Dover
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 14 of the next 16 nights read 15:59 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Dover is a day-use area that overlooks the lovely Lake Barkley. Whether it's a gathering of family or friends, visitors can enjoy nature at its best in one of the country's greatest freshwater recreational complexes. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating, fishing and picnicking are popular activities at Dover day-use area. Wildlife including the occasional deer, raccoon or golden eagle, are commonly spotted in the area.
Facilities
The group picnic shelter accomidates about 35 people and 10 vehicles. The facility has lights and electricity and a water spigot.
Natural Features
Lake Barkley, the westernmost lake on the Cumberland River, sits among wooded rolling hills. The lake is connected by canal to Kentucky Lake, a reservoir that stems from the Tennessee River.
Nearby Attractions
Dover is close to Fort Donelson National Battlefield, where the Union Army won their first battle of the Civil War. Shopping, grocery stores and gas stations are conveniently located nearby.
What the agency tells you
For more information on Lake Barkley, Please Click Here
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.
No Restroom/wash house facilities.
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records, WATER SPIGOT on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River
- Fishing
- Picnicking
Something open on 14 of the next 14 bookable nightsread 15:59 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.
OpenBookedNot reservable
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 · 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 15:59 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
| DOVE | 1 | day use | yes | 117 ft |
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
Dyers Creek0.9 mi
Bumpus Mills9.1 mi
Linton14 mi
Cadiz26 mi
Hurricane Creek31 mi
Right Bank Recreation Area38 miFrom Nashville, or St.Louis , take I-24 Clarksville, take Exit 8 for TN 237 W. 2.4 Mi., Right onto Warfield Blvd 1.6 Mi. continue onto 101st Airborne PKWY for 6.3 Mi. contine onto TN 347 -PKWY for 4.5 Mi. Turn right onto US 79 S. for 24.2 Mi. Turn right on W. Spring St. for 466 feet, Turn right at the 1st cross street onto Hood ST. for 500 feet. Turn right on to Forrest St 200 FT.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Dover, TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°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
Dover is in Tennessee’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Matt Van Epps (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: D-. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- The member who votes the moneyMatt Van EppsU.S. Representative · Tennessee’s 7th 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Dover has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Matt Van Epps, I’m a constituent in Tennessee’s 7th district. Dover, Tennessee carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Dover (Tennessee) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Dover has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Bill Hagerty, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. Dover, Tennessee carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Dover (Tennessee) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Dover has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Marsha Blackburn, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. Dover, Tennessee carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Dover (Tennessee) via campanac.com