CAMPANAC.Powered by public lands intelligenceMore Than Just Parks

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · NE

Methodist Cove

ReservableOut of season, no booking; November 1 opens May 1.

Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book

Right now: Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
A night: $18–$34Across the site types the agency prices
Sites: 9791 on recreation.gov

Photos · Harlan County Lake

120 ftLongest rig

1,950 ftElevation

under 10 ftWater · Harlan County Lake

2.1 miSE of Alma, NE

n/aTree cover · water-masked cell

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices

In the agency’s own words

Methodist Cove Park is located on the west side of Harlan County Lake by Alma, Nebraska. The 13,000-acre Harlan County Lake is the second largest lake in the state. The lake and surrounding land hold great appeal for sportsmen, birders, naturalists or anyone wanting to just get away. Keep reading

Recreation

Harlan County Lake is popular for fishing, hiking, hunting and boating. Walleye, wipers, white bass, northern pike and channel catfish are the most sought after fish species. Game animals include pheasant, quail, prairie chicken, white-tailed and mule deer, turkey, waterfowl, rabbit and squirrel. The lake offers a variety of hiking trails of varying length and style, as well as one equestrian trail a short drive away. An off-road vehicle trail is located in nearby Republican City.

Facilities

Methodist Cove Park offers 133 campsites, including a variety of individual, group, electric and non-electric sites. There is also one reservable group picnic shelter for day use. One large heated shower house with flush toilets is centrally located within the campground and several vault toilets are located throughout the rest of the park. Other amenities include a dump station, drinking water, playground and boat ramp. The main road is hard surfaced, while others are gravel. A fish cleaning station with grinder and running water is located near the entrance. There two full service marinas on the east end of the lake.

Natural Features

Located in South Central Nebraska, lands surrounding Harlan County Lake are primarily mixed grass prairie land. The campground is mostly forested, offering ample shade during the warmth of summer. The Republican River Valley was once occupied by one of the greatest concentrations of buffalo on the Great Plains and was a favored hunting ground for the Pawnee, Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian tribes.

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

What the agency tells you

Rule

Only one camping unit allowed per site

Rule

All campers must check in when arriving at park

Rule

Maximum of six people allowed per site

Everything else this campground posts · 4

Rule

An attendant is on duty during the peak season of May through September

Rule

Secure coolers and boating equipment each night to prevent thefts

Rule

Off-road vehicles are not permitted

Rule

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.

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Source: recreation.gov facility notices, quoted verbatim · Sep 9, 2026

Tents and rigs

Sites: 97
Hookups: 61 electric, 36 water, 33 sewer
Longest rig: 120 ft
Accessible sites: None listed
Pets: Allowed
Shade: Every site

Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets: Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets; “…use. One large heated shower house with flush toilets is centrally located within the campground and…”
Showers: Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind; “One large heated shower house with flush toilets is centrally located within the campground and several vault toilets are located throughout the rest of the park.”
Drinking water: Yes; “…Other amenities include a dump station, drinking water, playground and boat ramp. The main road is hard…”
Dump station: Yes
Boat ramp: Yes
Playground: Yes
Stay limit: 14 nights; recreation.gov facility rule maxStay

Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026

Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water: Lake, River; Boating; Fishing; Hunting
Night sky · 11th darkest of 17 in NE: Bortle 3

Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026

Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate · Sep 8, 2026

No reading yet, book on recreation.gov

recreation.gov lists 91 of the 97 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.

No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.

Booking windowOut of seasonOut of season, no booking. On November 1, 2026 at 10 AM ET, availability opens through May 1, 2027.recreation.gov Add to calendar (.ics)

Max stay14 nights2-night minimum on weekendsthe facility record

A night$18–$34plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule

A weekend$44–$76DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above

If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule

Runs itU.S. Army Corps of EngineersBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record

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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.

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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.

Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 19

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Army Corps of Engineers

A night, per site$18–$34

Non-Elecrtic Non-Reservable$18

Non-Electric Reservable$18

50 Amp + Water Reservable$30

50 Amp Reservable$30

50 Amp + Water + Sewer Non-Reservable$34

50 Amp + Water + Sewer Reservable$34

Group areas, a night$40–$50

These are next season’s rates, May 1, 2027 to Sep 30, 2027. The campground is between seasons now.

The booking feerecreation.gov

Reservation fee, booked online$8

One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.

Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.

What a stay costs

One nightDerived$26–$42

A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$44–$76

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $18–$34 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.

