Tailwater
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:17 UTC
- A night
- $16From, per site
- Sites
- 48All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Tailwater Campground offers 48-sites located along the Barren River, just below the dam. This lazy riverside campground is quieter than neighboring campgrounds and seems to have a slower pace since it is set below the lake, yet close enough for easy lake access. Annually, the campground is host to the Barren River Lake Scout Celebration which began in 1995. Scouts from surrounding states converge at the Tailwater Campground to celebrate, compete, and demonstrate their skills over the weekend. This event occurs every August and is something everyone can be a part of as a participant or on looker. View a virtual tour of Barren River Lake. Keep reading
Recreation
The Tailwater provides a great location when fishing for catfish or hybrid striped bass, and downstream provides an opportunity to catch several different species of bass, as well as a variety of sunfishes. Try hiking the Steen Bergen Nature Trail for a chance to spot resident great horned owls, a variety of woodpeckers, migrating songbirds, or a family of chipmunks. The river offers a chance to see belted kingfishers, green herons, or maybe even an otter dining on an afternoon snack.
Facilities
Each site has water hook ups and electric available during the months of May through September. Primitive camping is available during the non-peak season with a dump station, potable water, and pit toilets offered during that time. The campground has an amphitheater, playground, beach volleyball court, horseshoe pit, and an open field for sports like softball or a fun game of tag. Other amenities just outside the campground at the stilling basin recreation area include: picnic sites, a pavilion available for reserving, playground, and basketball court.
Natural Features
Beautiful views of high cliffs and hills are on the other side of the river. Frequently you will see a bald eagle perched waiting for a fish to surface from the stilling basin's discharge. The surrounding woods are a quiet retreat and an opportunity for wildlife viewing at the permanent wildlife blind.
Nearby Attractions
The lake's shoreline is less than a mile away for swimming and boating activities. The premier recreation area, Port Oliver, is just across the dam and Quarry Road Recreation Area offers a reservable pavilion, fishing piers, playground, flush toilets, swimming area with beach, and a variety of picnic sites. Stop and visit Barren River Lake State Resort Park, host of the Glasgow Highland Games. Peninsula Marina is less than five miles away. Good day trips to other local area attractions include: the National Corvette Museum, Kentucky Down Under, and Diamond Caverns. There are several other family attractions within the Glasgow, Bowling Green, and Cave City region and visitors can explore Mammoth Cave National Park, an hour north of the campground.
What the agency tells you
Firewood restrictions are in effect. Due to the spread of invasive insects and disease, firewood from outside the area is not permitted. Help protect our forests by purchasing or collecting firewood at or near your camping destination and burning it on-site. Click here for more information.
Off-highway vehicles are not permitted
A fee is charged for day visitors
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Boats must meet all Kentucky boating laws and regulations.
Non-Peak Season Camping is Primitive Only (Dump Station & Potable Water are Available).
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 48 · 1 group
- Hookups
- 47 electric, 47 water
- Longest rig
- 115 ft
- Paved pads
- 2 of 48
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Pit Toilets
- “…with a dump station, potable water, and pit toilets offered during that time. The campground has an… / …pavilion, fishing piers, playground, flush toilets, swimming area with beach, and a variety of picnic…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 49 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 52nd darkest of 60 in KY
- Bortle 4
66 of 96 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:17 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $16 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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:17 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
49 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 49 mapped sitesAll 49 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. 48 of the 49 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| TAIL | 01 | standard electric | 62 ft | 50 amp | 41 ft | 106 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 02 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 51 ft | 107 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 03 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 132 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 04 | standard electric | 64 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 156 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 05 | standard electric | 115 ft | 50 amp | 118 ft | 62 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 06 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 177 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 07 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 180 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 08 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 173 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 09 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 171 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 10 | standard electric | 90 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 174 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 11 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 32 ft | 168 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 12 | standard electric | 115 ft | 50 amp | 41 ft | 162 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 13 | standard electric | 61 ft | 50 amp | 56 ft | 132 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 14 | standard electric | 66 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 156 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 15 | standard electric | 92 ft | 50 amp | 45 ft | 127 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 16 | standard electric | 81 ft | 50 amp | 45 ft | 121 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 17 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 40 ft | 140 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 18 | standard electric | 64 ft | 50 amp | 38 ft | 133 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 19 | standard electric | 67 ft | 50 amp | yes | 38 ft | 133 ft | $16 |
| TAIL | 20 | standard electric | 87 ft | 50 amp | yes | 42 ft | 128 ft | $16 |
| TAIL | 21 | standard electric | 83 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 124 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 22 | standard electric | 76 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 122 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 23 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 148 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 24 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 121 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 25 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 32 ft | 102 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 26 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 32 ft | 103 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 27 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 35 ft | 102 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 28 | standard electric | 67 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 133 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 29 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 42 ft | 128 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 30 | standard electric | 95 ft | 50 amp | 42 ft | 122 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 31 | standard electric | 85 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 118 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 32 | standard electric | 62 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 129 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 33 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 136 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 34 | standard electric | 88 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 144 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 35 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 56 ft | 146 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 36 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 56 ft | 136 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 37 | standard electric | 62 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 248 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 38 | standard electric | 67 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 246 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 39 | standard electric | 85 ft | 50 amp | 41 ft | 145 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 40-Host | host pad | 88 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 172 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 41 | standard electric | 93 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 205 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 42 | standard electric | 83 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 239 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 43 | standard electric | 93 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 246 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 44 | standard electric | 84 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 242 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 45 | standard electric | 68 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 236 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 46 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 221 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 47 | standard electric | 74 ft | 50 amp | 32 ft | 195 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 48 | standard electric | 86 ft | 50 amp | 33 ft | 177 ft | $16 | |
| TAIL | 49 | group standard nonelectric | 340 ft | 379 ft | $25 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. 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 49 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Baileys Point2.1 mi
The Narrows3.5 mi
Mammoth Cave CampgroundMammoth Cave National Park · 21 mi
Maple SpringsMammoth Cave National Park · 22 mi
Houchin Ferry CampgroundMammoth Cave National Park · 22 mi
Mammoth Cave Backcountry CampingMammoth Cave National Park · 22 miFrom Glasgow, KY: Take 31-E south for 4 mi; turn right on 252, which will cross the dam in 8 mi. The Tailwater entrance road is at the south end of the dam. Follow signs into recreation area. Approximately 19 miles from Bowling Green, KY.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Scottsville, KY
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 71°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
Tailwater 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 →