Lone Branch
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lone Branch offers all the amenities visitors need for a peaceful Tennessee getaway. Plenty of trees to provide shade, grassy open areas to run around, grills for barbequing and a boat ramp. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating and fishing are generally the main attractions for lake-goers, with anglers often catching black bass, crappie and catfish.
Facilities
Both group picnic shelters have electric hookups and grills, and each holds up to 50 guests; however, parking may be limited. A boat ramp is also available for use.
Natural Features
Old Hickory Lake is a reservoir in north-central Tennessee created by the Old Hickory Lock and Dam. The lake spans 22,500 acres and receives its primary inflow from the Cumberland River.
Nearby Attractions
Lone Branch is just beyond the Nashville metropolitan area. Head to the "Music City" to tour the Country Music Hall of Fame or explore former President, Andrew Jackson's early 19th century home, The Hermitage-- a National Historic Landmark.
Charges & Cancellations
If a customer cancels a group day use facility (shelter) reservation within 14 days of the scheduled arrival date, they will forfeit the total day use fee with no service fee charge.
What the agency tells you
Parking is limited
Parking spaces cannot be reserved
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.
Facilities
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River
- Boating
- Picnicking
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:03 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.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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
“If a customer cancels a group day use facility (shelter) reservation within 14 days of the scheduled arrival date, they will forfeit the total day use fee with no service fee charge.” · 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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:03 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
| LONE BRANCH | 1 | day use | 20 amp | 101 ft | $50 |
| LONE BRANCH | 2 | day use | 20 amp | 193 ft | $50 |
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
Cedar Creek (TN)0.8 mi
Cages Bend1.7 mi
Laguardo3.1 mi
Avondale3.6 mi
Nat Caldwell Park4.5 mi
Shutes Branch4.7 miFrom Nashville, TN, take I-40 East to exit 229-B/Golden Bear Gateway. Continue straight on Golden Bear Gateway for approximately 9 miles. Entrance to the recreation area will be on your left just passed Cedar Creek Club. * Golden Bear Gateway turns into Benders Ferry Road at the US-70/Lebanon Road intersection.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mount Juliet, TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 49°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 28°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
Lone Branch 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 Lone Branch has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear John W. Rose, I’m a constituent in Tennessee’s 6th district. Lone Branch, Tennessee carries 2 records 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 Lone Branch (Tennessee) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Lone Branch has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Bill Hagerty, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. Lone Branch, Tennessee carries 2 records 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 Lone Branch (Tennessee) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Lone Branch has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Marsha Blackburn, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. Lone Branch, Tennessee carries 2 records 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 Lone Branch (Tennessee) via campanac.com