Marion Cove
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 5 of the next 30 nights read 14:22 UTC
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 17All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Marion Cove Campground is located just north of the Marion Reservoir Dam right past the Project Office. It’s a primitive tent camping campground w/o electrical hookups. Keep reading
Recreation
Popular activities include camping, boating, and fishing Anglers will find an abundance of channel catfish, walleye, white bass and wipers, and a boat ramp is provided at the campground for convenient access to the lake.
Facilities
Marion Cove Campground offers 17 non electric camping sites to our visitors. sites 1-6 all have a picnic shelter along with picnic tables and fire ring. while sites 7-17 offer only a firepit. Marion cove also has a two lane boat launch near by with a community water hydrant located just off of site one.
Natural Features
Completed in 1968, Marion Reservoir encompasses 6,200 acres of water surrounded by 6,000 acres of public lands. The surrounding expanse of forest provides visitors with endless recreational activities, set against the backdrop of the sparkling lake.
Nearby Attractions
The nearby communities of Hillsboro and Marion offer additional tourist attractions. Both cities have a nationally recognized Art and Crafts show, as well as a variety of restaurants and shops.
What the agency tells you
Three tents or two tents and one RV permitted per campsite
Off-road vehicles not permitted
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 17 · 15 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…boat launch near by with a community water hydrant located just off of site one. Natural Features…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake
- Night sky · 25th darkest of 57 in KS
- Bortle 4
Something open on 5 of the next 5 bookable nightsread 14:22 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBookedNot yet released
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 14:22 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
17 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 17 mapped sitesAll 17 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. 2 of the 17 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| Main | 1 | tent only nonelectric | 76 ft | 133 ft | ||
| Main | 10 | tent only nonelectric | 209 ft | 52 ft | ||
| Main | 11 | tent only nonelectric | 209 ft | 66 ft | ||
| Main | 12 | tent only nonelectric | 147 ft | 35 ft | ||
| Main | 13 | tent only nonelectric | 142 ft | 37 ft | ||
| Main | 14 | tent only nonelectric | 142 ft | 50 ft | ||
| Main | 15 | tent only nonelectric | 120 ft | 64 ft | ||
| Main | 16 | tent only nonelectric | 120 ft | 69 ft | ||
| Main | 17 | tent only nonelectric | 266 ft | 38 ft | ||
| Main | 2 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 96 ft | ||
| Main | 3 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 74 ft | ||
| Main | 4 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 67 ft | ||
| Main | 5 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 62 ft | 93 ft | $10 |
| Main | 6 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 62 ft | 102 ft | $10 |
| Main | 7 | tent only nonelectric | 67 ft | 46 ft | ||
| Main | 8 | tent only nonelectric | 67 ft | 35 ft | ||
| Main | 9 | tent only nonelectric | 137 ft | 49 ft |
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 phone number
Where it is
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Eastshore, KS
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 70°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 21°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
Marion Cove is in Kansas’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Derek Schmidt (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →