★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFee
Trigg County
Drive-up · public land · Trigg County, KY · 36.87844, -88.01964
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — a fee site. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
A primitive grassy clearing next to serene lake nestled in the woods. Located in Land Between the Lakes, there is a vast network of dirt roads here, and numerous other camping opportunities. Four-wheel drive recommended. Requires backcountry camping permit. $7 for 3 nights. Spacious enough for multiple vehicle-supported campers. Minimal trash. Beautiful site. A best-kept secret. Recommended. Good cell service.
A night on record
Dave slept here, but his diary does not date the night: this entry carries only a timestamp it shares with 50 other entries in eight states, all written within the same three seconds — a file being saved, not a night. So it says nothing about season.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Trigg County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 360 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Trigg CountyNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Trigg County · public land · KY
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- ShShower2 mi
- FFuel6 mi
- OOutfitter9 mi
- WWater10 mi
- GGrocery10 mi
- LLaundry10 mi
- +Urgent care12 mi
- @Mail15 mi
- EVEV fast charger15 mi
- MMechanic16 mi
- HHardware17 mi
- RxPharmacy18 mi
- DDump27 mi
- AAir-up35 mi
- PPropane52 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 6 mi out.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Trigg County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
360 ft
Ground slope
12.7% · noticeable
Nearest highway
~8.9 mi · Interstate 24
County
Trigg County, KY
Coordinates
36.87844, -88.01964
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Trigg County · public land · KY (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLake Barkley · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Energy Lake (water) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townRockcastle · ~2.3 mi
- Nearest rail linenone mapped within 10 mi
- Nearest highway~8.9 mi · Interstate 24
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~9.7 mi
- FuelFuel · ~6.3 mi
- Propane / LPGFortner Gas · ~12.6 mi
- Dump station~27.1 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~10.4 mi
- PharmacyCVS Pharmacy · ~17.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicTrigg County Hospital · ~11.0 mi
- HardwareBenton Hardware · ~18.1 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
Had a signal
Getting there
High clearance / 4×4
Fire ring
No
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Trigg County · public land · KY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger14.6 mi straight-line NW — Kuttawa, KY - US62 - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach3 within 25 mi · 24 within 50 · 147 within 100 · 257 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS24.4 mi — Parker Ford, Murray
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO30.4 mi — Sisk Nissan, Hopkinsville
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)10.1 mi — Farmers Market, Cadiz, KY · NOODOE · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 353801 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Trigg County · public land · KY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletT.B. Boating Ramp · ~0.3 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletTaylor Bay Campground · ~0.4 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletEnergy Dam-Day Use Area · ~1.4 mi S · USFS
- Flush restroomWoodlands Nature Watch · ~1.4 mi N · USFS
Coming out here — Trigg County · public land · KY
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Lake Barkley as a perennial lake or pond, under 0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 12.7% — noticeable. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) — abandoned, lifted and out-of-service track excluded, so a rail-trail does not count as one.
- Interstate 24 is mapped ~8.9 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Trigg County elsewhere
Other camps near Trigg County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Trigg County~0.4 mi · fee
- Energy Lake Campground~1.9 mi · fee
- Trigg County~5.1 mi · fee
- Cravens Bay Campground & Boat Ramp at Land Between The Lakes~6.0 mi
Who holds the land at Trigg County
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists 2 overlapping holdings at this pin: Barkley Recreation Area, manager on record: Army Corps of Engineers (federal) · Land Between the Lakes Other, manager on record: Forest Service (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Trigg County
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Trigg County, KY). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. His diary does not date the night. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Trigg County
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- How many rigs actually fit
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Trigg County
Finding water out here →Stay limits →Your first dispersed night →Reading the aerial →All field notes →