Cardens Bluff Campground
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $12From, per site
- Sites
- 41All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cardens Bluff Campground is closed for the season. At nearly 2,000 feet elevation, Cardens Bluff Campground is located on a peninsula overlooking the 6,430-acre Watauga Lake in Carter County, TN. There are 43 sites, primarily for tent camping. There is a bathhouse with showers and flush toilets. No electrical hookups are provided. Day use areas are located nearby for those wanting to take advantage of swimming, boating, and fishing opportunities. Campground Hosts are on site to answer questions and assist with your visit. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating is popular for visitors to Cardens Bluff. Numerous campsites provide easy water access for kayaks, canoes and motorized boats. Swimming and fishing are also very popular activities at Cardens Bluff. Watauga Lake provides notably clean water for recreating.
Facilities
There are 43 campsites within Cardens Bluff Campground. Each section of the campground has flush toilets. In addition, there is an accessible shower house with eight showers for use by registered campers only.
Natural Features
Watauga Lake is a 6,430-acre hydroelectric reservoir managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority and surrounded by the Cherokee National Forest. Directly across the lake from the campground is the Big Laurel Branch Wilderness area, a rugged, undeveloped mountain range with only the Appalachian National Scenic Trail within its boundaries.
Nearby Attractions
The nearby Rat Branch Boat Launch is an easy quick drive from the campground for campers with motor boats. Shook Branch Swim Area is also nearby on the shores of Watauga Lake. Big Laurel Branch and Pond Mountain Wilderness areas are located north and south of the campground for more rugged, backcountry hiking.
What the agency tells you
Cardens Bluff Campground is now re-opened as of Thursday 9/3/26. If you have reservations starting Thursday 9/3/26, or after, your reservations are still active and good to go. Please familiarize yourself with the Food Storage Order. This campground does not have any Long-Term Camping programs.
Please note the lower bathroom near site 36 is damaged from Hurricane Helene and will remain closed. The bathroom near site 29 and the bathroom/showerhouse near site 19 will be the available bathrooms in the campground.
An RV counts as one of the two vehicles allowed at a site. All equipment must fit on the site pad. Vehicles park in developed areas only.
Everything else this campground posts · 11
There is no electricity/water/sewer site hook-ups at this facility. There is potable water within the campground at hydrants.
You are in Bear Country. Please adhere to the Cherokee National Forest Food and Refuse Storage Requirements. All food (unless actively being prepared and/or eaten), trash, and other scented items (hygiene products, pet food, etc) must be stored in a bear-resistant container (closed hard top vehicle or travel trailer) or suspended at least 12 ft. off the ground and 6 ft. from limbs. Please read the entire Food Storage Order located under the Facility Information tab and Additional Information section or by reading the Food Storage Order posted at the campground. Any campsites not in compliance will receive a ticket.
Check-out time is no later than 11 am EST on your departure day. You may check-in to the campground between 2 pm EST and 10 pm EST of your arrival date. If you have not checked-in before 2 pm EST the day after your arrival date, your site will be checked-out and will forfeit all fees.
Established quiet hours are between 10 pm EST and 7 am EST.
The gate is closed at 10:00 p.m. and reopens at 7:00 a.m. The gate is only opened at night for emergencies.
All pets must be on a 6' leash at all times. Owners must pick up after their pets, and all pet waste disposed of properly.
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Use designated fire rings for all fires. Do not build additional fire rings. No burning plastic or other non-wood materials except local wood in fire pits and charcoal in grills.
Please note that most sites will only accommodate a tent. Sites #16, 28 and 29 can accommodate up to a 30 foot RV or trailer.
This facility does not allow alcohol.
It is your responsibility to read, know, understand, and follow all campground specific rules and regulations which are posted at the campground.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 41 · 34 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 7
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…There is a bathhouse with showers and flush toilets. No electrical hookups are provided. Day use areas…”
- Showers
- Accessible Showers
- “In addition, there is an accessible shower house with eight showers for use by registered campers only.”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake
- Auto Touring
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Mountain biking
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Scenic drives
- Swimming
- Night sky · 76th 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 rate for this season, $12 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
43 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 40 mapped sitesAll 43 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 23 of the 43 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 40 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.
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 56 ft | 351 ft | 2,628 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 002 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 320 ft | 2,674 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 55 ft | 301 ft | 2,845 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 004 - HOST | host pad | 55 ft | 314 ft | 2,891 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 55 ft | 293 ft | 2,939 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 006 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 51 ft | 277 ft | 2,980 ft | $12 | |
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 51 ft | 250 ft | 3,005 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 008 | tent only nonelectric | $12 | |||||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 108 ft | 284 ft | 3,111 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 010 | tent only nonelectric | 147 ft | 305 ft | 3,226 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 011 - Host | host pad | 82 ft | 303 ft | $12 | |||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 012 | tent only nonelectric | $12 | |||||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 013 | tent only nonelectric | 101 ft | 216 ft | $12 | |||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 75 ft | 205 ft | $12 | |||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 015 | tent only nonelectric | 75 ft | 224 ft | $12 | |||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 84 ft | 279 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 017 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 62 ft | 332 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 018 | tent only nonelectric | 53 ft | 351 ft | $12 | |||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 019 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 53 ft | 354 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 020 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 101 ft | 282 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 021 | tent only nonelectric | 90 ft | 220 ft | $12 | |||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 022 | tent only nonelectric | 197 ft | 156 ft | $12 | |||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 023 | tent only nonelectric | 49 ft | 89 ft | $12 | |||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 024 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 103 ft | $12 | |||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 025 | standard nonelectric | yes | 56 ft | 121 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 026 | tent only nonelectric | 58 ft | 136 ft | $12 | |||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 027 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 122 ft | $12 | |||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 028 | standard nonelectric | yes | 44 ft | 124 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 029 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 20 ft | 84 ft | $12 | |
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 030 | tent only nonelectric | 37 ft | 141 ft | 3,220 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 031 | tent only nonelectric | 37 ft | 124 ft | 3,188 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 032 | tent only nonelectric | 62 ft | 138 ft | 3,151 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 033 | tent only nonelectric | 56 ft | 142 ft | 3,118 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 034 | tent only nonelectric | 43 ft | 120 ft | 3,081 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 035 | tent only nonelectric | 43 ft | 119 ft | 3,056 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 036 | tent only nonelectric | 95 ft | 167 ft | 2,926 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 037 | type not stated | 168 ft | 2,877 ft | ||||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 038 | tent only nonelectric | 70 ft | 125 ft | 2,776 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 039 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 85 ft | 2,762 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 040 | tent only nonelectric | 34 ft | 80 ft | 2,754 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 041 | tent only nonelectric | 34 ft | 49 ft | 2,721 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 042 | tent only nonelectric | 93 ft | 174 ft | 2,748 ft | $12 | ||
| CARDENS BLUFF CAMPGROUND | 043 | tent only nonelectric | 187 ft | 180 ft | 3,031 ft | $12 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It names them host pads. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 43 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Watauga Point Recreation AreaCherokee National Forest · 1.8 miDennis Cove Recreation AreaCherokee National Forest · 3.6 mi
Dennis Cove CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 3.6 miLittle Oak CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 15 mi
Little Oak CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 15 mi
Rock Creek Recreation Area (Cherokee National Forest, TN)Cherokee National Forest · 18 miFrom Elizabethton, TN take US 19E/321 south 5 miles to Hampton. Turn left on 321/67 travel approx. 4 miles to the campground entrance 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 Hampton, TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 44°F, day 70°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 26°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
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Cardens Bluff 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 →