Nat Caldwell Park
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 · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
Nat Caldwell Park is located right off of US-31E/Nashville Pike. This park is an ideal place for a day of picnicking and other outdoor activities. Keep reading
Recreation
Nat Caldwell is smaller and not as busy as some of the other parks in the area making it a great place to relax and enjoy your day. It offers a reserveable group picnic shelter, grill, open grassy areas, and shoreline for fishing. It also serves as a great place to launch kayaks and canoes from the shoreline due to the fact is is in the headwaters of Station Camp Creek on Old Hickory Lake. If you need to launch a larger boat, Station Camp Creek is located straight across Nashville Pike just off of Douglas Bend Road.
Facilities
The group picnic shelter holds up to 50 guests with parking available for approximately 25 vehicles.
Natural Features
Old Hickory Lake is a 22,500 acre reservoir created by the Old Hickory Lock and Dam on the Cumberland River. The lake is named after former president Andrew Jackson, a Tennessee-native nicknamed "Old Hickory" for his tough and aggressive personality. The lake features 440 miles of scenic shoreline, surrounded by wooded flatlands and plenty of access points.
Nearby Attractions
Hikers may be interested in the nearby Lock 4 Park. It offers hiking trails as well as mountain bike trails.
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
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
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Kayaking
- Picnicking
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:58 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.
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 15:58 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
| GROUP SITE | 1 | day use | 20 amp | 51 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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Avondale2.2 mi
Cages Bend3.1 mi
Lone Branch4.5 mi
Cedar Creek (TN)5.0 mi
Laguardo5.7 mi
Shutes Branch7.6 miFrom Nashville, take I-65 North to TN-386/Vietnam Veterans Blvd. Continue East on TN-386/Vietnam Veterans Boulevard to exit 9. Merge onto US-31E N/Johnny Cash Pkwy/E Main St. and continue approximately 2.5 miles. Nat Caldwell Park will be on your left just before crossing over Station Camp Creek.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Gallatin, 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
Nat Caldwell Park 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 Nat Caldwell Park has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear John W. Rose, I’m a constituent in Tennessee’s 6th district. Nat Caldwell Park, Tennessee 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 Nat Caldwell Park (Tennessee) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Nat Caldwell Park has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Bill Hagerty, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. Nat Caldwell Park, Tennessee 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 Nat Caldwell Park (Tennessee) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Nat Caldwell Park has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Marsha Blackburn, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. Nat Caldwell Park, Tennessee 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 Nat Caldwell Park (Tennessee) via campanac.com