Leatherwood Recreation Area
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:21 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Shelter Leatherwood located on Buckhorn Lake Recreation Shelter Leatherwood, Fishing Peer, Facilities Vault Toilets Natural Features Buckhorn Lake Nearby Attractions Buckhorn Campground, Play ground, Basketball Court, Boat Ramp. Keep reading
Charges & Cancellations
Cancelations of shelters must be made a miniunm of at least one day in advance.
What the agency tells you
Reservations are for the day.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Leatherwood, Fishing Peer, Facilities Vault Toilets Natural Features Buckhorn Lake Nearby Attractions…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
1 of 1 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:21 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
“Cancelations of shelters must be made a miniunm of at least one day in advance.” · 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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 15:21 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records
All 1 records
| Leatherwood Shelter | day use |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Confluence Recreation Area0.0 mi
Buckhorn Campground3.7 mi
Trace Branch Campground5.8 mi
Littcarr Campground28 miTurkey Foot CampgroundDaniel Boone National Forest · 28 mi
S-Tree Campground34 miHead west toward state highway 1387
Turn left on squabble creek road
In 11 miles Turn left onto state highway 2022
Continue straight onto state highway 484
The agency publishes this point for 2 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Buckhorn, KY
Typical weather
Typical October night 44°F, day 71°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 Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Leatherwood Recreation Area 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
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 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Leatherwood Recreation Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Harold Rogers, I’m a constituent in Kentucky’s 5th district. Leatherwood Recreation Area, Kentucky 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 Leatherwood Recreation Area (Kentucky) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Leatherwood Recreation Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Mitch McConnell, I’m a constituent in Kentucky. Leatherwood Recreation Area, Kentucky 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 Leatherwood Recreation Area (Kentucky) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Leatherwood Recreation Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Rand Paul, I’m a constituent in Kentucky. Leatherwood Recreation Area, Kentucky 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 Leatherwood Recreation Area (Kentucky) via campanac.com