Lake Barkley State Park Campground

It’s a beautiful, heavily wooded campground with a very helpful host. That’s about it though for the positives.

If you have a big rig, forget it. Fine for a van or small travel trailer. Pads are small and most are crumbling. You share power with the adjacent site. Bring an extension because the pedestal may be far away. Same with the water. Some sites may have water but also may not. Host allowed me to switch sites which was very welcome. Fortunately there was one, and only one, other site that was significantly better than the one we had originally reserved.

Drive in is very pretty. Made it down the narrow roads fine in our 32ft TT. No cell service on Verizon or ATT. Could make calls, but nothing else. Our 36ft electric cord on the back of our TT would not reach the pedestal. Pedestal was 50ft away on the wrong side of the trailer. The do rent long 30amp electric cords for $20. Site was extremely narrow and had at least a foot drop off from the pad to the ground. Can be very dangerous coming off the steps of an RV. Ended up leaving two weeks before we were supposed to because of internet and it’s now two weeks later and still can’t get anyone to refund our balance. Park manager is unreachable and does not return calls, so be sure to stay your whole reservation because you will have difficulty getting a refund. The camp host was exceptional and did everything to make us feel welcome and comfortable.

So-so about this park. Sites are extremely large but need major work. The electric and water is waaaayyyy too far away. Farthest I have ever seen at any campground. Public bathrooms are not, in my opinion, usable unless you're desperate. Beautiful park for hiking and boating. Restaurants at the Lodge and Marina. Decent cell signal, so we are able to work while camping.

Overall great experience at Lake Barkley State Resort. We travel as a family of 4 in a small 17ft travel trailer. We were originally booked for site 23 but the park was very empty (covid-19) so the camp host let us switch to site 4.
The sites at the entrance are much more level and closer to the nicer of the two bath houses, playground, and other campers. The bottom half of the sites are really for tents only. The side of the road we stayed on is nicely wooded and shady. We have two very small children so this was ideal as the other side of the road has a STRAIGHT drop off down to the lake. It provides an amazing view, but not willing to risk that with my small kids. Sites are pretty spread out.
Wasn’t able to access the lodge or other facilities due to the closure from the virus, but it was pretty far away from the campground anyway. There really wasn’t much at the campground which was nice. Some good hiking trails and a good amount of hills if you like a challenging bike ride.
The sites hookups were interesting. One electric box/water is shared between two camp sites so we had to stretch our electric cord ALL the way out as well as the water hose. Definitely check the water and electric before you unhitch the trailer so you don’t end up having to move it. Some sites the water/electric didn’t work.
Also, camp host gave us a nice tip that the water pressure is SUPER strong so he suggested we don’t open the water main the whole way to slow it down a bit. Even with a regulator he said it will blow your pipes out.
There is a nice beach we hiked down to that would be really fun when it is open.
My husband works from home and we had plenty of signal with Verizon to run a hot spot and allow him to work easily.
Very secluded and quiet.

Stayed here on Thur, Fri October 10 & 11. We had a beautiful site that would have had nice view of the lake when the leaves are gone. Our site was paved and narrow and deep with a slight slope and a massive tree on one side that we had to work around, not a problem in our 25 ft Class C, it could be an issue for longer rigs. The bathrooms and showers were kind of gross. No shower curtains, poor air circulation, a lot of dampness and a strange odor. Overall just dirty. The washer and dryer looked in bad shape, one was out of order. At night there was a loud group of people up by the bathrooms. They sounded drunk and partied loud, I was awake until 2:00 a.m. and they were still going strong. I would not have wanted to be camped close to them. This is a large active campground, there should be more of a park ranger presence to quiet these type of people down or boot them out. Many sites share a common access point for water, electricity to be sure to have extension lines or have at least 25 ft. Even after this not so spectacular review, I still would come back. This is a beautiful area with many things to do.

There are pluses and minuses at this park. The drive into the campground is narrow. It is 2-way, but I'm glad we didn't meet oncoming traffic on the way in or out. The overnight rate is great, but increases for the weekend. The sites are shaded with plenty of room between campers, but the length varies greatly. I don't think you could fit a 5th wheel on some of them. The sites are paved, but very narrow. Our site had bad erosion and the paved site had a 12" step down to the ground. The water and electric are shared between 2 sites. This was a problem for us as they were on the "wrong" side for us. The water spigot and electric hookup was over 50' away. Luckily we had booked a long site, and we were able to reverse into the site and hook up. This did mean we were unable to use the truck, but my daughter met us there, and we used her vehicle to drive around. The bathroom/showers had great hot water and were heated, but no shower curtains and no maintenance, while we were there. We never saw a Ranger, and there was a loud party way past quiet hours. Luckily we were far enough away to not be bothered, but I would not have liked to be a neighbor. Everything is a bit run down. They had severe weather in the spring yet only 2 walking trails were open in mid October. You can see the great potential of this park, it just needs lots of work. I would stay here again, but not before checking out Land Between the Lakes.

Stayed at Lake Barkley State Park the weekend of July 27 - 29 for a family reunion. We had relatives stay in the lodge and cabins while a couple of us camped. The weather was great for a July weekend, temps in the low 80's. We had made a reservation so check-in was easy, just proceed to our campsite and the hang tag was already there. The campground was not busy, i would estimate 50% occupancy.

Friday night we had a large raccoon in our campsite eating all the crumbs left behind from the kids (lots) eating s'mores. Once the raccoon cleaned up it left, returned Saturday night to chew a hole through at plastic tote at my brother's campsite and eat the hamburger & hotdog buns.

The campsites were pretty good size, we didn't feel like we were on top of one another. Sites were very shady. The bath house was old but clean and well stocked. One of the few bath houses I have been in that had air condition. Not cold air but enough to keep the air moving and dry things out. Very nice playground for the kids.

Only a couple of negatives. The water hook up was shared with our neighbor site. When they unhooked early Sunday morning his side of the hook up dripped and made a huge muddy mess between our sites. The dump station is not conveniently located and requires you to find somewhere to turn around as it located on the passenger side of the campground loop.

The State Park Lodge could use some maintenance. It is old! Simple things like weed eating, using a leaf blower and some paint would go a long way to spruce it up. We ate a family meal (32 of us) in the lodge dining room and they accommodated us well. The buffet was really good food and well priced.

A couple of relatives brought their boats so we were able to get out on the lake which was great. Apparently the lake has a lot of asian carp so you have to watch out for them flying through the air.

Overall it is a pretty nice campground with large shady sites. I would consider going back here but if I was in the area I would go to Energy Lake Campground at Land Between the Lakes.