Old Cowhide Cove Campground

Late March at Old Cowhide Cove is what our RV living dreams are made of. With 6 well spaced, decently level sites spread out along a lake, and a few more placed upon the hill overlooking those sites, we enjoyed many days of 60-70* weather harmonized by the sounds of birds chirping and fish leaping during the day. At night the peepers were loud - but not a note of road noise could be heard. COE rangers and the occasional sheriff would patrol the area, but otherwise - it was just us and one neighbor (who definitely worked it out with someone to stay much more than the 14 day limit). The neighbor also found a way to anchor his boat in the water just off of his campsite which I found super cool.

Sites all have 15A/30A/50A and water hook-ups. There is a dump station. There are also modern toilets - but no showers on this loop. $20/night for regular people, $8/night for those special senior people who have that America The Beautiful Pass. Pay at the fee box - there is no campground host on the 'Old' Cove - but there is one that is stationed in the 'New' Cove across the lake.

Old Cowhide seems to be the less popular of the 'two' Cowhides. It's first come, first to claim a site until April 30th, at which point, about half of the 9 sites become reservable. It's across the lake from New Cowhide, which offers a swimming beach, a modern boat ramp, and showers.

We spent many days working / reading / basking in nature outside of our rig at the concrete picnic table, of which there is one at each site. The sites also offer a ground fire pit and a raised grill - as well as a small concrete table which may or may not be for putting fish on. I don't know, but our cat liked sitting on it.

There is plenty of additional parking space for towed vehicles or boats mingled in with the campsites.

For extra entertainment, every night a family of raccoons raided the poorly secured garbage cans that are interspersed throughout the campground.

While Old Cowhide is definitely big rig accessible, it is not 'big rig easy peasy'. The end of the loop provides for an opportunity to use your big rig maneuvering skills to guide yourself around an angled tight little curve. If you're lucky, no one will be parked overhanging the campsites near that curve and you will have a bit of extra space. We didn't have an issue with out 40' MH (long wheel base), but it was a bit concerning while we undertook the task. Over in New Cowhide there is an even more frightening curve/angle at the boat ramp end of the loop - so I'd recommend scouting ahead before getting yourself committed to tackling that maneuver if you're a bigger rig (there is a small loop right at the entrance of New Cowhide that you can pull into/decide to take a spot in while you scout).

We drove over to New Cowhide to use their showers daily so that we didn't have to empty our tanks while we were in Old Cowhide. We didn't have an issue - but the COE station was not yet manned for the season either. The showers were solid - clean, angled from overhead with good water pressure and heat.

Verizon 6.5DOWN/4.78UP

Great campground. Only 9 spots in the Old Cowhide Campground.
Right on the lake. Clean bathrooms. Level sites.