Ragland Bottom
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 22 nights read 15:59 UTC
- A night
- $24–$32Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 5655 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Ragland Bottom Campground is located on the shores of the scenic Center Hill Lake on central Tennessee's Highland Rim. The lake stretches 64 miles up the Caney Fork River, where visitors come to enjoy boating, fishing and water sports. The 415 miles of forested shoreline provide excellent hiking, hunting and camping opportunities. 2025 Events: The annual Halloween event will be held Saturday, October 25, 2025. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating, waterskiing, canoeing and fishing are popular activities on the water. Anglers will find bream, walleye, smallmouth bass, crappie, catfish and white bass. Below the dam, the Caney Fork River is one of the most productive trout fisheries in the state. Nine miles of hiking trails meander around the lake. The Red Post Trail is a short, but steep, two-mile trail that loops above the campground. Hikers who brave the moderately difficult climb are rewarded with beautiful overlooks of the lake and nearby Sligo Bridge and Marina.
Facilities
This waterfront campground offers 40 sites with water and electric hookups, as well as 16 primitive tent sites. A large group day-use picnic area is available as well, with water and 15-amp electric hookups. Amenities like flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided, creating a comfortable camping experience for guests. A boat ramp, volleyball court, basketball goal, playground and hiking trail are all conveniently located within the campground. The adjacent day-use area has a group picnic shelter, boat ramp, and swimming beach.
Natural Features
Center Hill Lake is surrounded by lush mixed hardwood forests in the hilly Highland Rim region. Beautiful dogwoods bloom in the campground in springtime. Whitetail deer, wild turkey, squirrels and rabbits roam the wooded hills around the lake.
Nearby Attractions
Burgess Falls State Park is a 25-minute drive from the campground. Here, the Falling Water River drops approximately 250 feet, creating numerous breathtaking waterfalls. Hiking trails and overlooks help visitors enjoy the scenery. The large Native Butterfly Garden is a popular attraction within the park.
What the agency tells you
Pets and alcohol are prohibited in the day-use area, including the picnic shelter. Additionally pets are not allowed at the campground beach or in restrooms.
Only two tents allowed per site. Tents must be placed on campsite pads. Only one wheeled camping unit allowed to each site. one wheeled camping unit and one tent is allowed.
Only licensed vehicles are permitted. Each campsite is provided for two pre-paid vehicle entry. Additional vehicles, or visitors to campers are charged $3 fee per vehicle.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying certified heat-treated firewood and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Any organization wishing to use the Day Use Area for a fishing tournament must receive a Special Use Permit from the Resource Managers Office. Please call 931-858-3125 for more information.
We need your help to maintain our campsites. Please dispose of all trash and litter along with extinguishing any fire and dispose of ashes in the fire ring upon departure. If sites are left trashed, you may be cited by Title 36 Code of Federal Regulation 327.9 Sanitation part (d). “Campers, picknickers, and all other persons using a water resources development project shall keep their sites free of trash and litter during the period of occupancy and shall remove all personal equipment and clean their sites upon departure”.
