U.S. Forest Service · Daniel Boone National Forest · KY
Zilpo Recreation Area
The agency doesn’t say how you get a siteIts record carries no access type, so treat it as a place to phone before you drive.
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- Season
- May 22Opens May 22. No closing date published.
790 ftElevation
710 ftWater · Cave Run Lake
6.7 miSW of Morehead, KY
48%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 16th darkest of 60 in KY
Opens May 22. No closing date published.Today
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Zilpo Recreation Area is a 355-acre campground on Cave Run Lake on Cumberland District . This area has sites for tent camping and RV hookup. Basic rental cabins sleep up to 7, with beds, table, porch, accessible ramp entrance and picnic tables. Bathrooms and water are located nearby at the bathhouse. The campground has bathhouses with hot water showers, hiking and jogging trails, scenic overlooks, a boat ramp and a nearby country store. A sandy beach with a roped swimming area offers visitors a spectacular view of the lake. The Zilpo Store is your one stop shop to purchase food, floats, ice, wood, etc. Keep reading
during your beach and camping stay. Zilpo Mountain Trail #1802 begins across from D loop in Zilpo Campground and loops back around to near the entrance station. Zilpo Campground Map (pdf) Cave Run Lake is nestled among the beautiful mountains of eastern Kentucky. Built for flood protection by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, this 8,270 lake provides flood protection to the lower Licking River valley and supplies water to area communities, improves water flow conditions on the Licking River, and offers habitat for many species of fish and wildlife. The lake is known for its excellent muskie fishing.
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Facilities
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Source: Stated in the agency description
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
Source: Stated in the agency description
Phone before you drive
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
Runs itVista RecreationA private concessionaire under permit from U.S. Forest Servicethe operator link
Every line of the receipt · 18
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
Zilpo Beach & Day Use $10/vehicle for visitor day use.
Over 6 per vehicle: $2/person.
Walk-in/bicycle $2/person.
Commercial buses/vans: $2/person.
Vista family annual pass for beach use $50.
Interpretive programs $8/vehicle.
Firewood $7.
Zilpo Cabins $85/night.
Up to 6 persons plus a vehicle.
Zilpo Campground $25/single.
Prime single .$35
Double .$38
Additional Campground Fees: $10/electric.
RV dump station per use .$8
The booking feerecreation.gov
We hold no recreation.gov booking record for this campground, so we can’t say whether a booking fee applies.
What this campground addsits own record
Extra vehicle$8
“$8/extra vehicle per night.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 5
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
What this campground adds: The U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record and notices for this campground, quoted verbatim. An extra-vehicle charge is set locally and appears on no national schedule, so it’s never assumed. · Aug 24, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near here
Zilpo - Daniel Boone Nat. For.Daniel Boone National Forest · 0.3 miTwin Knobs West Group Use AreaDaniel Boone National Forest · 1.3 miTwin Knobs Recreation AreaDaniel Boone National Forest · 1.4 mi
Claylick Boat-In CampgroundDaniel Boone National Forest · 1.6 mi
Boat Gunnel Group CampgroundDaniel Boone National Forest · 1.8 mi
Twin Knobs CampgroundDaniel Boone National Forest · 1.9 mi
Zilpo - Daniel Boone Nat. For.Daniel Boone National Forest · 0.3 miTwin Knobs West Group Use AreaDaniel Boone National Forest · 1.3 miTwin Knobs Recreation AreaDaniel Boone National Forest · 1.4 miClaylick Boat-In CampgroundDaniel Boone National Forest · 1.6 miBoat Gunnel Group CampgroundDaniel Boone National Forest · 1.8 miTwin Knobs CampgroundDaniel Boone National Forest · 1.9 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Overnight42°Drizzle94% rain
Saturday55°Drizzle then Partly Sunny77% rain
Saturday Night31°Clear then Patchy Fog2% rain
Sunday62°Areas Of Frost then Sunny1% rain
NWS forecast for Farmers, KY
Source: National Weather Service, JKL forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
Typical weather
Typical May night 52°F, day 75°F.
90°32°20°
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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: CAVE RUN LAKE, KY (USC00152791), 4 miles away and 50 ft higher
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
developing
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Sep 28, 2026
Who answers for this land
Zilpo Recreation Area is in Kentucky’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Hal Rogers (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: Today falls inside the season the agency publishes, and it has posted nothing else. That reading is ours. The U.S. Forest Service’s own database, though, flags it not open with no reason or date; the flag is named under How we know all this.
Listed not open: USFS EDW Recreation Opportunities, openstatus field: a not-open flag in a database, with no reason and no date published; read there since Sep 9, 2026. A flag, not a notice, so this page doesn’t call it a closure. · Oct 16, 2026
Season: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’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: Farmers, KY, 4.8 mi SSE (a census designated place). Straight line.