Best Tent Camping near Lake Cumberland

The tent camp sites on the island were aptly distanced from one another. The other campers seemed to have an unspoken sense of support. Multiple people offered ice, and even campground host offered to air up air mattresses.

There was plenty of driftwood on site to burn, but if you're going to cook all your meals, I'd bring charcoal or your own wood. Note: they have wood restrictions - heed those.

There was some noise at night from the boats, but nothing unmanageable or what I would consider a nuisance.

The island tent area is a park and walk and the campground has 2 carts for people to use.

The views from the island are unfathomably beautiful.

Lake Cumberland State Resort Park is right outside Jamestown, Ky. Easily accessible and on the way to or from Daniel Boone National Forest.

First there are plenty of things to do. A large Marina on the lake gives you options on your mode of travel to get to the park. The Lodge offers some sweet views of the lake from the rooms and overlook. There are tennis courts, disc golf, miniature golf and a horse stable.

The campground is midsize. But be aware that if you have a larger rig you aren't getting in any of the "branches" of the campground. That being said there are plenty of tent sites.

Two drawbacks for me, there is only one trail an approximately 4 mile loop with some okay overlooks and semi strenuous terrain. And two the campground is loud. The noise from the marina carries and the other campers while I was there were very noisy late into the night.

This was my first time to the Niagara of the South. My husband and I left our dog back in Louisville for this trip which was originally an attempt to see the moon bow at Cumberland Falls. 

We looked at the tent site map on the state resort park map and nothing looked GREAT except for Clifty Campground spots 050, 048, and 049 they all look isolated from any of the other sites with 050 being a site that you have to traverse a grassy/rocky area from your car to set up. 

We opted for spot 047 because, on the map, it looked set back from the campground road… and it was… sorta. Nothing at this campsite is going to be private. The majority of the sites do not have so much as a weed between them although the sites themselves are very roomy for car camping. Your vehicle will be a presence at the site, which have electric hookups so if, like me, you have an electric car… it's nice to be able to simply plug the car in. This site did not get a lot of shade except for where we had the tent set up, and still… that would've received sun had it not been raining. 

Our site had a good picnic bench, a sturdy wooden post for hanging trash etc and the fire pit seemed pretty new. The grill wasn't bent at all, which was a 1st in my years of camping. The view from this site was pretty cool… we set out tent up at the furthest out spot on the small cliff as we could before it turned to mostly rock and faced the door out over the trails. We hung our rain tarp because, instead of a moon bow, we endured a nearly 24 hour torrential downpour. The tarp, which is small, and having the tent faced appropriately gave us a semblance of privacy although we had a camper van family next to us. Site has a lot of gravel so it was reasonably muddy but not dried out quick. 

There are a lot of raccoons that visit the dumpster area so expect it to be a little messy if your fellow campers aren't shutting the dumpster lids. Shower facilities reminded me of middle school camp… kind of mildewed… and well… rustic. Everything functioned and it wasn't "gross" just old. Water was hot. Toilet stalls (ladies) were small. I weight 130 and at 5 foot 2 it was a tight squeeze for me. 

We hiked the WIldflower Loop Trail (1.5 miles) in a drizzle and although wet it was safe. When the rain stopped we hiked Eagle Falls Trail and it was very muddy but the views were worth it. 

Would love to go back but if camping in a tent it's a must to get one of the two more private spots, or at the very least

We stayed at site RV33. We have a 25ft travel trailer and it was perfect. There were two tent sites very close to us, but we had more than enough room. If we were to go again, we would pull straight into the site (this would have put our slide towards the road). The tent sites looked to be the best tent sites I’ve seen. The bath house was very clean. The staff was very helpful. There were trails from the campground to Cumberland Falls. We hiked to see Cumberland Falls (from the lodge) and Eagle Falls. After a short drive, we hiked Natural Arch and Yahoo Falls.