The best DISPERSED camping near
Lebanon , TENNESSEE

We really enjoyed Rock Island State Park. The campgrounds are easily accessible and roomy. We were there only couple days but would love to go back and visit some of the cute shops and ice cream trailer at the entrance later. It is probably lots of fun in the summer with the huge beach. We plan to visit again soon. FYI there are some sites with sewer. I didn’t realize this when I reserved. They have great dump station but prefer to have that taken care of before we pull out.

We have camped here twice this year! Nice to be able to get away and not to far from home!

Beautiful park with tons to do. Campsites in area 1 were a little close together. Each site has a picnic table, fire ring, and charcoal grill. Bathrooms and showers available close by. Reserve early because it seems the campground is always full. Like most parks/forests, you cannot bring your own fire wood.

Clean and we'll maintained, busy but great.

Be wary of the speed bumps throughout the campground, they are closely spaced and rather abrupt, take them very slowly. The sites are all elevated platforms due to the steep slope to the lake, which we had not encountered before, but are very widely space. We were in site 50, which had no visibility to DISH west satellites, and we were not able to pick up and OTA TV with our omni antenna. Most of the fire rings are in a narrow strip of gravel along the road, but you can get chairs around most of them. The campground was less than half full during the week. There are several trails in the park, but we were only here two days and only got to hike the one to the marina, which was nice. AT&T had 2 bars and 1 MB/s w/o a booster, 3 bars and 4 MB/s with it. Overall WiFi was problematic. We were able to get connected and got 3 MB/s once, but unable to get a connection with any data rate the rest of our stay and the park was not that busy.

This campground was nice and quiet and convenient to the cute town of Mount Juliet. Sites a little closer then I like or expect from COE/state parks. Bathrooms near to the entrance were a little dated, but the ones near the dump station were nicer. The playground/beach area was nice. The laundry was literally 1 washer and 1 dryer behind the bathrooms near the entrance (outside under an overhang). We will pass through again.

Quiet stop only one night. Everything worked and no drama! Beautiful trees! 🍁Live owl named “Cotton” and hawk named “Buddy” on exhibit there. Cute little store on grounds.

We visited here during the summer. I really enjoyed our stay. A couple of things caught a us by surprise.. 1) The steps down to our campsite. Some of the campsites towards the back of the campground have a good amount of stairs. It was okay, but not good for anyone who cannot handle a lot of stairs. 2) There was a lot of boat traffic on the lake, even late into the night. I’m not sure if it is always like this or because there is a marina near by the campground. We could reach the edge of the lake from our campsite and launched out kayaks from there. The boats made it a little difficult to kayak the lake, but some kayakers towards the front of the campground at the day beach seemed to do okay. There’s a small hiking trail in the park also called the “lost spring trail” not much of a spring to see, but a couple of lookout points. Must not be much traffic through the trail anymore, the lookouts were a little overgrown. Overall the campground was nice, lots of access to the water if you like to fish and some very beautiful views. Pet friendly! Clean!

 Rock Island State park is a great place to camp. The campground is large and the campsites are spacious and far enough apart that you feel secluded, even when it’s full. It’s heavily wooded, so you don’t feel like your neighbors on right on top of you. The sites are paved and have water and electric, no septic where I was, however and they have a dump station that was large enough for two people to use at the same time. There are so many things to do at the campground, or the park, you will not be bored. Rock Island has some of the best waterfalls in Tennessee, and you can get right up to some them, if you are brave enough to kayak close to them. They also have a swimming area, and sand volleyball. Great biking in the park also. The area has lots of little shops and antique stores, if you’re into that, and Calf Killer Brewery is a short drive, and I highly recommend visiting there. Overall, this is a great park to visit, and a great place to camp.

Ragland Bottom is a great lakefront campground. It’s a very popular spot, and you’ll need to book well in advance. The lakefront sites all have water access right from the site, so you can launch a kayak, or throw out a line, or just go for a swim right from your site. Mostly all the non-waterfront sites have a view of the lake. You really can’t get a bad spot here. There’s nice hammock trees in the campground, and at most sites. The sites have fire rings and picnic tables. The bathrooms were clean and practical. The campground has a day use area, and a playground. Great spot for lake camping!