Tennessee state parks

If you have a reservation and dont see anyone/office is closed, go ahead and Camp! Otherwise, just stop in at the office and go from there. I have yet to get/need a reservation at a TN state park, but i tend to go when its not crowded.

(btw, Cove Lake SP mentioned above is an Outstanding birding park for those interested)

Yep, reserve and pay online and just go to your site. Procedure should be on the website. TN state parks are awesome.

dhull wrote:
Been there. They pay people to put a paper tag on your number post that has your reservation dates so you just need to show up. No check in.

This.

Whether or not the host or a ranger stop by is highly variable.

dhull -- X2. Generally, the campground host will do it. My experience with this has been in North Georgia campgrounds, both state and Corps of Engineers. I've only used private campgrounds in Tenn.

Been there. They pay people to put a paper tag on your number post that has your reservation dates so you just need to show up. No check in.

Each campground is different and COVID has changed the "norm" at most of the parks. We camped at Cove Lake SP, just north of Knoxville, back in October. A ranger was on duty when we arrived and checked us in at the station. The sign said that if the ranger was not available, to go on to your reserved site and the ranger would be by later to see if we needed anything.

If I were concerned, I would call the park you are interested in.

The last time I camp at TN SP there was no check in, but the ranger came by to say a friendly hi a few times.

I stayed at a Tennessee park a month or so ago. There wasn't any confusion (for me) on getting settled in. I think the office was not open when I arrived, and I just went to my site and attempted to get myself not too far out of level and had a decent night's stay. I did stop by the office on the way out, but I think that was not strictly speaking necessary.

In general, for state parks in most any state these days, if you have a prepaid reservation and there's no guard shack or open office visible, you merely drive in and plonk yourself down in your reserved site and that's that. There were several state parks I stayed in recently where I never had any interaction with rangers or other state park employees (and the office, etc. did not appear to be opened at any time). A lot of these parks were operating on a reservation-only model, though it's often possible to make a call to the reservation center when you arrive and make one for that night.

We stayed at Cumberland Mt last summer, yes you need a reservation. You check in at the office and there is no gate. A bit too crowded but still nice park overall