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Wilder Carson has a busy day ahead of him. He plans to look for salamanders in the creek before riding his bike around the gravel road and trails that meander through the hardwood forest. He’ll probably spend some time helping his father and grandfather work on one of the cabins. Maybe he’ll hike to the waterfall or take a dip in the creek. It’s summer in the mountains of western North Carolina, and anything is possible, especially when you’re 7 and you go to work at Cold Spring Basecamp with your father. Wilder’s “job” is to explore these woods just like his mom, his uncles, and even his grandfather did.

Teela Waggoner & Wilder Carson photograph by Tim Robison

Cold Spring Basecamp is the brainchild of Wilder’s father, Hartwell Carson, and his maternal grandfather, Steve Waggoner. Hartwell had searched these mountains for a piece of land that would be well suited to a modern campground, but couldn’t find the right spot until Steve suggested the family’s own mountain escape, a swath of 39 acres in Henderson County. A couple miles from Lake Summit and not far from Saluda, the land was once family camping and hunting grounds, but it hadn’t seen regular use in decades.

“The family hadn’t been using the land much since all of Steve’s kids were grown with their own families, so it was overgrown,” Hartwell says. “The shelters were in bad shape. I couldn’t see the potential, but then I found the good stuff.”

At Cold Spring Basecamp, Steve Waggoner (left), Hartwell Carson, and Hawk, the dog, carry forward the spirit of the old Camp Windy Wood. photograph by Tim Robison

“The good stuff” Hartwell is talking about is a waterfall tucked deep into the woods and a gurgling creek running through a tunnel of rhododendrons. The property sits within a lush hardwood forest that hasn’t been logged in more than 75 years. In the summer, the thick canopy turns all shades of green, while the former horse pasture at the heart of the property glistens with early-summer morning dew and glitters with lightning bugs each evening.

“I also told him there might be gold on the property to sweeten the deal,” Steve jokes.

• • •

The timing was perfect for Steve and Hartwell to form a business partnership and turn the former outpost into a modern “glampground.” The idea was to blend the nostalgic vibes of summer camp with the high-end amenities of a glamping destination. The duo started by clearing brush, restoring old paths, and repairing the weathered Adirondack shelters like the ones found on the Appalachian Trail. They made careful decisions about what to modernize and what to leave alone and, in 2023, opened Cold Spring Basecamp.

Since then, they’ve been steadily adding more “good stuff” to the property, beginning with a tree house that has a whimsical suspension bridge leading to a lavish one-bedroom with its own bathroom. A stylish A-frame came next, and the partners have recently added a luxurious bathhouse as well as a private sauna and cold plunge on the edge of the creek.

“With this campground, we’re able to save the family property while keeping it what it was and adding to it,” Hartwell says. “People come here to spend time in the woods, just like the original Windy Wood campers did. Just like Steve and his kids did.”

• • •

Long before guests crossed the suspension bridge to the tree house or cold plunged by the creek, this land had been drawing people into the woods.

In the early 1920s, this was a homesite with a dirt-floor house and a fresh spring for drinking water. Rock walls that likely predate that homesite are scattered throughout the slopes, and the remnants of a moonshine still can be found high up on the ridge. Most importantly, this small slice of the mountains was a key piece of Camp Windy Wood, a traditional summer camp owned and operated by the Waggoners.

Camp Windy Wood founder Bill Waggoner points out mountain landmarks to campers and staff during a day trip in the early 1960s. Photography courtesy of Cold Spring Basecamp

From 1955 to the ’80s, kids spent summers on the banks of Lake Summit, swimming, riding horses, and practicing archery. The 39-acre Cold Spring Basecamp property served as Camp Windy Wood’s backcountry outpost, where small groups of campers spent the night in open-air cabins built in the style of the shelters found on the Appalachian Trail.

“My dad built this cabin himself,” Steve says as he sits on the front porch of Bill’s Cabin, a three-sided structure with bunk beds and a woodstove. “I say I helped, but I was so little at that time, I probably just got in the way.”