If your plans changerecreation.gov

Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10

Cancellation fee$10

Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night

No-show$20 + your first night

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

Sign price: recreation.gov facility rate schedule, quoted as the agency publishes it · Oct 1, 2026

Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026

The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026

Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026

The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

99 records · which ones have room · the site map

The sites, ranked

from 89 mapped sites

76 ftbetween you and the next site, typically

Most roomLoop MCOV 005 155 ftLoop MCOV 023 140 ftLoop MCOV 019 123 ftLoop MCOV 081 108 ftLoop MCOV 057 106 ft

Least roomLoop MCOV 096 51 ftLoop MCOV 098 51 ftLoop MCOV 010 53 ft

Source: Derived by CAMPANAC from recreation.gov per-site coordinates (nearest-neighbor distance) · Oct 12, 2026

All 99 records

96 of 99 records located

Standard29RV / electric60Type not stated7

001 002 003 005 006 007 008 009 00A 00C 00D 010 013 015 016 017 019 021 022 023 024 025 026 027 028 029 030 031 032 033 034 035 036 037 038 039 040 041 042 044 046 048 050 052 054 056 057 058 062 063 064 065 075 076 077 078 079 080 081 082 083 084 085 086 087 088 089 090 091 092 093 094 095 096 097 098 099 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 GC-1 GC-2

Aerial · Esri World Imagery

Sites: recreation.gov (RIDB), coordinates as published · Aug 23, 2026

Imagery: Esri World Imagery

SleepsTakes aUp to

The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 90 of the 99 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.


MCOV	001	type not stated	70 ft				332 ft
MCOV	002	standard nonelectric	75 ft			101 ft	238 ft	$18
MCOV	003	standard nonelectric	90 ft			101 ft	186 ft	$18
MCOV	005	standard nonelectric	45 ft			155 ft	213 ft	$18
MCOV	006	standard nonelectric	80 ft			68 ft	236 ft	$18
MCOV	007	standard nonelectric	65 ft			68 ft	178 ft	$18
MCOV	008	standard nonelectric	55 ft			72 ft	217 ft	$18
MCOV	009	standard nonelectric	60 ft			90 ft	88 ft	$18
MCOV	00A	type not stated	75 ft				398 ft
MCOV	00C	type not stated	60 ft				357 ft
MCOV	00D	type not stated	55 ft				292 ft
MCOV	010	standard nonelectric	70 ft			53 ft	145 ft	$18
MCOV	013	standard nonelectric	80 ft			53 ft	116 ft	$18
MCOV	015	standard nonelectric	50 ft			83 ft	54 ft	$18
MCOV	016	standard nonelectric	70 ft			74 ft	124 ft	$18
MCOV	017	standard nonelectric	50 ft			83 ft	112 ft	$18
MCOV	019	standard nonelectric	85 ft			123 ft	232 ft	$18
MCOV	021	standard nonelectric	120 ft			103 ft	359 ft	$18
MCOV	022	standard nonelectric	70 ft			103 ft	338 ft	$18
MCOV	023	standard nonelectric	55 ft			140 ft	362 ft	$18
MCOV	024	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		80 ft	315 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	025	standard electric	50 ft	50 amp		92 ft	287 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	026	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		70 ft	389 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	027	standard electric	50 ft	50 amp		61 ft	373 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	028	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		70 ft	451 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	029	standard electric	75 ft	50 amp		61 ft	432 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	030	standard electric	55 ft	50 amp		75 ft	535 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	031	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		103 ft	618 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	032	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		78 ft	619 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	033	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		74 ft	509 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	034	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		72 ft	590 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	035	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		74 ft	475 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	036	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		72 ft	561 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	037	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp		81 ft	482 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	038	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp		83 ft	437 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	039	standard electric	110 ft	50 amp		82 ft	110 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	040	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		76 ft	254 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	041	standard electric	80 ft	50 amp		82 ft	94 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	042	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		76 ft	198 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	044	standard electric	75 ft	50 amp		84 ft	153 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	045	standard electric	75 ft	50 amp				$30–$34
MCOV	046	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		73 ft	150 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	048	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp		73 ft	135 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	050	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		74 ft	129 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	052	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		67 ft	138 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	054	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		67 ft	137 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	056	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		73 ft	176 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	057	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		106 ft	94 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	058	standard electric	80 ft	50 amp		106 ft	86 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	062	standard nonelectric	70 ft			74 ft	142 ft	$18
MCOV	063	standard nonelectric	65 ft			76 ft	11 ft	$18
MCOV	064	standard nonelectric	70 ft			74 ft	158 ft	$18
MCOV	065	standard nonelectric	65 ft			76 ft	10 ft	$18
MCOV	075	standard nonelectric	70 ft			77 ft	425 ft	$18
MCOV	076	standard nonelectric	65 ft			77 ft	444 ft	$18
MCOV	077	standard nonelectric	50 ft			79 ft	551 ft	$18
MCOV	078	standard nonelectric	55 ft			84 ft	450 ft	$18
MCOV	079	standard nonelectric	115 ft			96 ft	480 ft	$18
MCOV	080	standard nonelectric	50 ft			79 ft	585 ft	$18
MCOV	081	standard nonelectric	55 ft			108 ft	571 ft	$18
MCOV	082	standard nonelectric	60 ft			99 ft	678 ft	$18
MCOV	083	standard nonelectric	65 ft			104 ft	715 ft	$18
MCOV	084	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		67 ft	681 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	085	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp		60 ft	605 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	086	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp		67 ft	616 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	087	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		72 ft	585 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	088	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		75 ft	534 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	089	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		73 ft	564 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	090	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		70 ft	469 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	091	standard electric	75 ft	50 amp		84 ft	479 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	092	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		82 ft	400 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	093	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		67 ft	401 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	094	standard electric	80 ft	50 amp		86 ft	329 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	095	standard electric	80 ft	50 amp		93 ft	279 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	096	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp		51 ft	400 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	097	standard electric	80 ft	50 amp		97 ft	276 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	098	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp		51 ft	393 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	099	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		79 ft	300 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	100	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		79 ft	305 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	101	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		62 ft	380 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	102	standard electric	90 ft	50 amp		93 ft	259 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	103	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp		66 ft	352 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	104	type not stated	75 ft	50 amp			235 ft
MCOV	105	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		77 ft	343 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	106	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		83 ft	238 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	107	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		77 ft	374 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	108	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp		83 ft	257 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	109	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp		73 ft	437 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	110	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		80 ft	329 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	111	standard electric	80 ft	50 amp		63 ft	503 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	112	standard electric	50 ft	50 amp		77 ft	401 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	113	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp		63 ft	562 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	114	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp		68 ft	476 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	115	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		60 ft	624 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	116	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp		68 ft	543 ft	$30–$34
MCOV	GC-1	type not stated					under 10 ft
MCOV	GC-2	type not stated					16 ft
MCOV	GC-3	day use		15 amp
MCOV	Methodist Cove Shelter	day use	75 ft	15 amp	yes			$40

