Bumpus Mills
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $30–$34Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 15All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
From fishing to boating and hiking, campers and day visitors at Bumpus Mills enjoy hours of fun on the upstream section of Lake Barkley. Many bird species reside here, including golden and bald eagles. Don't forget to pack binoculars and a camera to take advantage of the excellent opportunities for birding and wildlife photography. Keep reading
Recreation
The recreation area is ideal for hiking, fishing, swimming, picnicking and boating. Abundant wildlife includes wild turkey and deer.
Facilities
The small campground offers 15 sites with water and electric hookups. Other amenities include hot showers, a dump station, boat ramp and public marina.
Natural Features
Bumpus Mills is located on scenic Lake Barkley among wooded rolling hills. Lake Barkley is the westernmost lake on the Cumberland River, which flows westward to the Ohio River. Barkley lies parallel to Kentucky Lake, a reservoir that stems from the Tennessee River. Between both lakes is the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.
Nearby Attractions
Due east is Fort Donelson National Battlefield, which marks the site of the first Union victory of the Civil War. The Bear Creek Waterfowl Management Unit is a short drive south of Bumpus Mills.
What the agency tells you
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District firewood policy is now in effect and seeks the public’s cooperation to prevent the spread of forest insects and disease at campgrounds in the Cumberland River Basin. The firewood policy requires visitors at Lake Barkley’s campgrounds to use only firewood that has been certified as heat-treated by U.S. Department of Agriculture or state natural resource agency.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 15
- Hookups
- 15 electric, 15 water
- Longest rig
- 75 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 15
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed at 13 of 15 sites
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Other amenities include hot showers, a dump station, boat ramp and public marina.”
- 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, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 23rd darkest of 95 in TN
- Bortle 4
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $30–$34 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
15 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 15 sites
| BMIL | 19 | rv electric | 44 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 342 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 20 | rv electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 298 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 21 | rv electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 101 ft | 192 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 22 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 51 ft | 117 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 23 | rv electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 38 ft | 152 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 24 | rv electric | 53 ft | 50 amp | 38 ft | 114 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 25 | rv electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 195 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 26 | rv electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 131 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 27 | rv electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 61 ft | 171 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 28 | rv electric | 41 ft | 50 amp | 56 ft | 220 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 29 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 33 ft | 249 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 30 | rv electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 295 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 31 | rv electric | 41 ft | 50 amp | 33 ft | 219 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 32 | rv electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 45 ft | 226 ftLake Barkley |
| BMIL | 33 | rv electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 267 ftLake Barkley |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Physical Address: 764 Forest Trail, Bumpus Mills, TN 37028 From Nashville, Tenn: Take I-24 west to Clarksville, TN. Follow Highway 79 South for 20 mi. to Highway 120. Follow Highway 120 for 10 mi. to Bumpus Mills, turn left onto Tobaccoport Road (Hwy. 1830) for 2.8 mi., turn left onto Oak Hill Road for . 9 mi., turn left onto Forest Trail then turn right into the campground. From I-24 East Cadiz KY: Take 68 west for 6.2mi., turn left on to HWY. 139 south for 15.3mi., continue on to TN. HWY 120 for 2.7 mi. Turn left onto Tobaccoport Road, Hwy 1830 for 2.8 mi., thurn left onto Oak Hill Road for .9 mi., turn left onto Forest Trail then into the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Big Rock, TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 27°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
Bumpus Mills is in Tennessee’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Matt Van Epps (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: D-. See every public-lands vote →