U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · AL

Sumter Campground

1Heads up1 fire 43 mi away
Wildfire
106 fire · 43 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 14, 2026
ReservableBookable through October 31; the next season isn't published.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 15 nights read 15:41 UTC
A night
$22From, per site
Sites
6All of them booked ahead
Drawn from the record · 110 ft · 81% tree cover · Gainesville Lake within reach · Bortle 4 sky
110 ftElevation
under 10 ftWater · Gainesville Lake
14.1 miW of Eutaw, AL
81%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 6th darkest of 41 in AL

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices

In the agency’s own words

Sumter Campground is located on Gainesville Lake of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. Keep reading

Recreation

Sumter Campground is nestled in a cove off the main channel of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway with fishing and hunting in the area.

Facilities

Sumter Campground has a pavilion, individual picnic sites, and 6 campsites.

What the agency tells you

Rule

LOCAL CAMPING POLICIES  A limit of 8 people per site. The America The Beautiful Senior and Access cards are accepted at this campground for discount camping. When making a reservation only one card can be used on one reservation. If multiple reservations are made with one card one reservation will receive the discount and the others will have to pay the full price upon check-in. A camping extension is no more than 14 additional camping days beyond a camper’s initial 14 day camping limit. For each camping extension granted, a camping party cannot exceed 14 days per extension and can only pay for 14 days at a time. Peak Season Extension Policy: Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Campgrounds. After the initial 14 day stay one extension is allowed on a non-prime site for a total of 28 days during peak season (March 1- Sept. 15). At the end of this 28 day stay the camper and equipment must move to another campground on the project but may return to the campground after 7 days. If camping on a prime site the camper must move to a non-prime site after the initial 14 day stay.   Off Season Extension Policy: Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Campgrounds. After the initial 14 day stay no more than one extension will be allowed on a non-prime site for a total of 28 days during the off season (Sept. 13 -Feb. 28). At the end of this 28 day stay the camper and equipment must move to another campground on the project but may return to the campground after 7 days. Length of stay on a prime site during the off season remains limited to 14 days. A camper may stay on a prime site 14 days, and move to a non-prime site for 14 days. Extensions beyond the 14 day limit will not be granted during major summer holidays. Please turn in all passes to the park attendant when leaving the campground. Only empty boat trailers are allowed to be parked on grass.

Tents and rigs

Sites
6 · 6 tent-only
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
None listed
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Stay limit
14 nights
recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Source: recreation.gov facility record · Sep 9, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Lake
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026

6 of 6 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:41 UTC

Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.

OpenBooked

Booking windowThrough October 31Bookable now through October 31, 2026, the end of the reservable season. The season after it isn't published yet.recreation.gov
Max stay14 nightsthe facility record
A night$22plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule
A weekend$52DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Army Corps of EngineersBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 13

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Army Corps of Engineers
A night$22
Site # 1-5$22
Site # 6$22
Rates for the season the campground is in now, Mar 1, 2026 to Oct 31, 2026.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
One nightDerived$30
A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$52

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $22 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.

If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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

recreation.gov availability, read 15:41 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

6 sites · which ones have room · the site map

The sites, ranked

from 6 mapped sites
83 ftbetween you and the next site, typically
Least roomSite 3 31 ftSite 4 31 ftSite 1 59 ft

All 6 sites

6 of 6 sites located
Tent only6
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
Up to

The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 6 of the 6 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.

Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.

SumterSite 1tent only nonelectric59 ftunder 10 ft$22
SumterSite 2tent only nonelectric108 ft69 ft$22
SumterSite 3tent only nonelectric31 ft20 ft$22
SumterSite 4tent only nonelectric31 ft29 ft$22
SumterSite 5tent only nonelectric220 ftunder 10 ft$22
SumterSite 6tent only nonelectric220 ft127 ft$22

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 phone number

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Tonight50°Mostly Clear1% rain
Saturday67°Sunny
Saturday Night45°Clear
Sunday70°Sunny

NWS forecast for Gainesville, AL

Typical weather

Typical October night 53°F, day 76°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 35°F. Bring the bag rated for it.

100°30°

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.

Measured at: GAINESVILLE 2 NE, AL (USW00063892), 4 miles away and at about the same elevation

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it

Who answers for this land

Terri Sewell, official portrait

Sumter Campground is in Alabama’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Terri Sewell (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: recreation.gov is offering sites on 15 of the next 15 nights, which isn’t something a closed campground does.
Cell signal: the Army Corps’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Gainesville, AL, 3.2 mi NNW. Straight line.