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.

Price: Derived by CAMPANAC: each site takes the per-night rate this campground publishes for the site’s own site type (recreation.gov rate schedule). recreation.gov publishes no per-campsite fee, and a site whose type carries no published rate is left blank rather than called free · Oct 1, 2026

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 99 listed

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number

Coordinate40.08694, -99.31556

The mapSee it on the map

The driveDirections ↗

The phone308-799-2105

The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Also near here

Hunter Cove4.7 mi

Sylvan Park89 mi

Lucas Park89 mi

Minooka Park89 mi

Getting there

From U.S. Highway 80, take Highway 183 south to Alma, Nebraska. Turn left on South Street and travel 2.5 miles. The park entrance is on south side of the road.

Directions: Driving directions as the agency wrote them · Sep 9, 2026

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Today54°Mostly Sunny

Tonight30°Widespread Frost

Saturday60°Widespread Frost then Sunny

Saturday Night38°Clear

NWS forecast for Alma, NE

Source: National Weather Service, GID forecast office · Oct 16, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 39°F, day 68°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 14°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

100°32°10°

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.

Measured at: HARLAN CO LAKE, NE (USC00253595), 5 miles away and 60 ft higher

Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it

Who answers for this land

Methodist Cove is in Nebraska’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Adrian Smith (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from

Right now: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate: the number below is the only way to be sure.

Sites on recreation.gov: recreation.gov’s own month availability payload for this facility, asked for October 2026, November 2026 and July 2027. It names 91 of the 97 campsites the agency files here, and every one of them carries an answer either way. A campground nobody has read carries no answer at all, never a no. · Oct 11, 2026

Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026

Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate, taken as the median across the 96 campsites here that carry a reading. The cell reads 0% and sits within 30 m of water, where NLCD’s water mask can zero the canopy, so no figure is printed · Sep 9, 2026

Water: USGS National Hydrography Dataset, nearest perennial lake, reservoir, river or stream to this campground’s coordinate · Sep 8, 2026

Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.14 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 17 rated federal campgrounds in Nebraska · Sep 8, 2026

Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model

Cell signal: the Army Corps’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.

Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026