RAGLAND BOTTOM — Hotel in Cookeville

Honest rating is a 4.8 -- so many good things about this place. See the "Got it Right" and "Ways to get to 5" below.

We had never heard of Ragland Bottom Recreational Area until we went looking for an alternative to a site we had booked at Edgar Evins that wouldn't work for us, so it was VERY last minute. We got super lucky and they had a site for the dates we needed, so we booked it on Recreation.gov and immediately headed that way. When we got to the campground, I had noticed a few other sites also open and the gentleman at the gate was SUPER nice and told us to go look at all of them and come let him know what we picked. We ended up in Site 19. Not waterfront, but a pull through with lots of "elbow room" and a good view nonetheless. It has water and electric, but no sewer (some of their sites are full hookups, just FYI). Doesn't appear to have "honey wagon" service for longer stays, so plan accordingly.

Bang for the buck, this campground is it. You can bring your RV AND your boat in many of the sites. There's also a parking lot for boats and trailers and it's included in your nightly fee. There's a boat ramp. Next-door is the day use area with a nice swimming area (with another boat ramp if you're not camping and pay the day-use fee). We went to the beach there because we didn't have a boat/kayak and it was HOT. Only downside there is we couldn't bring our dog, and that was sad because she loves the lake. If we had booked a lakefront site, she could have gone swimming, though. We also love the proximity to town and met friends in Smithville and another couple we knew over at Hurricane Marina. But the little convenience store right before Ragland Road -- Fiddler's Market and Cafe -- is a GREAT asset! We got Hunt's Brother's pizza one night and stopped in this morning for a breakfast sandwich. Great prices, good food, and a lot of last-minute stuff you might need at the campground without going further to a "real" store.

Here's the good, the better, and what needs fixed to be 5 stars all the way! GOT IT RIGHT: Staff/hosts. We never figured out who was a Core employee and who was a camp host, but everyone was super friendly and courteous. Bang for the buck. With a senior pass, this campground is ridiculously reasonably priced, whether full hookups, water and electric, or tent site. The grounds are beautiful, the lake is beautiful, the bathrooms are clean. Great lower level tent sites! Many with lakefront, all with water/electric and nice pads to set up a tent!

WAYS TO GET TO 5: The washers were out of order. We didn't try the dryers. Now, they were FREE, which may be why the washers were out of order. But when you're in a lakeside campground, you're going to get wet, nasty clothes and a laundry would really be great. The Nature Trail has been let go into serious disrepair. We only hiked to the overlook because we had a social commitment. It wasn't TERRIBLE, but we hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, so your mileage may vary. The overlook is overgrown. In winter, you'd be able to see the marina, but not in summer. The rocks on the way in are slippery and that bathroom is closed (more on that later). It wouldn't take much for a volunteer trail group and/or a grant to bring this trail back to life. We looked for photos or video from when it was open and whatever is at the trailhead (a water fountain?) was functional but couldn't find anything. Tent sites on the upper level need that bathroom at the Nature Trail trailhead reopened. Now, we weren't tenting, but to have to go down to two levels to the bathroom near the full hookups is a lot when you have a facility right there at the trailhead. Clean up the beach in front of the lakefront sites. Some had tires, etc., in front of them. Eew. Trash can and better hose for flushing tanks at the dump station. Nowhere to dispose of your gloves after dumping tanks and the hose was just a cut-off garden hose so we couldn't flush the tanks. Please and thank you for those...

The lakefront campsites look gorgeous and I want to go back and try out one of those! But we stayed at one of the hill campsites. There are several that have zero flat space for tents, but we luckily booked a spot that had a semi-flat spot. I still had to rotate my tent the second night so I could point my head uphill, though.

The biggest issue with the hill campsites is that it's on...a hill, with the bathroom at the bottom. It's a fairly steep walk, that includes irregularly shaped stairs that are very slick when wet. I didn't mind doing the walk myself but apparently none of our neighbors wanted to make the walk. I was woken up seemingly hourly by loud diesel trucks driving down to the bathroom and back up, it never stopped. There also didn't seem to be any dishwashing station anywhere, which was a little annoying as well. If you get a hill campsite, make sure you bring earplugs and

The nature trail hasn't been cared for in a long time--the placards denoting the trees you're looking at are rotted away, as are a lot of the benches along the trail. The overlook is overgrown and you can barely see the lake. There's also a lot of overgrowth in the summer and a few trees down you have to climb over. The stone walkway leading up to the nature trail is slick with algae and bad footing. The restrooms at the top of the hill/nature trail entrance appear to have been chained closed for at least a decade.

The bottom of the hill bathrooms were nice, but the handicapped bathroom's shower flooded the floor within seconds of turning it on. The lakeside bathrooms also seemed nice.

There's a great dock for launching a paddleboard at the boat ramp. The playground was nice on the lakeside and seemed like it was on the newer side. A lot of people camping down at the lake had golf carts, which probably isn't a bad idea! At least if you have a golf cart nobody will hear your diesel truck driving to the bathroom...

I am sure this place is nice for people who have an RV. They have no business advertising as a place for tent camping. I spent one of the worst nights of my life trying to sleep on a bed of gravel here because the camp site refuses to let tent campers pitch on grass and instead requires them to pitch tents on gravel pads filled with huge, chunky gravel. (We do have camping pads, and also put down several tarps, a blanket, and even sleeping bags beneath the pads in an effort to preserve both the bottom of our tents and the integrity of our inflatable pads. Nothing helped).

We chose the campground because of the beautiful lakefront sites surrounded by grass. Unfortunately, although this is not stated on the booking page, the grass is apparently reserved for letting your dog defecate (don't worry, dog owners; the leash rule is not enforced), distributing your cigarette butts (although those were also scattered throughout our gravel pad, our campfire ring, and even our grill), and throwing your trash (one of the sites was actually unusable because it was covered in trash, which blew across the entire hill over the course of our stay). In the face of these obviously superior uses, the grass cannot be camped or slept upon. If you are trying to practice a happy state of meditation by lying on a bed of nails or gravel, or if you have a fancy RV, then come to Ragland Bottom. If you just want a good night's sleep in a tent surrounded by nature, there could not be a worse location in the state of Tennessee.

Google does not believe that this site merits no stars, so I have had to give it one in order to post this review. It is wholly unmerited, although the view was very pretty and the men's bathroom was, according to my husband,...