Long Branch (Center Hill Lake)
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 16 of the next 16 nights read 16:10 UTC
- A night
- $30–$32Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 6056 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Long Branch Campground is located below Center Hill Dam on the scenic Caney Fork River in central Tennessee's Highland Rim. Above the dam, the lake stretches 64 miles up the river, where visitors come to enjoy boating, fishing and water sports. The 415 miles of forested shoreline provide excellent hiking, hunting and camping opportunities. 2025 Events: The annual Halloween event will be held Saturday, October 25, 2025. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishermen come to Long Branch to experience trophy trout fishing on the river, which is stocked with rainbow and brown trout. Fly fishers and spin fishers alike enjoy this beautiful river and its abundant fish. Canoeing and kayaking on the Caney Fork River has become a favorite pastime for campers and sightseers alike. The Buffalo Valley Nature Trail is located just across the river from the campground. It provides access to the Caney Fork and is a very popular area for trout fishermen. The area has great wildlife viewing opportunities. Boating, water skiing and canoeing are popular activities above the dam on Center Hill Lake.
Facilities
The campground offers 60 campsites with water and 50-amp electric hookups. A large, day-use group picnic shelter is also available, with water and electric hookup. Amenities like flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided, creating a comfortable camping experience for guests. A boat ramp, fish cleaning station and playground are all conveniently located within the campground.
Natural Features
Long Branch is surrounded by the lush mixed hardwood forests of the hilly Highland Rim region. Whitetail deer, wild turkey, squirrels and rabbits roam the wooded hills in the area.
Nearby Attractions
The Center Hill Lake Resource Managers Office is located across the river next to the Buffalo Valley Recreation Area. Edgar Evins State Park sits on the lake shore about 5 minutes from Long Branch. An observation tower at the Visitor Center offers a spectacular view of Center Hill Lake and the surrounding hillsides.
What the agency tells you
Only licensed vehicles are permitted. Each campsite is provided for two pre-paid vehicle entry. Additional vehicles, or visitors to campers are charged $3 fee per vehicle.
Only two tents allowed per site. Tents must be placed on campsite pads. Only one wheeled camping unit allowed to each site.
Campers are prohibited from leaving their boat trailers in the day use parking area. All equipment must be kept on site.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Firewood Alert: When picnicking at this recreation area, purchase your firewood from a vendor who sells certified heat-treated firewood. Don't bring firewood from home. To help prevent the spread of the Emerald ash borer and other forest pests, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is prohibiting firewood that is non certified heat-treated firewood. Visit Firewoodscout.org or Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Payments will be limited to credit card transactions only.
We need your help to maintain our campsites. Please dispose of all trash and litter along with extinguishing any fire and dispose of ashes in the fire ring upon departure. If sites are left trashed, you may be cited by Title 36 Code of Federal Regulation 327.9 Sanitation part (d). “Campers, picknickers, and all other persons using a water resources development project shall keep their sites free of trash and litter during the period of occupancy and shall remove all personal equipment and clean their sites upon departure”.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 60
- Hookups
- 55 electric, 60 water, 3 sewer
- Longest rig
- 156 ft
- Paved pads
- 3 of 60
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 44 of 45 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…and electric hookup. Amenities like flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided, creating…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Amenities like flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided, creating a comfortable camping experience for guests.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 61 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Kayaking
- Night sky · 56th darkest of 95 in TN
- Bortle 4
8 of 112 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:10 UTC
recreation.gov lists 56 of the 60 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 17
What you actually pay
“Additional vehicles, or visitors to campers are charged $3 fee per vehicle.” · the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $30–$32 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.
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 16:10 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
61 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 55 mapped sitesAll 61 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 55 of the 61 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| GLOO | 49 | standard electric | 51 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 344 ft | $30–$32 |
| GLOO | 50 | standard electric | 51 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 318 ft | $30–$32 |
| GLOO | 51 | standard electric | 51 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 296 ft | $30–$32 |
| GLOO | 52 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 37 ft | 334 ft | $30–$32 |
| GLOO | 53 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 37 ft | 371 ft | $30–$32 |
| GLOO | 54 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 425 ft | $30–$32 |
| GLOO | 55 | rv electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 463 ft | $30 |
| GLOO | 56 | rv electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 499 ft | $30 |
| GLOO | 57 | rv electric | 87 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 506 ft | $30 |
| LBRA | 01 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 158 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 02 | standard electric | 67 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 127 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 03 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 193 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 04 | type not stated | 48 ft | 50 amp | 108 ft | ||
| LBRA | 05 | standard electric | 96 ft | 50 amp | 59 ft | 191 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 06 | standard electric | 67 ft | 50 amp | 61 ft | 98 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 07 | standard electric | 96 ft | 50 amp | 59 ft | 192 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 08 | standard electric | 86 ft | 50 amp | 61 ft | 87 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 09 | standard electric | 84 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 187 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 10 | standard electric | 92 ft | 50 amp | 84 ft | 89 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 11 | standard electric | 53 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 194 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 12 | type not stated | 76 ft | 50 amp | 92 ft | ||
| LBRA | 13 | standard electric | 76 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 189 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 14 | standard electric | 90 ft | 50 amp | 99 ft | 101 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 15 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 197 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 16 | type not stated | 76 ft | 50 amp | 104 ft | ||
| LBRA | 17 | standard electric | 86 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 205 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 18 | standard electric | 90 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 102 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 19 | standard electric | 76 ft | 50 amp | 66 ft | 198 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 20 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 106 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 21 | standard electric | 103 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 199 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 22 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 100 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 23 | standard electric | 156 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 86 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 24 | standard electric | 66 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 71 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 25 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 114 ft | 92 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 26 | standard electric | 87 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 167 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 27 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 182 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 28 | standard electric | 51 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 245 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 29 | standard electric | 78 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 209 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 30 | standard electric | 90 ft | 50 amp | 73 ft | 303 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 31 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 246 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 32 | standard electric | 84 ft | 50 amp | 34 ft | 301 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 33 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 73 ft | 338 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 34 | standard electric | 78 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 263 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 35 | standard electric | 69 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 350 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 36 | standard electric | 81 ft | 50 amp | 34 ft | 272 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 37 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 360 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 38 | standard electric | 78 ft | 50 amp | 73 ft | 280 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 39 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 367 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 40 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 290 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 41 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 377 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 42 | standard electric | 84 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 303 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 43 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 380 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 44 | standard electric | 90 ft | 50 amp | 69 ft | 311 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 45 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 80 ft | 400 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 46 | standard electric | 69 ft | 50 amp | 69 ft | 319 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 47 | standard electric | 87 ft | 50 amp | 66 ft | 406 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 48 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 66 ft | 415 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 58 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 400 ft | $30–$32 |
| LBRA | 59 | type not stated | 65 ft | 50 amp | 395 ft | ||
| LBRA | 60 | type not stated | 65 ft | 50 amp | 377 ft | ||
| LBRA | P-1 | day use | 15 amp | 178 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.
25 of 61 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Center Hill Lake Primitive Camping Areas0.2 mi
Floating Mill Park5.4 mi
Hurricane Bridge6.8 mi
Ragland Bottom10 mi
Tailwater Rec Area14 mi
Defeated Creek Park15 miFrom I-40, take exit 268 and merge onto US-96 west. Continue for 5 miles to the end of Center Hill Dam, then turn right on SR-141. Follow signs into campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Hickman, 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
Who answers for this land
Long Branch (Center Hill Lake) 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 →