Steve has fond memories of Camp Windy Wood. His parents owned and ran the camp, and Steve and his four sisters grew up on the property, exploring alongside the summer camp kids. It’s a throwback lifestyle that Steve cherishes and wants to preserve in some form or another. He remembers spending his free time in the woods, and he’s not sure many kids growing up today will have those same memories.

Camp Windy Wood campers once sang songs around the campfire in these same woods. Photography courtesy of Cold Spring Basecamp

“I loved hiking, horseback riding, swimming … ” Steve says as he walks along the edge of the small horse pasture. “When I got old enough, I worked in the kitchen, two hours in the morning, two hours for lunch, and two hours at night. I was 12, making $15 a week. Probably the best job I ever had.”

The Waggoners shut down Camp Windy Wood in 1985, but Steve and Hartwell worked to find a way to keep the land in the family.

After the camp closed, the land that would eventually become Cold Spring Basecamp served as Steve’s own rustic family retreat, a place where he and his two sons and daughter could hunt, hike, ride horses, and camp in the shelters.

“We spent so much time here growing up,” says Steve’s daughter and Hartwell’s wife, Teela. “I remember Dad dammed up a swimming hole in the creek. That water was so cold.”

The Windy Wood A-frame keeps an old summer tradition alive. photograph by Tim Robison

Steve and his youngest son, Parke, would spend a lot of time hunting deer together on the mountain property. Parke passed away from cancer in 2021, and Steve found himself growing more attached to the memories he made on the land with his son.

“He built that,” Steve says, pointing to a robust firepit in front of the cabin. “People will rearrange the rocks, but Parke built the cement base for that firepit.”

The outpost was full of tangible reminders of Steve’s family and their history. The patriarch was adamant that he would not let the property go — even when the family decided to sell the larger 75-acre summer camp tract in 2023.

“We tried to find someone who wanted to run the larger property as a camp,” Steve says. “We thought about logging it or starting a vineyard. Eventually we decided to let the camp go. We were selling everything a few years ago, but I didn’t want to sell this.”

And it’s not just the physical property that Steve and Hartwell are preserving. More important than the place is the lifestyle.

Hartwell finished the interior of the A-frame with salvaged barn wood from a wood yard up the road from camp. photograph by Tim Robison

“I like being up here,” Steve says. “I spend my time scratching some dirt, chopping wood. It feels like home. My dad would approve of what we’re doing here.”

Now, that lifestyle is open to more than just the Waggoners. Located near DuPont State Recreational Forest and the rugged Green River Game Lands, Cold Spring Basecamp has become a destination for campers looking for adventure by day and a quiet patch of woods at night. Campsites and cabins are carved out of the forest, where the waterfall and its creek are the loudest sounds visitors hear.

On summer evenings, guests return from the creek with wet towels over their shoulders. Children chase fireflies near the pasture while someone starts a fire outside one of the old shelters. Some campers pitch a tent on the ground; others climb into bed in the trees. But everyone comes for some version of the same thing: cold creek water, dark woods, and an experience that still feels like camp.

The hands-on spirit was an important part of the original Camp Windy Wood. Photography courtesy of Cold Spring Basecamp

And, of course, there’s Wilder and the memories he gets to make because of Cold Spring Basecamp. Wilder is about the same age as Steve was when Steve’s dad was building out the property for his campers. This isn’t lost on Steve as he watches his grandson play in the creek and stomp around the woods just like he did when he was a kid.

“I’m so glad for Wilder,” Steve says. “He gets to experience this land the way we all did.”

Hartwell agrees, adding that it would be great if Wilder grew up and wanted to take over Cold Spring Basecamp one day. But even if he chooses a different path, Wilder is going to have fond memories of growing up out here in these woods, playing in the creek, helping to build the cabins. He’ll have the same kind of memories that Steve and his kids have.

“I like the idea of passing something down to our kids,” Hartwell says. “The love of this land, and the lifestyle that it brings, that’s our family legacy. That’s what we can pass down.”

Cold Spring BaseCamp
125 Cold Spring Base Road
Zirconia, NC 28790
(828) 817-5258
coldspringbasecamp.com