Buffalo Park
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:16 UTC
- A night
- $24–$68When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 21In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Buffalo Park is a small day use and campground park, located on John H. Kerr Reservoir. The campground is open May 1 - September 30. The Day Use Park is open year-around. Kerr, also known as Buggs Island Lake, is a 50,000-acre lake that extends 39 miles up the wooded, cove-studded shoreline of the Roanoke River in Virginia and North Carolina. Kerr Reservoir was created with the construction of the John H. Kerr Dam in 1952. Its 800 miles of wooded shoreline stretch across six counties in two states and offer countless recreation opportunities for visitors. Keep reading
Recreation
Public lands around the lake are open to hunting with appropriate state licenses. Game species include whitetail deer, wild turkey, bobwhite quail, mourning dove, gray squirrel, cottontail rabbit, fox and raccoon. Resident waterfowl species include wood duck, black duck, mallard and Canadian geese. The Army Corps of Engineers manages 26 Wildlife Management Areas around the lake that provide year-round opportunities for hiking, wildlife viewing, birding and more. Kerr Lake is widely known for fishing, with large-mouth bass, striped bass, crappie and catfish caught. Fishing and hunting are regulated by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries on the Virginia side of the lake.
Facilities
Visitors to Buffalo Park will enjoy the lakeside views and the quaint park. The campground has 21 sites: 11 shady electric sites (1 is a double) and 10 primitive sites in an open field. Primitive sites are small with limited shade. Two of the electric sites are paved and are accessible. Amenities include "family-style" individual restrooms with hot showers, sink and flush toilets. Park has a small dump station. Park has a swim beach, picnic shelter, and a boat ramp.
Natural Features
Kerr Reservoir has approximately 48,000 acres of hardwood and pine forest and 50,000 acres of water. Buffalo Park has both shady sites and open field sites. The picnic shelter in the park has a spectacular view of the lake, where the Roanoke (Staunton) River meets the Dan. Contact Info Between 05/01/2025 and 09/30/2025 this location is staffed. Please call (434) 374-2063 to speak with local staff. From 10/01/2025 to 04/30/2026 this location is unstaffed. Please call (434) 738-6143 for general information.
Nearby Attractions
Buffalo Springs Park is on the Virginia State and National Historic Sites, and is located approximately 7 miles from Buffalo Park. Once a world-renowned source of bottled lithia waters, the little park now offers a picnic pavilion and solitude. People still get their water from the fountain there. Gas and groceries are available in Clarksville, Virginia, about 15 minutes away. Clarksville holds the distinction of being the only town on Kerr (Buggs Island) Lake.
Charges & Cancellations
Changing Reservations: There is no change fee if a visitor extends or shortens a reservation, as long as the change includes dates from the original reservation. Additionally, there is no change fee if the visitor wants to switch sites that are the same price with the same reservation dates in the same facility. If a visitor wants to switch dates that are entirely outside of the original reservation dates, there is a $10 change fee. If a reservation is made that includes dates beyond the maximum booking window, that reservation cannot be changed until 18 days have passed from the original booking date. Once a reservation date has begun, visitors cannot change a reservation using the online system or through the Call Center. Onsite staff will assist with changes or cancellations. Cancellations: Visitors may cancel their reservation prior to arrival both on-line and through the call center. A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refund for a cancellation. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's approved rate including tax and applicable add-on. Cancellations for a one-night reservation will forfeit the entire amount paid and will not be subject to an additional service fee. Visitors who cancel a group overnight facility reservation less than 14 days prior to arrival date will pay a $10 service fee AND forfeit the first night’s rate. No-Shows: A no-show visitor is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's rate, taxes and applicable add-on for a campsite. Early Departures: Visitors are requested to notify staff at the facility if they depart early to allow others to use the site. If the visitor chooses to depart early, they may forfeit the approved rate and applicable tax and applicable add-on for the day of departure. If a visitor departs prior to the scheduled check-out date, they may be eligible for a partial refund. Visitors may notify the Recreation.gov call center to request a refund of remaining unused nights. If a visitor requests a refund for an early departure after the facility check-out time (3 pm) has passed, the visitor will not be refunded for that night and is eligible for a refund on any additional nights that will not be used. Refunds: Visitors may submit a refund request through their Recreation.gov profile within 7 days of the end date of their reservation. Visitors may also initiate a refund request through the call center at any time after their reservation has ended. Refunds for debit or credit card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank or credit card used to pay. For check or cash purchases, Recreation.gov will mail a Treasury check for refunds of cash, check, or money order payments to the address associated with the reservation. Treasury check refunds may take up to 6-8 weeks to arrive. In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team or facility manager will refund all fees and will attempt to notify you using the contact information within the Recreation.gov visitor profile.
