Hurricane Bridge
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 15 nights read 16:26 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Hurricane Bridge Recreation Area is located on the shores of the scenic Center Hill Lake on central Tennessee's Highland Rim. The lake stretches 64 miles up the Caney Fork River, where visitors come to enjoy boating, fishing and water sports. The 415 miles of forested shoreline provide excellent hiking, hunting and camping opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating, water skiing, canoeing and fishing are popular activities on the water. Anglers will find bream, walleye, smallmouth bass, crappie, catfish and white bass. Below the dam, the Caney Fork River is one of the most productive trout fisheries in the state. Nine miles of hiking trails meander around the lake. The OId 56 Trail is located in the recreation area, and provides 0.9 miles of a paved walking trail.
Facilities
This large day-use picnic shelter can accommodate up to 125 guests. Water and 15-amp electric hookups are provided, as are flush toilets and drinking water. Two boat ramps and a dock are located on-site.
Natural Features
Center Hill Lake is surrounded by lush mixed hardwood forests in the hilly Highland Rim region. Whitetail deer, wild turkey, squirrels and rabbits roam the wooded hills around the lake. Hurricane Bridge is located on a peninsula, providing sweeping lake views on three sides of the picnic area.
Nearby Attractions
Edgar Evins State Park, about 20 minutes from Hurricane Bridge, sits on the shores of the lake. An observation tower at the Visitor Center offers a spectacular view of Center Hill Lake and the surrounding hillsides. Burgess Falls State Park is a 30 minute drive from the campground. Here, the Falling Water River drops approximately 250 feet, creating numerous breathtaking waterfalls. Hiking trails and overlooks help visitors enjoy the scenery. The large Native Butterfly Garden is a popular attraction within the park.
What the agency tells you
Day-use fee for boat ramp collected at the park by kiosk.
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.
Any organization wishing to use the Day Use Area for a fishing tournament must receive a Special Use Permit from the Resource Managers Office. Please call 931-858-3125 for more information.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…electric hookups are provided, as are flush toilets and drinking water. Two boat ramps and a dock are…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…are provided, as are flush toilets and drinking water. Two boat ramps and a dock are located on-site.…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Water sports
2 of 2 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:26 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.
OpenBooked
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 · 12
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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:26 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
| PICS | P001 | day use | 15 amp | yes | 291 ft | $50 |
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
Floating Mill Park1.4 mi
Ragland Bottom3.9 mi
Long Branch (Center Hill Lake)6.8 mi
Center Hill Lake Primitive Camping Areas6.8 mi
Tailwater Rec Area20 mi
Salt Lick Creek21 miFrom I-40, take exit 273. Merge onto US-56 south and continue for approximately 7 miles to the Hurricane Bridge Recreation Area entrance on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Smithville, TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 72°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Hurricane Bridge 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
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 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Hurricane Bridge has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear John W. Rose, I’m a constituent in Tennessee’s 6th district. Hurricane Bridge, 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 Hurricane Bridge (Tennessee) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Hurricane Bridge has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Bill Hagerty, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. Hurricane Bridge, 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 Hurricane Bridge (Tennessee) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Hurricane Bridge has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Marsha Blackburn, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. Hurricane Bridge, 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 Hurricane Bridge (Tennessee) via campanac.com