Best Glamping near Barkley Lake

Canal campground is right on the canal that connects Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake at the north end of Land Between the Lakes. Sitting on the north side of the Canal, just outside of Grand Rivers, KY, where the famous Patti's Settlement boasts a two inch thick pork chop and home cooked everything. Canal campground books fast, and offers a substantial number of activities for all ages. Very well upkept and constantly making improvements, this is a favorites campground for folks from miles around.

Right on Lake Barkley where it joins Kentucky Lake. Over 200,000 acres of lake. We had sites 76 and 77. The roads to the sites have a lot of curves be careful not to clip your trailer on a tree. Our sites were easy to back in, plenty of room for the two tables that were there. The sites are gravel, but you do have water and electric hookups. Very quiet and peaceful place. Bath houses were clean and stocked, campground was clean. There is a beach area and also a playground for the kids. While your here be sure to go to the elk and bison prairie.

Had a great 3 day 2 night stay here. All you need to camp here is a camping permit from Land Between the Lakes which is 30 dollars online. If you have a Kentucky resident sportsmans licence this permit is included in that! Each site has a 2 foot across firepit with a grill plate that is hinged so you can flip it on or off the fire. Some of the sites are about 10 to 15 yards from the water while others are a good ways from it. There is no electricity at any of the sites however there is a central dumpster for trash and a composting toilet as well as a boat ramp. The sites are gravel pads with a fire pit and a concrete picnic table. Easily fit my 3 person tent with a 9 x 12ft tarp as a foot print and two vehicles with still room to walk around easily in the site.

Redd Hollow Campground is one of many dispersed campgrounds in Land Between The Lakes(LBL), Ky. 

30$ annually and you can set up camp almost anywhere in LBL. There are basic campgrounds and you can backpack in to primitive sites.

Redd Hollow has site posts, cement picnic tables fire rings and a pit toilet. There are several sites water level where you can put in to the lake and there are some very picturesque sites that overlook the lake. First come first get. It was a relatively peaceful area sans the generators;)

Things to do: 

There is a North/South trail that runs the length of LBL. There are several access points where you can hike sections of the trail. 

We visited the Elk and Bison Prairie near Golden Pond Visitors Center. A drive through observation area. The visitor center also offers planetarium shows and nature programs. 

Nearby: Off Rt 68/80 , 15 miles away is Cadiz, Ky. An opportunity to be a tourist in small town Kentucky. Farmers Market and antiques, plus a yearly ham festival. Try out “Ferrell’s Snappy Services”, a hamburger restaurant that’s been around since 1929.

Being close to water is always nice, and our family always looks for this when we are traveling away from home to camp. Kentucky Lake is nearby, and we spent most of our day here. We towed our small boat from home because we wanted to be able to enjoy being on the water (and my dad wanted to fish). There is running water and showers available on site, although I just jumped in the lake and shampooed my hair in their :) Very large campground, which was nice. Lots of room between campsites. Always a plus for us. The campground itself was really nice, we were actually very impressed. The campsites were well marked and had a picnic table, fire ring and a hanging rack which was super nice! We hung our wet suits from being in the lake all day. Great hiking nearby too. We would hike in the morning, and play in the water the rest of the day. The attendants/rangers were awesome, and directed us in the right place for hiking. You can see from my pictures attached that we hiked almost everyday. We would definitely stay here again next time we are in the area.

We stayed at site D3 over Memorial Day weekend. I was pretty nervous when we first saw the site, it was literally on a hillside. We have two small kids and were with family (in adjacent D4) so we really hoped for a site with flat space for the kids to play in, but there was absolutely no grassy area. That didn't stop us from having a good time!

The D loop was nice and quiet with very little traffic. We were very close to the lake to drop our kayaks in the water or fish without going far, always a plus!

Bathrooms were very clean for camp restrooms. The showers were in their own rooms, so that was really nice. Great water pressure and it wasn't a push button shower like some campgrounds have!

Since we have kids, we had to check out the play ground. It was pretty disappointing with only a couple swings, a hot metal slide and a climbing bar. The beach was far from impressive with basically gravel as half of the beach. I wasn't expecting Florida beaches in Kentucky, but in Indiana we have nice sandy beaches at lakes so I was disappointed.