What the agency tells you
Most campsites have gravel bases; bring padding for tents; all camping equipment must fit within the site perimeters (timbers).
Check-in is at 4 p.m. and check-out is at 2 p.m. Campers must drop off their blue camping hangtags at the gatehouse upon checkout.
Maximum stay is 14-days within any 30 day period. Changing names on a reservation, changing campsites, or making multiple reservations in order to stay over 14-days is prohibited!
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Quiet hours are from 10pm to 6 am. Generators and music must be cut off at 10 pm.
Customers should not have packages or mail sent or delivered to Park. Mail and packages will be refused and returned to sender.
Alcoholic beverages and off-road vehicles (golf carts,4-wheelers, etc.) are not allowed.
Golden Age/Access and America the Beautiful Interagency Senior and Access Passes are accepted at this campground and cardholders receive a 50% discount on camping fees. Cardholder must be present at registration, show pass and ID, and camp during entire stay.
All vehicles entering the day use area are required to pay the $7 day use fee including those who have rented the shelter for the day. The day use fee is waived for current campers.
For a full list of rules and regulations please visit Title 36
Please read through the fees and cancelation policy for Recreation.gov.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 21
- Hookups
- 11 electric, 11 water
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 2 of 21
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- PIT TOILETS on 1 of 22 campsite records
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Amenities include "family-style" individual restrooms with hot showers, sink and flush toilets.”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Beach
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Water access
- Night sky · 49th darkest of 88 in VA
- Bortle 4
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:16 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
“Additionally, there is no change fee if the visitor wants to switch sites that are the same price with the same reservation dates in the same facility. - If a visitor wants to switch dates that are entirely outside of the original reservation dates, there is a $10 change fee. - If a reservation is made that includes…” · this campground’s own no-show terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Buffalo Park closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 150 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- The Pines CampgroundJefferson National Forest · 103 mi
- Caldwell Fields Group CampgroundJefferson National Forest · 105 mi · 2 sites
- Steel Bridge CampgroundJefferson National Forest · 109 mi · 3 sites
- Boley Field Group CampgroundJefferson National Forest · 113 mi · 1 site
recreation.gov availability, read 16:16 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
22 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 21 mapped sitesAll 22 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 21 of the 22 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| Buffalo Park | Buffalo Park Day Use | day use | ||||||
| LLOO | 12 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 94 ft | 226 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $34–$68 | |
| LLOO | 13 | standard electric | 28 ft | 50 amp | 66 ft | 155 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $34–$68 | |
| LLOO | 14 | standard electric | 23 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 115 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $34–$68 | |
| LLOO | 15 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 83 ft | 141 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $34–$68 | |
| LLOO | 17D | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 193 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $34–$68 | |
| LLOO | 18 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | yes | 78 ft | 230 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $34–$68 |
| LLOO | 19 | standard electric | 25 ft | 50 amp | yes | 87 ft | 312 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $34–$68 |
| RLOO | 01 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 125 ft | 546 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $34–$68 | |
| RLOO | 02 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 122 ft | 431 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $34–$68 | |
| RLOO | 03 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 118 ft | 353 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $34–$68 | |
| RLOO | 04 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 118 ft | 279 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $34–$68 | |
| RLOO | 05 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 84 ft | 285 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $24 | ||
| RLOO | 06 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 84 ft | 220 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $24 | ||
| RLOO | 07 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 84 ft | 107 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $24 | ||
| RLOO | 08 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 84 ft | 106 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $24 | ||
| RLOO | 09 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 75 ft | 104 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $24 | ||
| RLOO | 10 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 71 ft | 82 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $24 | ||
| RLOO | 11 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 61 ft | 89 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $24 | ||
| RLOO | 20 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 102 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $24 | |||
| RLOO | 21 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 137 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $24 | |||
| RLOO | 22 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 143 ftJohn H. Kerr Reservoir | $24 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Longwood Park7.3 mi
Rudds Creek Rec. Area11 mi
Island Creek Park12 mi
Ivy Hill Park13 mi
Grassy Creek Park13 mi
North Bend Park18 miThe physical address for Buffalo Park is: 5199 Carter's Point Road, Buffalo Junction, VA 24529. It is located approximately 10 miles west of Clarksville, VA.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Clarksville, VA
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 73°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 28°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Buffalo Park is in Virginia’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, John McGuire (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →