Old Hickory Beach
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 15:59 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
Old Hickory Beach sits along the lengthy shoreline of Old Hickory Lake. The day-use area is perfect for visitors looking to spend a day on the lake or lounging on the beach. Entertaining is easy with a large group picnic shelter accommodating up to 100 guests and grills for cooking out. Birders can find a mix of waterfowl, wading birds, migratory songbirds and the occasional Blue heron or Snowy egret. Other wildlife in the area includes wild turkey, rabbits and white-tailed deer. Keep reading
Recreation
Swimming and sailing are popular activities on the lake, while anglers will find an abundant population of catfish, crappie and bass for exceptional bank and boat fishing. Hikers can explore the 1.1-mile Old Hickory Lake Nature Trail, featuring three loops (the Woodland Loop, Willow Swamp Loop and the Wildlife Loop), covering varying terrain. The trail is located below Old Hickory Dam near the tailwater parking lot.
Facilities
A sandy swimming beach, a playground for the kids, small shelter near the beach and water, large reserveable shelter, and boat ramps.
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.
Nearby Attractions
Take in the nightlife of downtown Nashville if city entertainment beckons or stick with the great outdoors and sit on the fishing piers at Rockland, Sanders Ferry, Shutes Branch, and Bledsoe Creek State Park. The lake is also near the Hermitage, the plantation where U.S. President Andrew Jackson lived in the early 1800s.
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 charge.
What the agency tells you
There is a $5 fee per vehicle for day-use facilities; 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
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
Nothing to book until it reopensread 15:59 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
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.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 11
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 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 · 5
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Old Hickory Beach closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 150 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Houchin Ferry CampgroundMammoth Cave National Park · 67 mi · 12 sites
- Meriwether Lewis Campground, Milepost 385.9Natchez Trace Parkway · 69 mi · walk-up · 31 sites
- Bandy CreekBig South Fork National River and Recreation Area · 110 mi · 145 sites
- Rock Creek Campground (TN)Obed Wild and Scenic River · 113 mi · 11 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 15:59 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| GROUP SITE | 1 | day use | 30 amp | yes | 85 ft | 3,253 ft | $75 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Rockland Recreation Area0.9 mi
Shutes Branch5.7 mi
Avondale7.1 mi
Cages Bend8.1 mi
Cedar Creek (TN)8.4 mi
Lone Branch9.0 miFrom Nashville, take I-65 North to exit 92, TN-45/Old Hickory Blvd toward Madison, continue until you cross over the Cumberland River then take the 2nd left onto Bridgeway Ave., travel approximately 0.2 miles and turn left onto Ensley Ave., continue approximately 0.3 miles and turn left onto Swinging Bridge Road, continue approximately 0.4 miles and turn right onto Burnett Road. The entrance to the park will be at the end of the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Nashville-Davidson metropolitan government (balance), TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 27°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
Old Hickory Beach 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 →