Cove Lake State Park — Attraction in Caryville

I'm very disappointed in this place. They're one of the most expensive campsites, as they don't offer primitive camping, you have to have electric at their sites.

I did a search of Tennessee state parks for good kayaking places and this came up. The lake was exactly what I love, on the smaller side. I get here and I had to go down a flight of stairs to get to campsite, while parking up top. I was aware of that, but thought it might be worth it to be right on the water. However, after a quick kayak trip to get our bearings and make a plan for a full day on the water, we were informed that our inflatable kayak was not permitted on the lake. They have a rule that you can only use hard kayaks and you have to launch them from the boat ramp with an $8 per day launch fee. Keep in mind this is after expensive nightly fees.

I've been on the road for a month, camping state park to state park across the country and this has been the biggest disappointment. The campsites are so closely packed that you have no privacy. Across from the campsites is some sort of food processing plant, with loud machinery that runs all night and bright lights that prevent you from being able to see the stars.

I'm very upset at the money I lost coming here for absolutely no reason. I'm on a schedule, so I'm stuck here for a full day where I can't do anything I had planned because they don't spell out the rules easily on their website. I did eventually find the no inflatable kayak rule, but it should've been easily found to prevent this kind of thing from happening.

They also charge reservation fees and it's almost impossible to do a cancellation and get money back.

Do yourself a favor and find a different state park that isn't trying to capitalize on every enjoyable activity, while stuffing as many people as possible into their campgrounds.

I definitely won't be back to this one, because there are much better parks...

My husband and I are in our 50s and still work everyday very hard... the American dream. We get 2 vacations a year and thought it would be fun to camp in TN in our 5th wheel. My husband likes to fish so we stayed by the lake in 65. We have two dogs .... we arrived from Ohio and set up for the week. We left to go to get grocery’s for the week ... when we returned, the trashy ppl next to us had taken over our picnic table, our grill and were fishing in our camp space.. we were polite and did not ask them to move! We stayed in for the night! Day 2: we were fishing behind our camper, the ppl in 63 were upset as they wanted our space and to fish, so they called in on our dogs to the ranger! Ranger Mark came to scold us for our dogs not on leashes.. mind you, our dogs have been trained and stay right with us! They don’t bark they don’t leave us! This ranger then proceeded later to follow us out of the park and made our stay here miserable! The other rangers were great! The kid in 63 stole our fishing pole.. we reported it! The awesome ranger tried to look for our pole. He brought us one from the lost in found but of course my husband said wasn’t ours and to please give it to a kid that needs it! (That’s our character) however, every time Mark was on shift, we spent our time in the camper! We felt harassed by him! Very Sad! You work hard and want just a week to enjoy life and because of some inconsiderate campers who wanted to take over our campsite, and a ranger that sided with a local piece of work, our week here sucked! Hope you don’t have this bad of luck!! Never again will...

We had site number 65 in the "B" loop. The site is one of the few right on the water. The lake itself is a bit stagnant and scummy. While the site has plenty of room for the slides and awning, getting into the site was a bit tight because of the site marker poles on either side of the driveway. The site itself was relatively sparse gravel, and was 2 degrees low at the back and 0.9 degrees low on the left side. I ended up having to use eight of our ten wood ramps - two under each rear tire - plus a rubber block, to get the coach to the point where I could level without having a rear tire off the ground. Just to be safe, I also used two wood blocks under each leveler foot in the rear, and one under each in the front, just because the gravel was so sparse that I didn't want to risk sinking a foot into the ground and/or mushrooming one of them.

The site is only 30 amp.

Unhooked in an empty parking area in the park before getting to the actual campground. That was good, as there would have been no room to do it in the campground.

The campground is relatively small, with sites that appear to be CCC style - mostly somewhat shorter, and many not particularly level.

Bath house was across the road from our site. It was cleaned regularly, and was well stocked with soap and paper goods.

There is a constant, low, rhythmic rumble, that can be heard both outside the coach, and inside. It is just within the threshold of our hearing. It is not horrible, but it is noticeable enough to be annoying if there is no other sound.

I would not come back to this...