Hillman Ferry Campground Review at Land Between The Lakes

Hillman Ferry Campground Review
Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area
Grand Rivers, Kentucky
Visited:  May 15-22, 2015

Hillman Ferry Campground is one of 4 developed campgrounds in the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area (LBL).  It is the northernmost campground, fairly close to the north entrance.  Hillman Ferry is a very large campground.  It is the largest campground in LBL with 374 camping sites.  Most have electric and water hookups, some have only electric, a couple of loops have sewer hookups as well and the rest are basic sites with no hookups.  Some of the basic sites can accommodate fairly large campers and some are walk-up tent sites. There are a good number of waterfront sites.  We stayed in site 66 in loop C-3.

Here are some of the pros and cons of this campground.

First, the cons -

Most of the sites are not level.  We saw some precarious balancing acts at some sites in order to get the campers level.  They are all grey rock sites, except for the handicap spots which are concrete and level.

Many of the spots take some manuvering and gritting of teeth to access.  Because there are no pictures of these sites on-line, you just have to see what you got when you get there.  Our site had a fairly steep descent from the roadway to reach the actual "camping pad".  The descent area had a couple of significant ruts in it where the rainwater washes because of the topography.  In order to get un-hitched and hitched back up when we left, we had to extend the front legs of the 5th wheel up very high, much higher than we have ever had to before.

Our camping pad was shorter than we thought it would be.  I think they must measure the "camping pad" starting at the road even though that would include the descent area mentioned above.

Now, the pros (which outnumber the cons) -

The campground is laid out pretty well for such a large number of sites.  There is really no way to describe it unless you see it for yourself.  Some of the sites don't have much privacy between them, but a good number of them do.

The bathhouse that I used was clean and everything worked great.  Even though we used our camper shower most of the time, we did use the bathhouse a couple of times so we would not have to empty our grey tank so much.  There are several different styles of bathhouses in the campground, some with no roofs!  Those were mainly in the full hookup sections (I guess they figure if you have sewer hookups, you won't be using a bathhouse so much) and in the basic "primitive" camping loops.  Most of the bathhouses are your typical USFS bathhouse with private showers that have a "dressing area" and shower area separated by a shower curtain.  Some of the bathhouses also have a washer/dryer.

If you love the outdoors, and like to walk, hike and bike when you go camping, then you will love Hillman Ferry.  There are many, many miles of trails (both paved and unpaved) that run throughout the campground and beyond.  There is a premier biking trail which has paved and unpaved portions.  Of course, the campground is so large, there is ample opportunity to walk and bike even if you just stay on the main roads.  We biked a short paved loop near the pavilion and spotted this deer who was curious, but apparently unafraid of us.

Hillman Ferry has a well-stocked campstore with ice, camping supplies, food and many other items.  They don't price-gouge either.  There are several playgrounds withing the campground as well as a swim beach.  There are also several boat launches within the campground.  Hillman Ferry also has an Archery Target Practice area.

All in all, we really enjoyed our stay here.  If I had it to do over, I would probably pick a site in the "C" section that had full hookups.  The elec/water/sewer sites in the "C" loop are up on a hill which benefits from the lake breezes without having the full-on stiff lake winds.  The sites in this loop also have fairly good privacy between the sites.