The lake was gorgeous and perfect for kayaking though, with lots of nice coves to explore and wildlife to see. I saw a doe with a spotted fawn nursing on my first trip onto the water

All in all, if you want flat spaces, don't go to loop D, loop C was much flatter. We probably won't return, but it was a nice stay, but probably better for those without small kids to entertain.

Paducah is a cute little city in Kentucky that my family and I love to visit whenever we get the chance. The town is really cool, and has that "old" town vibe. The buildings are beautiful. There are actually a few campgrounds in this town, one of them "I-24." This campground has a country feel, and it more so for people who are traveling and making a pit stop to rest. There are a lot of RV's. There are quite a few beautiful rivers close by, and there are also 2 lakes nearby. We spent a whole day at the lake when we stayed. It was busy, but nice to be on the water. We saw people enjoying fishing, water tubing, water skiing and jet skiing. We also saw people on kayaks, which looked like a blast! There is a golf course nearby too, although we didn't enjoy this close amenity. One thing we did enjoy was hiking some of the trails nearby. We went late spring and the wildflowers were out in full effect. The colors of the flowers were gorgeous, and I couldn't help but take hundreds of pictures of these beautiful flowers. One of the hikes brought us to a point where we could see one of the lakes. It was magical. Also-side note, there is the "National Quilt Store" in the town, and of course we had to stop because my mom requested this. It was incredible how much fabric there was. If you are in to this, I would highly recommend stopping! The campground itself was "okay." It was a little run down, but since we were in our RV we didn't really notice it much. It was also pretty busy when we went, so I'm glad we made reservations ahead of time.

Was greeted by friendly staff, splurged on a cabin and it was clean and comfortable. We didn’t have any neighbors and were located close to the showers and some horse stables (but far enough away from them so as to not smell horses the whole time lol). Great stay and would definitely recommend checking out this spot

Fun experience staying with all the horses! I didn’t really know it was a thing to bring horses to camp and ride them on the trails! Loved it. Spots are pretty close together but fine for big rigs. Drawbacks: Sites 49-51 are mislabeled online. Booked a pullthru spot on 49 but it wasn’t. Campground was pretty full and we weren’t offered a lot to correct that the website was wrong. I could pay more for a different site... ended up taking “49” back in with ample space. Horses neigh, lots of barking dogs and some rowdy late night campers. If you are looking for a quiet getaway reconsider. We enjoyed being in it all and near the horses.

Best horse campground in ky

A few sites at a boat launch area.

One large site before the main turnaround point and a couple by the water.

Not a ton of space.

4x4 or awd may come in handy leaving the sites (going back up the gravel hill)

This is an excellent campground to get away at. I didn't spend much time in the actual camping area but off in the woods a little ways.

Its a pretty good ways down a gravel rd and definitely worth scouting out a good campsite off to it's self. There are some awesome rocky areas right next to the water to camp at.

Check out what's left of the old foundations while your there. This is on the TN end of Land between the lakes so check in at one of the welcome stations to get a backwoods camping pass.

Incredible back country campsite, for use with dispersed camping permit. Right on the water, no other people for 2 days! This is a car camping site however you will need a four-wheel drive vehicle to get down the steep gravel road to the dispersed camping area. Highly recommend. No hookups available, primitive tent only.

Ginger Bay is very remote but as always, remote is totally worth it. I don’t recommend a pull behind trailer as the road is so rough you wont get a camper up it. The sites are just a clearing in the trees so there is no place to park a rig. Campsites are right on the lake and no cell access. The free camping nearby is totally worth checking into if you’re in the area for a couple days.

Very peaceful and gorgeous view with boat ramp. The drive in is pretty rough even with us being in a jeep though.

We were looking for a place to park our van with a view where our dog could run and we could spend a few days acclimating to Van life and this was perfect. It was the first time we had used the dyrt and we were very pleased with our spot. You will need a four-wheel drive to traverse the actual campground point. We watched turtles, popping their head up in the lake and really enjoyed ourselves.