Paymeny only accepted by debit or credit card. No cash.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 56 · 26 tent-only
- Hookups
- 38 electric, 40 water, 10 sewer
- Longest rig
- 125 ft
- Paved pads
- 9 of 56
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 53 of 54 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…15-amp electric hookups. Amenities like flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided, creating…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Amenities like flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided, creating a comfortable camping experience for guests.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…like flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided, creating a comfortable camping…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Water access
- Water Skiing
- Night sky · 52nd darkest of 95 in TN
- Bortle 4
23 of 108 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:59 UTC
recreation.gov lists 55 of the 56 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBookedClosed
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 · 19
What you actually pay
“Additional vehicles, or visitors to campers are charged $3 fee per vehicle.” · the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $24–$32 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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:59 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
57 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 54 mapped sitesAll 57 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 54 of the 57 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| DAY USE | P-1 | day use | Electricity Hookup | yes | 202 ft | $50 | ||
| HILL | 42 | tent only nonelectric | 60 ft | 540 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 43 | tent only nonelectric | 60 ft | 552 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 44 | tent only nonelectric | 60 ft | 599 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 45 | tent only nonelectric | 109 ft | 640 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 46 | tent only nonelectric | 146 ft | 601 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 47 | tent only nonelectric | 68 ft | 564 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 48 | tent only nonelectric | 78 ft | 511 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 49 | tent only nonelectric | 68 ft | 580 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 50 | tent only nonelectric | 55 ft | 552 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 51 | tent only nonelectric | 55 ft | 498 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 52 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 498 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 53 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 511 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 54 | tent only nonelectric | 64 ft | 410 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 55 | tent only nonelectric | 64 ft | 428 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 56 | tent only nonelectric | 69 ft | 668 ft | $24 | |||
| HILL | 57 | tent only nonelectric | 60 ft | 595 ft | $24 | |||
| LAKE | 01 | standard electric | 61 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 87 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 02 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 113 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 03 | standard electric | 64 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 123 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 04 | standard electric | 69 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 133 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 05 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 100 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 06 | standard electric | 77 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 107 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 07 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 114 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 08 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 79 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 09 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 59 ft | 83 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 10 | standard electric | 57 ft | 50 amp | 41 ft | 96 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 11 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 41 ft | 109 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 12 | standard electric | 66 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 105 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 13 | standard electric | 69 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 79 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 14 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 67 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 15 | standard electric | 66 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 69 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 16 | standard electric | 125 ft | 50 amp | 83 ft | 202 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 17 | standard electric | 83 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 176 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 18 | standard electric | 92 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 181 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 19 | standard electric | 89 ft | 50 amp | 88 ft | 114 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 20 | standard electric | 93 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 185 ft | $30 | |
| LAKE | 21 | tent only electric | 30 amp | 84 ft | 37 ft | $26 | ||
| LAKE | 22 | tent only electric | 30 amp | 84 ft | 111 ft | $26 | ||
| LAKE | 23 | tent only electric | 30 amp | 98 ft | 41 ft | $26 | ||
| LAKE | 24 | tent only electric | 30 amp | 85 ft | 140 ft | $26 | ||
| LAKE | 25 | tent only electric | 30 amp | 85 ft | 82 ft | $26 | ||
| LAKE | 26 | tent only electric | 30 amp | 82 ft | 170 ft | $26 | ||
| LAKE | 27 | tent only electric | 30 amp | 116 ft | 23 ft | $26 | ||
| LAKE | 28 | tent only electric | 30 amp | 78 ft | 166 ft | $26 | ||
| LAKE | 29 | tent only electric | 30 amp | 94 ft | 56 ft | $26 | ||
| LAKE | 30 | tent only electric | 30 amp | 78 ft | 103 ft | $26 | ||
| MIDDLE | 31 | type not stated | 70 ft | 50 amp | 500 ft | |||
| MIDDLE | 32 | type not stated | 66 ft | 50 amp | 527 ft | |||
| MIDDLE | 33 | rv electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 88 ft | 477 ft | $32 | |
| MIDDLE | 34 | rv electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 389 ft | $32 | |
| MIDDLE | 35 | rv electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 35 ft | 334 ft | $32 | |
| MIDDLE | 36 | rv electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 35 ft | 301 ft | $32 | |
| MIDDLE | 37 | rv electric | 81 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 359 ft | $32 | |
| MIDDLE | 38 | rv electric | 67 ft | 50 amp | 43 ft | 432 ft | $32 | |
| MIDDLE | 39 | rv electric | 51 ft | 50 amp | 43 ft | 403 ft | $32 | |
| MIDDLE | 40 | rv electric | 51 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 404 ft | $32 |
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.
25 of 57 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Hurricane Bridge3.9 mi
Floating Mill Park5.2 mi
Long Branch (Center Hill Lake)10 mi
Center Hill Lake Primitive Camping Areas11 mi
Tailwater Rec Area24 mi
Salt Lick Creek24 miFrom Smithville, Tennessee, take US-70 east for 8 miles. Turn left on Ragland Bottom Road and follow signs to the campground, located one mile from Sligo Bridge.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Smithville, TN
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 26°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
Who answers for this land
Ragland Bottom 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 →