Old Kuttawa
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 13 of the next 15 nights read 14:51 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Old Kuttawa Recreation Area is on the northern shores of Lake Barkley, near the narrow canal linking it to Kentucky Lake. Together, these two reservoirs combine to create one of the greatest freshwater recreation areas in the country. Take pleasure in a day of picnicking or soak up the sun at the swimming beach, either way Old Kuttawa provides an ideal setting to enjoy nature at its best. Keep reading
Recreation
The half-mile Anderson Woodland Trail is an enjoyable footpath for birding and viewing the great tall trees of the region. Other activities include swimming, fishing and boating.
Facilities
Two large picnic pavilions, an ampitheater, a playground, restrooms and paved parking are available. Plenty of picnic tables and grills are scattered around the recreation area, with ample shade for sunny summer days. **In order to reserve the ampitheater, you must reserve site 1 (large shelter).
Natural Features
Lake Barkley spans 57,900 acres with 1,004 miles of shoreline and offers warm water temperatures during summer months that make for comfortable recreation. Running parallel to Barkley Lake is its neighbor, Kentucky Lake, with the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area nestled between.
Nearby Attractions
See the astonishing Floodwall Murals in the town of Paducah. It is a gallery that captures Paduca's rich history.
What the agency tells you
Shallow depths exist throughout the lake; exercise caution in water activities.
Day use fees apply to use of the beach, playground, picnic sites near the beach, basketball and volleyball courts.
The park opens at 6 a.m. and closes at dusk.
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 3 of 3 campsite records
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
Full this Saturdayread 14:51 UTC
The agency files 3 records here and marks every one of them day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in. How full the weekend is nationally.
3 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 14:48 UTC. See them
OpenBookedClosedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 2 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 14:51 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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
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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 3
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 14:48 UTC
- EurekaBarkley Lake · 5.0 mi · 3 of 27 site-nights open
- CanalBarkley Lake · 6.9 mi · 5 of 112 site-nights open
- Hurricane CreekBarkley Lake · 12 mi · 1 of 50 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 14:51 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
3 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 3 mapped sitesAll 3 records
| OKUT | 1 LG | day use | 30 amp | 303 ft | 123 ft | $25–$45 | |
| OKUT | 2 SM | day use | 30 amp | 585 ft | 250 ft | $25–$45 | |
| OKUT | AMPHITHEATER | day use | 30 amp | yes | 303 ft | 310 ft | $25–$45 |
The agency files 3 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.
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
From Nashville, take I-24 West to Exit 40. Turn left on 62 and then right on Highway 295. Follow Highway 295 to recreation area entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Kuttawa, KY
Typical weather
Typical October night 52°F, day 74°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 30°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 · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Old Kuttawa is in Kentucky’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, James Comer (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
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyJames ComerU.S. Representative · Kentucky’s 1st district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMitch McConnellU.S. Senator · Kentucky
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRand PaulU.S. Senator · Kentucky
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Old Kuttawa, Kentucky
Dear James Comer, I’m a constituent in Kentucky’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Old Kuttawa, Kentucky, and couldn’t. Every site at Old Kuttawa is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Old Kuttawa keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Old Kuttawa. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Old Kuttawa (Kentucky) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Old Kuttawa, Kentucky
Dear Mitch McConnell, I’m a constituent in Kentucky. I tried to camp at Old Kuttawa, Kentucky, and couldn’t. Every site at Old Kuttawa is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Old Kuttawa keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Old Kuttawa. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Old Kuttawa (Kentucky) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Old Kuttawa, Kentucky
Dear Rand Paul, I’m a constituent in Kentucky. I tried to camp at Old Kuttawa, Kentucky, and couldn’t. Every site at Old Kuttawa is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Old Kuttawa keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Old Kuttawa. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Old Kuttawa (Kentucky) via campanac.com