Cades Cove Group Campground
5Heads up4 park alerts · 1 fire 2.0 mi away
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 3All of them walk-up
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Cades Cove combines the feel of primitive camping with the modern convenience of flush toilets and drinking water. A camp store provides visitors with basic necessities as well as bike rentals. Events like interpretive programs in the nearby amphitheater and bicycle-only days on the loop road provide visitors with a fun and unique experience.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets - year round
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Dump station
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
Around the campground
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 3.6 km away
- Peak color
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 3
What you actually pay
How we know this receipt · 4
rules read Sep 7, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
Deep Creek CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 0.0 mi
Spence CabinGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 5.3 mi
Appalachian ClubhouseGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 5.5 mi
Elkmont CampgroundGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 5.8 mi
Elkmont Group CampGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 6.0 mi
Metcalf Bottoms Picnic PavilionGreat Smoky Mountains National Park · 9.6 miThe agency publishes this point for 2 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Gatlinburg, TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 67°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 24°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
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Cades Cove Group Campground is in Tennessee’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Diana Harshbarger (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →