Love Valley

I live just over the mountain in TN, and have been going to LV 2-3x a year for 10years. Unfortunately, it gets worse every year.

Most of the shops are closed, especially now with the sewer and water issues. The buildings all look, and probably are about to fall down. If you want something besides beer or iffy food, you have to drive to Statesville...even for cold sodas. If you do leave, make sure someone watches your campsite/trailer/horses...or they might not be there.

The only good campground is Carusos, but it was bought out and I don't know the new name or if it's still good. The fights, idiots, and horse abuse do happen regularly...I've seen more than one horse die there. Due to the drunks and the *** it is Not family friendly...it never was. The trails get worse every year, with zero maintenance.

The shacks that the "locals" live in and rent out are pretty much trash piles, which wouldn't matter if they weren't in full view of everything. I can't speak about the "racism" mainly because very few black people go there, so I never saw any problems. But, it is rural NC, not Chicago. To put it simply, I've been waiting for the state to step in and close it down for some time.

It doesn't matter if the people are friendly, nor about the "novelty" of the place...Love Valley is now simply a dump. Last Halloween was my last trip to LV ever.

Best place ever cant wait to go back great camping love the whole place made new freinds thank u all so much loved the rodeo best hot dog ever got to pet horses so sweet

Creepiest darned place I ever set foot in. It’s a ghost town, no where to eat, barely anything was open and it didn’t feel very friendly. Not worth the visit unless you have a horse, since the trails are beautiful.

Loved it!!!! Still do and still keep going back!

College graduate, born in a 3000 sq ft.

brick home from very wealthy parents.

Cowboys used outdoor plumbing, so check the hotel rating, like the Ritz Carlton, next time you go for the outdoor experience!

My first time in love valley was when I was 15 and we rented this old run into the ground horses that were sweet none the less. The man who owned them was a sweet guy too, but the horses were still short (boarding on pony) skinny, hardy little things and though I loved em I was worried about them carrying me. The ride on the trails was a BLAST I loved being able to just wonder around, explore and have a good time. There were some flat gorgeous field to do a nice canter in and that was great. The part I really disliked was the town itself and having no map. The people in the little "rustic" town were just flat unwelcoming. I know this is suppose to be a "authentic" experience but honestly all I got was a rude don't want to come back here vib and I will tell you that I Won't! Be going back to the saloon or any other the other places. Other riders were rude, had no understanding of common sense and most didn't pay a wit of attention to the common curtosies your suppose to show other riders. One group of riders was coming into town and had a young girl that was just starting to learn to ride with them. She had just had her first canter the week before and some A hold came flying between the group causing 2 horses in there group to scatter and for her horse to bolt. She was dropped into the dirt and nearly stepped on!

Another time some *** let his horse back into another persons and started up a kicking frenzy. Others were dragging at there horses mouths while some were digging in with spurs worse the horses were bleeding. I was pretty horrified by this considering supposedly "a cowboys best friend is his horse". Later that night went to go walk in town and like I have seen other people post it was just too rowdy, we were thinking of bringing close to 60 4-H kids and parents up for the weekend from SC but that was shot down when we saw how the "nightlife" here was. I live in a pretty busy city here in SC but at least the clubs have bouncers and the small towns around us have sheriffs that give a heck!

My second time at Love valley was when I turned 21 went back up for a weekend with my best friend and she found it as disturbing as I did. Took our own horses this time. My 23yr old TB nearly has his leg broke because some hot shot on a Stallion figured out too late that stallions are HEAD STRONG. My friend had a mare and we were between the stud and the mare! It was *** and scary. The welcome was no different, the night life was the same and I was just Let Down that something that should be FUN ended up being horrible and a waste of time and GAS!

I am thinking of going back just one more time, I have read some reviews on google and another website that said the town has been "shaped up" but I will reserve my own judgement. If this last trip is as bad as the previous I am posting to every review site I can and writing to the county of Iredell, to the BBB and the State of NC's consumer group to let them know that love valley is a tragedy waiting to happen.

I'd like to complain about people that complain about Love Valley, NC. Love Valley is an Old Western Town, it isn't suppose to be plush!

It was Andy Barker's dream, and he built it over a half a century ago. There are good people that Love Love Valley. And I am one of them. There are those that have patronized The Valley for Decades!! Instead of trying to push your views on someone else, let them decide for themselves!

Maybe it isn't for everyone, but if you don't like it, Take Your *** Somewhere else and ride!!

You probably own some other riding facility, and are trying to steal their business!

We stayed at Miss Kitty's in Love Valley and the place was filthy. It took me 45 minutes to scrub the tub/shower before I would use it.

The floors were filthy and spider webs were behind every door. You pay top dollar for uncomfortable beds in dirty, dark, dingy rooms. There were bare wires exposed and plugs with no cover. In my opinion the place is a fire trap of old wood with a poor electrical system.

