrooms and changing facilities. Holly Point offers swimming for campers only. Supervise children closely and outfit them with personal flotation devices when they are in or near water.
N.C. Division of Parks & Recreation • 1615 MSC • Raleigh N.C. 27699-1615 (919) 733-4181