Little Oak Campground

We’ve camped here 3 times now. The first time we were right by the bath house so that wasn’t great with all the cars, people, and noise, but our last two spots have been better (51 and 27). 51 has a trail that leads right down to the water, just as many other sites do. A lot of people tie their boats off on shore behind their campsites. 27 is on a pretty quiet loop and not on the water. The back of the site runs onto a field where some people played softball. The people playing were friendly and considerate. The vault toilets were across the field and quite nice for vault toilets. We actually liked the quietness of this site better and not having the water so close with our kids. Sites are semi private, some more than others, but overall not bad. The sites do not have water or electric though. The camp hosts are friendly and do a good job keeping it clean. There isn’t an official swimming area, but there’s a grassy area that is good for swimming. The lake is clean and the mountains are beautiful.

How is it we have lived 3 hours from here for 24 years but never visited? We stayed in Poplar Loop, which is more quiet than the other loops. ( I agree that you shouldn’t stay near the bath house.) Every site is on the water. Those on the right face a view of the dam, the rest, the mountain and islands. It is very easy to carry your kayaks, SUP down to the water from your site, or drop off your motor boat at the boat ramp and then tie it up right next to your site. The site was nicely kept, although I saw toilet paper scattered around as if some folks didn’t feel like walking the short hike to the nice, clean bathroom, not a vault toilet. I assume that was an anomaly. The bath house with nice warm showers seemed pretty new and was a short drive or bike ride away. Lots of tall trees and shade. There were hardly any boats on the lake and kayaking was a dream. Well, except Saturday night in the dark. Maybe there was a fishing tournament. It isn’t that they woke us up, or were too noisy. The only reason I knew they were there was that in the middle of the night, loud thunder and lightening woke us up, and all of a sudden I could hear a bunch of those tournament style fishing boats veeeeeerroooooom-ing back to shore at high speed, as if someone called and said get your butts back here. Then came the deluge for hours. Plenty of islands to explore. Beautiful mist on the lake in the morning. This campground is isolated, but the roads were very well maintained, and no tight hairpin turns. Don’t expect to set up camp and then go out to dinner somewhere, or stay here if you are going to the race in Bristol. It is too far. The Tennessee side of the lake is mostly all within National Forest, so no homes on the shore, which also explains the very low boat traffic.

We stayed here from May 6th to May 15th and the weather was mostly clear sunny days except for two days of rain near the end of our stay. There are no hookups; therefore, we found that site 59 in the Poplar loop had the best open area where we could use our solar panels. We have a 30 ft Class C that does have a generator, but we only ran it for a few hours each of the rainy days. My daughter and I walked all over the campground and we both agreed that we were in the best loop. Poplar loop does have flush toilets and a sink with running water while the other loops have vault toilets. There is a realtively new building at the center of the campground that has eight separate shower/toilet rooms. Very clean and well cared for campground. There is also a boat launch area. If you like peace and quiet, this is the place.

What a nice place to stay. Grant it, there is a lot of shade so we stayed in site 59 in the Poplar Loop (per Wheels61's writing) as it seemed to have the most sun to run our solar panels. If we come back, I'd stay in Site 54, it runs East and West better suited for my solar setup but the view of the lake in 59 is much better. They both are open but with trees all around and not over the site. (also Site 39 in Big Oak Loop, not quite as level but lots of sun, also the view not as good, but great alternative.)
It is a nice quiet place to be. The birds were all abound singing all day long! What a beautiful sound to hear.
The drive in, on Camp Tom Howard Road, is a bit of a doozey for a big rig. The road is narrow with lots of tight turns, I believe it was about 7 miles long. It is doable, just take your time and you'll make it. We came in on a weekday, which had little to no traffic. I could see the weekends and summer months be much busier.
Once here you will not be disappointed! The sites are mostly a gravel base with timber frame to hold it together. They are very level for most of them. We did see a couple that would be difficult to level out. In our loop there was a central water spigot and flush toilet near by. Great for tent campers.
The camp host are very friendly and helpful. (There is one in each loop.) The facilities are very clean and well kept. We used the bathhouse near the middle to take showers and they are wonderful! Thank You!
Have a great time, we did!

Great sites, some of which are waterfront. Very clean bathrooms and seemingly nice camp hosts. Was fairly quiet here on a Tuesday night with several ‘first come first serve sites’ available. The drive up here was a bit rough…to say the least. It took me 45 mins to go 9 miles, the road is rough with deep pot holes and ruts. It is doable with patience and careful driving. The drive in and out is the only downside of this camp. Would stay again.

After reading multiple reviews of campers last year who had terrible experiences driving the road up here, I expected the worst. But the road is completely paved, no ruts or potholes in sight! They must have upgraded it at some point. At the entrance, we had NO Verizon signal, but at site #40, we had three bars LTE. Water was not turned on as this was before the camping season.

This is a great place to camp and unwind in the peaceful serenity of the lake and beautiful mountains in the background. It is quiet here and it is a well-kept, clean campground. Very windy, switchback road coming in through the the forest to get to the campsite but the road was freshly paved and maintained. I enjoyed a few beautiful days here in the spring. Highly recommended

We had site 53, was right by flushing toilets which was honestly just convenient, vault might have been different. Nice site, buts against the other one next too it but our neighbors were awesome and they showed us there is a path to an unknown beach that is great for dropping yaks and can leave them their safe. People were great, access was great! Lake is clean and there is endless islands and coast line to camp and hang on, clear water. We came in late and were on 421 after boon that was pretty wild switch backs with 25 camper and f250. There is a route north that is much easier on your brakes only adds 13 min. Truly nice campground! No wood for sale but you can gather anything on the ground!

Beautiful drive to the campground. The site was easy to find. Most sites are next to the lake. The campsites don't have utilities but you can run a small generator if needed during the day.