Cadiz
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 15 nights read 15:58 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cadiz Park is located on the beautiful Lake Barkley near the town of Cadiz, Kentucky. The day-use area is a great spot for barbecuing, boating and fishing. Fun fact: the largest yellow bass caught in Kentucky, weighing in at one pound one ounce, was caught in Lake Barkley. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors enjoy boating, fishing, and swimming among many other activities. Bring the family and some food and enjoy a fun-filled day in sun at Cadiz.
Facilities
The picnic shelter is ideal for groups of up to 100 guests. Amenities include a boat ramp, playground, paved parking and grills. Shopping, grocery stores, and gas stations are conveniently close.
Natural Features
Lake Barkley covers 57,900 acres with 1,004 miles of shoreline. Summer water temperatures are a comfortable but refreshing 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Nearby Attractions
Visit the Lake Barkley State Resort Park for miles of hiking trails and horseback riding stables.
What the agency tells you
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Picnicking
Full this Saturdayread 15:58 UTC
The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in. How full the weekend is nationally.
3 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:03 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:58 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 12
What you actually pay
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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 3
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:03 UTC
- Hurricane CreekBarkley Lake · 8.5 mi · 2 of 100 site-nights open
- CanalBarkley Lake · 23 mi · 8 of 224 site-nights open
- EurekaBarkley Lake · 23 mi · 4 of 54 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:58 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
| CADI | 1 | day use | yes | 346 ft | $35 |
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.
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
Hurricane Creek8.5 mi
Linton13 mi
Bumpus Mills17 mi
Old Kuttawa20 mi
Canal23 mi
Eureka23 miFrom Nashville, Tennessee,or St. Louis take I-24 to the Cadiz, Exit 65, travel west on St. HWY 68/80 6 miles. Turn right onto KY 139 for 1.5 miles. turn left on Jefferson St
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cadiz, KY
Typical weather
Typical October night 49°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 · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Cadiz is in Kentucky’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, James Comer (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyJames ComerU.S. Representative · Kentucky’s 1st district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMitch McConnellU.S. Senator · Kentucky
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRand PaulU.S. Senator · Kentucky
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Cadiz, Kentucky
Dear James Comer, I’m a constituent in Kentucky’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Cadiz, Kentucky, and couldn’t. Every site at Cadiz is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cadiz keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cadiz. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Cadiz (Kentucky) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Cadiz, Kentucky
Dear Mitch McConnell, I’m a constituent in Kentucky. I tried to camp at Cadiz, Kentucky, and couldn’t. Every site at Cadiz is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cadiz keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cadiz. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Cadiz (Kentucky) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Cadiz, Kentucky
Dear Rand Paul, I’m a constituent in Kentucky. I tried to camp at Cadiz, Kentucky, and couldn’t. Every site at Cadiz is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cadiz keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cadiz. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Cadiz (Kentucky) via campanac.com