Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Livingston, TN

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!

I'm from New England and relocated to Tennessee in 2016. The first time I went camping at Edgar Evans, I had no idea what was going on! All I saw was platforms, and what I considered 'normal' camping sites were labeled 'primitive' sites. I was in total awe. I didn't know how it was going to work with a tent, but my boyfriend showed me that all you need to do is bring nails to hammer down and secure your tent to the wooden platform. Where as I was at first turned off by the platform, there are a few pluses:

-It rains A LOT in Tennessee. When I used to camp up north, we got flooded out during heavy rains, as we were camping directly on the ground. The platform keeps you elevated, so digging a trench around your tent is a non-issue.

-If you get a waterfront site (HIGHLY recommended), the views are gorgeous. I'd say go for the sites in the lower 40s - they're super close to a bathhouse and a few paths that will bring you down to the edge of some gorgeous cliffs, giving you the best view in the site. If you go in the other direction, you'll be looking at a community of house boats, which kinda blew my mind, as clusters of houseboats aren't really a thing up north, either.

-You can comfortably fit two tents on a platform; three is pushing it, but we've seen people pack around four in (which I don't think you're actually supposed to do).

-Something else I've noticed in TN - virtually all camping takes place at State Parks, and Edgar Evans is one of the few that actually offers wooden platforms and primitive sites. Most of them offer concrete platforms for RVs and smaller trailers, making it difficult to camp with a tent.

The sites in the lower 40s also offer more level ground for the fire pits. Some sites have a really steep drop off, which make it difficult to place chairs and sit and relax without being a little wobbly.

There's also a pretty big trail system to explore, and it seems like you might need to set aside an entire day to do the loop in its entirety - we're still planning on doing that! I find that I get more immersed in relaxation mode when I'm there instead of active hiking mode - taking a chair down to the cliffs and sitting by the water with a book makes for some beautiful downtime!

All of this being said, this is our favorite spot! We've come here at least twice, if not three times a year since I've moved down here. The staff is friendly and helpful, the campers are friendly, and there's usually lots of adorable dogs around to pet lol! Definitely love this place!

This property is clean, quiet, family and pet friendly. Each tent and RV stall has its own picnic table and fire pit, spacing out each stall so it has fair privacy. If you don't care to grill or have a sandwich or ice cream at the general store on site the friendly owner will tell you where to eat in town (Cookeville). The entrance to the state park is across the street from the general store. All of the facilities you need are here, but I do have one critique, that is the smart light in the Women's restroom turns off after 20 seconds, I think it would be better to set it to 5 minutes. Otherwise it was a perfect stay.

We just stayed over night. Our site was very un-level and could not get the camper to auto level. We put our surge protector on and the power at the site kept shorting out. We managed to get slides out then it shorted out. Turned breakers back on to turn on a/c and it blew again. The campground is down a very long road then once you register it’s another long drive back to the sites, which is nothing but trees. Sites are roomy. Gravel roads. It has a beautiful lake with benches to sit on and a nice walk way. It was just too hot to enjoy it. It’s a beautiful campground but the rules are just too much. Not that we would do any of these things without being told not too, but the speed limit is 10. 1 warning and your kicked out. There’s a big paragraph just on what your pets can’t do. Its 2 pages of rules. I realize they need to have rules but to write them all down with threats of a fine is just excessive.