Parksville Lake RV Campground
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 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:54 UTC
- A night
- $20–$40Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 16All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located near Parksville Lake, Parksville Lake RV Campground offers well-shaded and nicely spaced campsites accommodating larger RVs. Several sites offer the opportunity for two RVs to camp close together and several are located along a small stream. Keep reading
Recreation
Parksville Lake RV Campground is central location for day trips to the many inviting outdoor recreation opportunities in the area. Visitors to nearby Parksville Lake will enjoy beaches for swimming and boat ramps for water access. The area boasts many miles of mountain bike and hiking trails. Whitewater rafting enthusiasts will want to check out the Ocoee Whitewater Center.
Facilities
Picnic tables, grills, and lantern posts are located at each site. A bath house providing flush toilets and warm showers is centrally located in the middle of the loop. Water hydrants are located throughout the campground. An RV dump station is located near the entrance/exit. Parksville Lake Campground Map and Guide Natural Features The Cherokee National Forest is located in eastern Tennessee and stretches from Chattanooga to Bristol along the North Carolina border. The 650,000-acre swath of land is Tennessee's only national forest. It lies in the heart of the Southern Appalachians and is home to more than 20,000 species of plants and animals, as well as many rivers, creeks and lakes.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is conveniently located near the Ocoee River and the Ocoee Whitewater Center (site of the 1996 Olympic Kayak events).
What the agency tells you
Campfires are permitted in designated fire rings only.
Do not leave fires unattended. They will be extinguished.
Discharging firearms and fireworks is prohibited.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Pets must be on a leash.
Alcoholic beverages are prohibited.
Campground hosts are on site.
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Be Bear Wise: Never leave food out on tables or in the open. Store unattended food in bear-resistant containers, in a vehicle in solid non-pliable material, or suspend food at least ten feet off the ground. Remember to use the bear resistant trash receptacles provided at this facility.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 16
- Hookups
- 16 electric
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…at each site. A bath house providing flush toilets and warm showers is centrally located in the middle…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “A bath house providing flush toilets and warm showers is centrally located in the middle of the loop.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…located in the middle of the loop. Water hydrants are located throughout the campground. An RV dump…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 13 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Mountain biking
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Rafting
- River Trips
- Swimming
- Water access
- Whitewater rafting
Full this Saturdayread 16:54 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
3 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:44 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 16 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 6 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 16:54 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$40 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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 3
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:44 UTC
- Cottonwood Patch CampgroundChattahoochee National Forest · 10 mi · 1 of 8 site-nights open
- Morganton PointChattahoochee-Oconee National Forest · 25 mi · 2 of 82 site-nights open
- Sandy Bottoms Recreation Area Campground (Clayton, GA)Chattahoochee National Forest · 30 mi · 2 of 24 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:54 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
16 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sitesAll 16 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. 16 of the 16 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 01 | standard electric | 30 amp | 82 ft | 254 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 02 | standard electric | 30 amp | 82 ft | 173 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 03A/03B | standard electric | 30 amp | 98 ft | 71 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 04 | standard electric | 30 amp | 98 ft | 22 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 05 | standard electric | 30 amp | 103 ft | 109 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 06 | standard electric | 30 amp | 105 ft | under 10 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 07 | standard electric | 30 amp | 105 ft | under 10 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 08 | standard electric | 30 amp | 103 ft | 116 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 09 | standard electric | 30 amp | 91 ft | 10 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 10 | standard electric | 30 amp | yes | 91 ft | 49 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 11 | standard electric | 30 amp | 54 ft | 25 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 12 | standard electric | 30 amp | 54 ft | 63 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 13 | standard electric | 30 amp | 76 ft | 125 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 14 | standard electric | 30 amp | 60 ft | 192 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 15 | standard electric | 30 amp | 60 ft | 226 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 | |
| PARKSVILLE LAKE RV CAMPGROUND | 16 | standard electric | 30 amp | 80 ft | 244 ftRock Creek | $20–$40 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Chilhowee Group CampCherokee National Forest · 3.2 mi
Chilhowee CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 3.2 miChilhowee Recreation AreaCherokee National Forest · 3.3 mi
Thunder Rock Campground5.8 miLost Creek CampgroundCherokee National Forest · 6.8 miLost Corral Horse CampCherokee National Forest · 8.6 miFrom Highway 64/411 intersection, travel Hwy. 64 east approximately 9.5 miles, turn onto Highway 30 for 0.25 mile. RV sites are located on the left, group tent camping on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Benton, TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 73°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°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
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Parksville Lake RV Campground is in Tennessee’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Chuck Fleischmann (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 moneyCharles J. "Chuck" FleischmannU.S. Representative · Tennessee’s 3rd 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
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 Parksville Lake RV Campground, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee
Dear Charles J. "Chuck" Fleischmann, I’m a constituent in Tennessee’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Parksville Lake RV Campground, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee, and couldn’t. All 16 sites at Parksville Lake RV Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 16 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Parksville Lake RV Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Parksville Lake RV Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service 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 Parksville Lake RV Campground (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) 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 Parksville Lake RV Campground, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee
Dear Bill Hagerty, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. I tried to camp at Parksville Lake RV Campground, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee, and couldn’t. All 16 sites at Parksville Lake RV Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 16 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Parksville Lake RV Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Parksville Lake RV Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service 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 Parksville Lake RV Campground (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) 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 Parksville Lake RV Campground, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee
Dear Marsha Blackburn, I’m a constituent in Tennessee. I tried to camp at Parksville Lake RV Campground, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee, and couldn’t. All 16 sites at Parksville Lake RV Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 16 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Parksville Lake RV Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Parksville Lake RV Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service 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 Parksville Lake RV Campground (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee) via campanac.com