Tuttle Creek Cove
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 15 of the next 15 nights read 16:34 UTC
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 39All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Tuttle Creek Cove Campground is a large, quiet oasis located on the shores of Tuttle Creek Lake in the wide open expanse of northeast Kansas. Keep reading
Recreation
Tuttle Creek Lake's 11 parks, marina, 10,900 acres of water and 20,000 acres of land provide ample opportunities for outdoor recreation activities. Boating, fishing and hiking top the list. Power boaters on Tuttle Creek Lake will enjoy the lake's large main body of water on calm days for water skiing and pleasure boating. Canoeists and kayakers will find River Pond below the dam a perfect place for paddling. The state park offers canoe, kayak, and paddleboat rentals. Bald eagles, white-tailed deer, Canada geese, wild turkeys, crappie, walleye, channel catfish and other wildlife can be found at Tuttle Creek Lake. The lake's fish and wildlife resources provide sightseers, anglers and hunters ample opportunities for their sports. The lake also boasts miles of hiking, biking, off-road vehicle and equestrian trails. The Blue River Trail, a one mile long loop in Outlet Park, provides excellent views of wildlife in all seasons. Click here to learn about additional trails around the lake.
Facilities
Tuttle Creek Cove Campground offers 39 compact campsites on a scenic lakeshore setting. Showers, flush toilets and other modern amenities are provided. Playgrounds and boat ramp are also available, making the area ideal for family trips or parties. 39 sites offer water and 50 amp electric hookups.
Natural Features
Tuttle Creek Lake is situated in the northern portion of the Flint Hills, which are characterized by flat-topped hills with long, steep slopes, limestone rock outcrops and well-defined stream channels. The climate is typified by warm summers and moderately cold winters. More than 2 million guests visit Tuttle Creek Lake each year to enjoy the endless recreational opportunities provided by the vast lake and surrounding landscape.
Nearby Attractions
Konza Prairie, Kansas State University, Fort Riley and the Prairie Parkway are all located a short drive from the campground.
What the agency tells you
Entrance gates are closed from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. nightly
Terrain between the campsites and shower buildings is steep and does not meet accessibility standards
Campground is subject Title 36 regulation enforcement. Visit Title 36 to view the regulations.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Additional campground specific rules and regulations can be found on campground map. Tuttle Cove Rules and Regulations
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 39
- Hookups
- 39 electric, 39 water
- Longest rig
- 90 ft
- Accessible sites
- 3
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…on a scenic lakeshore setting. Showers, flush toilets and other modern amenities are provided.…”
- 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
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 44th darkest of 57 in KS
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:34 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:15 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 39 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 35 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:34 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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $24 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 · 2
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:15 UTC
- Outlet Park (Tuttle Creek Lake)Tuttle Creek Lake · 2.8 mi · 1 of 6 site-nights open
- West Rolling HillsMilford Lake · 21 mi · 75 of 76 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:34 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
39 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 35 mapped sitesAll 39 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 35 of the 39 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 39 of the 39 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| LS | 001 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 462 ft | 360 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 002 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | $24 | ||||
| LS | 003 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 423 ft | 353 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 004 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 486 ft | 237 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 005 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 43 ft | 371 ft | 347 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 006 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 445 ft | 235 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 007 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 43 ft | 337 ft | 349 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 008 | standard electric | 85 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 411 ft | 228 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 009 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 59 ft | 287 ft | 363 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 010 | standard electric | 85 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 161 ft | 361 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 011 | standard electric | 90 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 172 ft | 316 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 012 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | $24 | ||||
| LS | 013 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 247 ft | 303 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 014 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 284 ft | 250 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 015 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 310 ft | 202 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 016 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 351 ft | 147 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 017 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 404 ft | 109 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 018 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 458 ft | 93 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 019 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 500 ft | 93 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 020 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 546 ft | 121 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 021 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 593 ft | 156 ft | $24 | |
| LS | 022 | standard electric | 20 ft | 50 amp | $24 | ||||
| TP | 023 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 342 ft | 572 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 024 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 40 ft | 298 ft | 575 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 025 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 40 ft | 267 ft | 545 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 026 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 45 ft | 239 ft | 509 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 027 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 217 ft | 468 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 028 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 192 ft | 423 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 029 | standard electric | 62 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 170 ft | 376 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 030 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 165 ft | 333 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 031 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 167 ft | 288 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 032 | standard electric | 75 ft | 50 amp | $24 | ||||
| TP | 033 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 156 ft | 191 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 034 | standard electric | 78 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 158 ft | 138 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 035 | standard electric | 78 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 167 ft | 84 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 036 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 220 ft | 128 ft | $24 | |
| TP | 037 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | yes | 45 ft | 244 ft | 178 ft | $24 |
| TP | 038 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | yes | 45 ft | 260 ft | 220 ft | $24 |
| TP | 039 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | yes | 49 ft | 289 ft | 269 ft | $24 |
25 of 39 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Stockdale2.3 mi
Outlet Park (Tuttle Creek Lake)2.8 mi
Farnum Creek17 mi
School Creek Camground19 mi
Timber Creek Park19 mi
Outlet Park (KS)20 miFrom the intersection of US-24 and K-13 at the west end of the dam, turn east onto K-13, then immediately turn north onto Tuttle Cove Road and continue 3 miles to the campground entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Manhattan, KS
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 68°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 16°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 · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Tuttle Creek Cove is in Kansas’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Tracey Mann (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 moneyTracey MannU.S. Representative · Kansas’s 1st district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJerry MoranU.S. Senator · Kansas
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRoger MarshallU.S. Senator · Kansas
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 Tuttle Creek Cove, Kansas
Dear Tracey Mann, I’m a constituent in Kansas’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Tuttle Creek Cove, Kansas, and couldn’t. All 39 sites at Tuttle Creek Cove are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 39 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Tuttle Creek Cove keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Tuttle Creek Cove. 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 Tuttle Creek Cove (Kansas) 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 Tuttle Creek Cove, Kansas
Dear Jerry Moran, I’m a constituent in Kansas. I tried to camp at Tuttle Creek Cove, Kansas, and couldn’t. All 39 sites at Tuttle Creek Cove are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 39 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Tuttle Creek Cove keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Tuttle Creek Cove. 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 Tuttle Creek Cove (Kansas) 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 Tuttle Creek Cove, Kansas
Dear Roger Marshall, I’m a constituent in Kansas. I tried to camp at Tuttle Creek Cove, Kansas, and couldn’t. All 39 sites at Tuttle Creek Cove are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 39 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Tuttle Creek Cove keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Tuttle Creek Cove. 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 Tuttle Creek Cove (Kansas) via campanac.com