McFadden Cove Campground

Self checkin on Recreation.gov site. Lots of space and nobody here but us! Water and electric for $18. Although the COE campsite location book says this is a first come first serve only and no reservations accepted that was not true. Several sites had a reserved notices on them. We found a spot, and tried to scan the code to schedule our reservation, but it was not working, so I got on the Recreation.gov site. Seems to be very quiet and comfortable.

We arrived around 3:30 pm on a Saturday and had the whole campground to ourselves. All the other COE campgrounds were closed until April 1. Campground is right on the lake and I feel like all the sites would have views. We were in site 8. We made our reservations (only way to get a site) by scanning the QR on our pole. I have 3 bars of 5G and use AT&T. Lots of bird viewing opportunities. We saw a resident Red Tailed Hawk and Bald Eagle. Lots of ducks and geese, too. This place would be awesome as the temperature warms up, due to fishing and paddle boarding opportunities. Campground was pretty clean but we did pick up 3 small bags of small stuff like bottle tops and cigarette butts. Pit toilet on site but did not go in it. All sites have water and electric and asphalt pads which are sort of level (campground is built into a hillside). Truly a great spot except for a siren (I can only assume it had something to do with the dam) going off all through the night. No water has risen or fallen so I’m not sure what the siren was for but other than that waking us up, the place was great!