Cave Run Dam Tailwater
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 14 of the next 30 nights read 15:21 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
The Tailwater Recreation Area is located below Cave Run Lake Dam. Located within the scenic Eastern Highlands Region of Kentucky and is almost completely surrounded by the norther-most section of the Daniel Boone National Forest. An earth and rockfill dam built across the Licking River created Cave Run Lake. Keep reading
Recreation
The Tailwater area is a general use day use recreation site. Provides boat access to the Licking River and fishing opertunities. The area has two picnic shelters, five first come first serve uncovered picnic sites, and a swing set. The area does not allow hunting.
Facilities
The shelter facilites are located along the retreat channel of Cave Run Lake Dam seperated by a small stand of maple trees. The shelters have a access road right up to the shelter to allow ease of access upon request.
Natural Features
The norther-most section of the Daniel Boone National Forest surrounds the Cave Run Lake project and offers visitors many scenic, natural and historic points of interest. Over 300 species of birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles can be found in the hardwood-covered hills, forest openings, streams, ponds and caves of the scenic National Forest.
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- ACCESSIBLE DRINKING WATER on 2 of 2 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Night sky · 41st darkest of 60 in KY
- Bortle 4
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Army Corps says
- Yes
Full this Saturdayread 15:21 UTC
The agency files 2 records here and marks every one of them day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in. How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 2 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:21 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 · 11
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 · 4
recreation.gov availability, read 15:21 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 records · the site map
All 2 records
| Brown Shelter | day use | 60 ft | yes | 239 ft |
| Green Shelter | day use | 60 ft | yes | 226 ft |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is 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
Twin Knobs CampgroundDaniel Boone National Forest · 1.8 mi
Boat Gunnel Group CampgroundDaniel Boone National Forest · 2.2 miTwin Knobs Recreation AreaDaniel Boone National Forest · 2.4 miTwin Knobs West Group Use AreaDaniel Boone National Forest · 2.4 mi
Zilpo - Daniel Boone Nat. For.Daniel Boone National Forest · 3.5 miZilpo Recreation AreaDaniel Boone National Forest · 3.7 miThe lake is about 60 miles east of Lexington, Ky. Exits 123,133 and 137 off of Interstate 64 provide the primary access routes to the lake.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Farmers, KY
Typical weather
Typical October night 45°F, day 68°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 25°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
Cave Run Dam Tailwater is in Kentucky’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Hal Rogers (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 moneyHarold RogersU.S. Representative · Kentucky’s 5th 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 Cave Run Dam Tailwater, Kentucky
Dear Harold Rogers, I’m a constituent in Kentucky’s 5th district. I tried to camp at Cave Run Dam Tailwater, Kentucky, and couldn’t. Every site at Cave Run Dam Tailwater 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cave Run Dam Tailwater keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cave Run Dam Tailwater. 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 Cave Run Dam Tailwater (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 Cave Run Dam Tailwater, Kentucky
Dear Mitch McConnell, I’m a constituent in Kentucky. I tried to camp at Cave Run Dam Tailwater, Kentucky, and couldn’t. Every site at Cave Run Dam Tailwater 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cave Run Dam Tailwater keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cave Run Dam Tailwater. 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 Cave Run Dam Tailwater (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 Cave Run Dam Tailwater, Kentucky
Dear Rand Paul, I’m a constituent in Kentucky. I tried to camp at Cave Run Dam Tailwater, Kentucky, and couldn’t. Every site at Cave Run Dam Tailwater 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cave Run Dam Tailwater keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cave Run Dam Tailwater. 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 Cave Run Dam Tailwater (Kentucky) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“the agency's own site records list "CELL PHONE SERVICE" on 2 of 2 campsites here”