Houchin Ferry Campground
4Heads uppark alerts
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 12All of them booked ahead
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
This lush campground is located 15 miles from the park's Visitor Center, along the south bank of the Green River. Houchin Ferry Campground offers 12 primitive, tent-only campsites with beautiful riverfront views. Serving as a day-use area, it's an ideal spot for birdwatching, fishing, canoeing, and picnicking. If you're looking to explore more, take a short drive to the Visitor Center to plan your tour of Mammoth Cave, the world's longest cave system. Keep reading
Recreation
A must-do activity in the park is exploring Mammoth Cave. Walking tours of the caverns leave from the visitor center daily. There are also miles of bike trails and hiking trails within the park.
Facilities
The 12 primitive campsites are nestled among aromatic trees, offering a peaceful experience with the Green River just steps away. Potable water and portable restrooms are available at the head of the campground. This is a primitive, tent-only campground and also serves as a day-use area. The picnic tables and shelters are available for public use, and the boat launch is open for public access.
Natural Features
This campground is part of Mammoth Cave National Park, a 52,800-acre park that includes the Green River Valley, rolling Kentucky hillsides, and the expansive Mammoth Cave with grand-scale chambers and long, winding passageways. This remote campsite is quiet, peaceful and ideal for those who want to be immersed in nature. Wildlife includes deer, turkey, and coyotes.
Nearby Attractions
Nearly 30 miles of the Green and Nolin rivers offer canoeing and boating through the park. Commercial outfitters outside the park rent canoes, kayaks and safety equipment. https://www.nps.gov/maca/planyourvisit/canoeliveries.htm Most trails north of the Green River are open for horseback riding. Commercial liveries outside the park rent horses and some may provide organized excursions. https://www.nps.gov/maca/planyourvisit/horseback.htm Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (270) 758-2424.
Charges & Cancellations
For rules and reservation policies please follow the link below: https://www.recreation.gov/rules-reservation-policies
What the agency tells you
Please review the 'Need to Know' information for the site you have selected for more details on site conditions.
Hours - Check-out: 11:00 am CST - Check-in: 1:00 pm CST - Quiet Hours: 10:00 pm - 6:00 am CST
No RVs or Trailers. No generators.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Safety - Ticks are common in the park and their bites can spread diseases. Learn steps to prevent tick-borne illness. + - Pets: Keep pets on a leash, no longer than 6 feet, at all times. Dispose of pet waste in garbage. Do not leave pets unattended at a campsite for longer than one hour. Kennels are available at The Lodge at Mammoth Cave. - Follow Leave No Trace Seven Principles (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
- Food Storage - When food or trash is not within reach, it must be stored inside a vehicle or hard sided container to prevent wildlife access to human food. Do not hang trash or food from trees. - Dishwashing water should be disposed of in the toilets in restrooms.
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. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Firearms must be carried in accordance with Kentucky state law, but all other weapons are prohibited. Possession of firearms in the park buildings and cave is prohibited. The use of firearms is prohibited anywhere within Mammoth Cave National Park.
Fireworks are prohibited.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 12 · 12 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 12
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 9 of 12 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Portable Toilets - year round
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Birding
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Kayaking
- Picnicking
- Stargazing
- Water access
- Night sky · 47th darkest of 60 in KY
- 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.
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, $20 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.
“For rules and reservation policies please follow the link below: https://www.recreation.gov/rules-reservation-policies” · this campground’s own 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
12 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 12 mapped sitesAll 12 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. 12 of the 12 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Houchin Ferry Site 1 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 31 ft | 113 ft | $20 |
| Houchin Ferry Site 10 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 36 ft | 133 ft | $20 |
| Houchin Ferry Site 11 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 43 ft | 152 ft | $20 |
| Houchin Ferry Site 12 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 47 ft | 171 ft | $20 |
| Houchin Ferry Site 2 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 29 ft | 104 ft | $20 |
| Houchin Ferry Site 3 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 28 ft | 93 ft | $20 |
| Houchin Ferry Site 4 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 28 ft | 96 ft | $20 |
| Houchin Ferry Site 5 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 31 ft | 93 ft | $20 |
| Houchin Ferry Site 6 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 35 ft | 80 ft | $20 |
| Houchin Ferry Site 7 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 54 ft | 63 ft | $20 |
| Houchin Ferry Site 8 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 45 ft | 60 ft | $20 |
| Houchin Ferry Site 9 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 36 ft | 97 ft | $20 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Mammoth Cave Backcountry CampingMammoth Cave National Park · 3.3 mi
Maple SpringsMammoth Cave National Park · 5.9 mi
Moutardier7.9 mi
Mammoth Cave CampgroundMammoth Cave National Park · 8.1 mi
Dog Creek (KY)10 mi
WAX11 miNote: Do not rely exclusively on your mobile GPS, Google Maps or similar automated navigation systems to get to the Houchin Ferry Campground. Routes can be misleading and incorrect.
Directions from the North: Take Interstate 65 to Exit 53 (Cave City Exit). Turn right onto KY-70. Follow 70/255, about 4 miles you turn left on 255 just before entering the park, follow this to Brownsville Rd, turn left and follow this all the way until it ends at Hwy-101, turn right go about a quarter mile to Houchin Ferry Rd. (Minit Mart on corner), turn right and follow this to campground.
Directions from the South: Take Interstate 65 to Exit 48 (Park City Exit). Turn left onto KY-255 follow this into the park, when you come to the stop sign turn left and follow this to Brownsville Rd, turn left and follow this all the way until it ends at Hwy-101, turn right go about a quarter mile to Houchin Ferry Rd. (Minit Mart on corner), turn right and follow this to campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Brownsville, KY
Typical weather
Typical October night 49°F, day 70°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
Who answers for this land
Houchin Ferry Campground is in Kentucky’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Brett Guthrie (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →