Cages Bend
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 12 of the next 12 nights read 15:57 UTC
- A night
- $30–$35Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 4342 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cages Bend Campground is located on the shores of Old Hickory Lake, offering campers the opportunity to enjoy activities with a beautiful scenic backdrop. Water recreation is the major attraction for lake-goers, but with white-tailed deer, migratory song birds and waterfowl abundant in the area, birding and wildlife photography is popular as well. Keep reading
Recreation
Swimming and sailing are popular ways to enjoy the lake, and anglers can find exceptional bank and boat fishing for catfish, crappie and bass.
Facilities
The campground offers a playground for families, a boat ramp for easy lake access, showers for comfort and a group picnic shelter for convenient entertaining. All sites have electric and water hookups and four sites meet accessibility standards. Laundry facilities are also onsite. Two docks are also available for fishing only, one is located inside the campground and the other is beside the boat ramp.
Natural Features
Old Hickory Lake is a 22,500 acre reservoir just northeast of the Nashville metropolitan area. Fed by the Cumberland River, it stretches for 97 miles, offering an ideal home for several birds and animals in its woodland habitat.
Nearby Attractions
Downtown Nashville, known as "the music city," is just over a thirty minute drive from the campground. Visitors looking for more pier fishing opportunities can explore nearby piers at Rockland, Sanders Ferry, Shutes Branch and Bledsoe Creek State Park. History buffs will appreciate a day trip to the Hermitage, an impressive National Historic Landmark where the seventh U.S. President, Andrew Jackson lived. Charges & Cancellations * Once your reservation has been created, there will be a $10.00 fee to cancel and a $10.00 fee to change your site or dates. * Cancellations made the day before, or up to the day after your arrival date will also be charged the first nights use fee. * No-Shows are charged a $20.00 fee plus the first nights use fee. * If your reservation is for 1 night, and you have been charged the first nights use fee, there is no $10.00 serivce fee.
What the agency tells you
Campsite must be reserved; no walk-ins
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.
Check-In Time: 3:00 PM Check-Out Time: 12:00 PM
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 43
- Hookups
- 42 electric, 43 water
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Paved pads
- 14 of 43
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Night sky · 85th darkest of 95 in TN
- Bortle 5
Full this Saturdayread 15:57 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 16:06 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 42 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 9 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:57 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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $30–$35 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.
“* Once your reservation has been created, there will be a $10.00 fee to cancel and a $10.00 fee to change your site or dates. * Cancellations made the day before, or up to the day after your arrival date will also be charged the first nights use fee. * No-Shows are charged a $20.00 fee plus the first nights use fee.…” · 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 · 6
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:06 UTC
- Seven Points (TN)J Percy Priest Lake · 12 mi · 1 of 116 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:57 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
43 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 42 mapped sitesAll 43 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 42 of the 43 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.
| CAGES BEND | 01 | type not stated | 38 ft | 50 amp | 110 ft | |||
| CAGES BEND | 02 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 348 ft | 77 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 03 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30/50 amp | 58 ft | 156 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 04 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30/50 amp | 58 ft | 152 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 05 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30/50 amp | 50 ft | 139 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 06 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 177 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 07 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 162 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 08 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30/50 amp | 76 ft | 62 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 09 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30/50 amp | 76 ft | 50 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 10 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 98 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 11 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 41 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 12 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 39 ft | 54 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 13 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 39 ft | 76 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 14 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 62 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 15 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 94 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 16 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 145 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 17 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 179 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 18 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 182 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 19 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 250 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 20 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 162 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 21 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 164 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 22 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30/50 amp | 86 ft | 253 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 23 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 350 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 24 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30/50 amp | yes | 86 ft | 323 ft | $30–$35 |
| CAGES BEND | 25 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | yes | 85 ft | 237 ft | $30–$35 |
| CAGES BEND | 26 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 152 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 27 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 191 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 28 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 66 ft | 79 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 29 | standard electric | 25 ft | 50 amp | 66 ft | 131 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 30 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 58 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 31 | standard electric | 27 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 53 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 32 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 125 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 33 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 65 ft | 98 ft | $30–$35 |
| CAGES BEND | 34 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 143 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 35 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | yes | 66 ft | 322 ft | $30–$35 |
| CAGES BEND | 36 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 286 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 37 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 318 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 38 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 402 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 39 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 365 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 40 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 432 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 41 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 92 ft | 473 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 42 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30/50 amp | 71 ft | 365 ft | $30–$35 | |
| CAGES BEND | 43 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 417 ft | $30–$35 |
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.
25 of 43 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lone Branch1.7 mi
Avondale1.9 mi
Cedar Creek (TN)2.0 mi
Nat Caldwell Park3.1 mi
Laguardo4.2 mi
Shutes Branch4.9 miFrom Nashville, TN, travel North on I-65 and take TN-386/Vietnam Veterans Blvd. Continue to exit 12, Big Station Camp Blvd. Turn right onto Big Station Camp Bldvd. Continue staight across Nashville Pike onto Cages Bend Road. Take Cages Bend Road to Benders Ferry Road. The recreation area will be ahead on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Hendersonville, TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 49°F, day 72°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 · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Cages Bend is in Tennessee’s 6th congressional district. Its representative, John Rose (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 moneyJohn W. RoseU.S. Representative · Tennessee’s 6th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationBill HagertyU.S. Senator · Tennessee
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMarsha BlackburnU.S. Senator · Tennessee
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 Cages Bend, Tennessee
Dear John W. Rose, I’m a constituent in Tennessee’s 6th district. I tried to camp at Cages Bend, Tennessee, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 42 of the 43 campsites the agency files at Cages Bend, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 42 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cages Bend keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cages Bend. 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 Cages Bend (Tennessee) 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 Cages Bend, Tennessee
Dear Bill Hagerty, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. I tried to camp at Cages Bend, Tennessee, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 42 of the 43 campsites the agency files at Cages Bend, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 42 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cages Bend keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cages Bend. 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 Cages Bend (Tennessee) 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 Cages Bend, Tennessee
Dear Marsha Blackburn, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. I tried to camp at Cages Bend, Tennessee, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 42 of the 43 campsites the agency files at Cages Bend, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 42 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cages Bend keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cages Bend. 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 Cages Bend (Tennessee) via campanac.com