I will never stay there again. The flies were horrible and they throw the manure from the stalls over a hill behind a dumpster a few feet from the residences.

There are other places in town that I have and would stay at again but not Miss Kitty's.

Theres a few good people in love valley,But alot *** people there to.Just like the rest of the world.Myself,I have a better time when i dont have to dodge idiots all day long,and listen to a bunch of {{redacted}} all bugeyed with more mouth than *** to back it up.the only difference in the old west and lovevalley is if it was still the old west I would have shot about 3 or 4 sumbitches by now.and back then people new how to take care of the horse that was carry their rear around.

I'm really sorry you folks had a bad time in Love valley. not all N.C.

towns are like that, but as as a state we have a big share of rednecks. i haven't been to love valley but had been wanting to check it out. Now I may just pass on it after reading the reviews.

Go to Boone, Asheville, even Greensboro for some fine trail riding but it sounds like LoveValley is just someone's idea to make some money off the idealist.

Even better,, leave the horses home and go to the Mountains or beaches and enjoy yourselves. If you see any idiots, be sure that the police are not far behind.

I and the folks from the riding stable I board my horses at recently took our first out of state camping trip and decided to go to Love Valley, NC which is the self proclaimed "cowboy capital" of the country and a "horseman's paradise" and why we decided to go because looking at the website it looked really neat. When we pulled into the area, I looked around and prayed that what I was seeing wasn't Love Valley but it was.

The place is an absolute trash hole. There are hundreds of permenant, cheap, redneck campers with permenant roofs attached to them. They're an eye sore and there are so many of them. They're campers meant to live in for a weekend or so, but the people in the town live in them permenately.

There are large piles of construction material and trash everywhere, not like in a small discreet area, but on the sides of roads and infront of houses and infront of stores, it's like they were just too lazy to put the stuff up. There was a pile of discarded toilets in one lot and in another a giant pile of wood, bedsprings, and metal that was burnt to a crisp. One of the "bathhouses" was literally a shack with a water hose and 2 black barrels on the roof which served as the "hot water heater". The bathrooms and bath houses were a nightmare.

Our bathouse was a little shack that hadn't been cleaned in god knows when. There were used razors and soap in the shower from the last campers. The floor had 3 inches of dirt on it and the toilet seat was covered in dead moths. The pipes were rusty and made the water smell horrible, so you literally smelled worse coming out then in.

To really drive the nail home, there was no hot water. We called and complained and the "employees" said they would fix it, but they blatently lied to us about it, they had no intention of fixing it and gave us a lie about needing a electrician, but we knew that was a lie because one of the riders with us was an experianced electrician. I don't think the bath house has ever had hot water. They let us use another bath house, I was the first to use it and when I pulled back the shower curtain, there was a nest of spiders in the bottom and ceiling and along the sides.

I killed about 6 spiders and had one of the most paranoid showers of my life. The toilet was full of dead beatles. The place hadn't been washed in god knows when and they were too lazy to put down bug spray and the place was infested with spiders and bugs. The town was billed as an "old western" town but in fact was a ghost town.

It had a total of 5 stores, 2 of which were for sale. There were no restraunts, no decent stores. The closest restraunt was 14 miles away and was literally a Citgo gas station with a fryer. There were no fast food chains, not even a McDonald's.

We had to drive 30 miles for a sit down restraunt. The nearest grocery store is 25 miles away. There were 2 bars in the town which were called "saloons" but were really run down bars that blared music across the campsite at night. Our camp site was next to a busy road, there were a lot of diesel trucks and a lot of drunk horse riders.

I was too often woken at 3 am by drunken cowboys riding by and yelling. There aren't any cops and rules aren't followed there and theres a lot of public drunkeness. The trails are all on the road and there are no "forest trails". Oh and the town is racist.

Coming into the camp site there was a permenant resident trailor with a "porch monkey" on the porch, which was a little black man dressed in a pet monkey suit, eating watermelon with exaggerated "black" features. It was disgusting. Also one of our riders was black and they were very rude and unfriendly to him. It's billed as a "christian cowboy" retreat, more like they're all a bunch of backward racists.

The place was just a HUGE disappointment and dirty and racist and run down and poorly managed and just *** Go somehwere else to ride your horses, we would of had much more fun if we had stayed local or went to a national/state park. This place isn't worth the money to get there. I think 40 years ago it was a "cool" place, but now it's a dump.

Stay away.

I went to Love Valley for Easter weekend,

don;t take the family fights with no law in for cement, The fight i saw came from a place called jacks bar the kid almost got bet to death with no bouncer to help him he was hit in the face over and over until he was knocked out ! no one from jacks even came out to see but they did throw them out in to the street to fight,wow what a place.I saw drunks riding the *** out of there horses at night running themup and down the roads cars flying up and down the street, My question is ware is the police ????