Camping At Demumbers Bay At Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area

Demumbers Bay is a basic camping area located in Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Kentucky.

The area is managed by the US Forest Service and has a 14-day stay limit during any 30 consecutive days. 

This is dry camping so no water or hook-ups can be found here. There was a vault toilet and dumpster in the parking lot though.

You do have to buy a permit to camp in Land Between the Lakes. A basic or dispersed camping permit allows you to pretty much camp anywhere in the recreation area.

It does not cover the self-service campgrounds though.

A three-day permit is $10 per person over 18 years. Seventeen years and younger are free when accompanied by an adult over 18 years of age.

An annual permit is $50 per person over 18 years.

This is what Jamey and I purchased. We stayed at Demumbers Bay for two weeks and plan to go back in November for two more weeks to stay at a different location in the recreation area.

You can purchase your permits online or at the visitor center. We did have rangers stop a couple of times and ask to see our permits.

To learn more about camping at Land Between the Lakes check out their website.

Dump stations and water fill-up stations are available at the north and south welcome centers.

The visitor center is staffed and full of information on the area. They also have a planetarium that plays multiple shows daily. Read my post on the visitor center here.

Place campfires in rings only and don’t leave them unattended. Multiple homemade fire rings were available for use in the area we were camping in.

Make sure every spark is out before leaving camp or going to bed. The collection and burning of dead wood found on the ground is permitted.

Always check fire restrictions for the area you are in when camping before starting a fire.

Demumbers Bay has a boat launch and fishermen used it every day. Besides some really early morning and late night fishermen a couple of times, it was never an issue.

The particular spot we chose was on the gravel loop near the boat launch. It was the best spot, in my opinion, because it had the best views of the bay.

Only a few people can actually camp on the loop. The loop spots actually had picnic tables though which was a plus.

There is a very large open field here and we saw a lot of people camping there during our stay. It’s large enough that plenty of people can camp there without being on top of each other.

Beside the field is a wooded area with plenty of spots to camp as well. The bugs in the woods were pretty awful though during the warmer days.

Speaking of bugs if you’re camping closer to the water be sure to keep your doors closed at night. If not a thousand little bugs will make their way inside. They were so tiny I swear they were coming through the screens.

When we were outside the bugs didn’t really bother us though.

The bay is gorgeous by the way and teeming with wildlife. Every night when the sun started going down we would watch all the fish jumping out of the water trying to catch bugs.

We saw great blue herons and great egrets every day. We also saw crows, seagulls, a few loons, and some ducks. An American Bald Eagle must live in the area because we saw him fly overhead half a dozen times.

There are also a ton of turkeys throughout the whole recreation area and we saw them twice near camp.

Quiet hours are 11 pm-6 am.

Pets are allowed as long as they are leashed and please pick up after them.

If you’re running on solar there is plenty of sun here so power won’t be an issue.

Let’s talk about cell phone service.

We had really good service here with both our AT&T and Verizon networks. Our Verizon was much faster, but both worked great.

There is a ton of things to do at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. Hiking is big here and we did all the shorter trails. Hematite Lake and Honker Lake were my favorite trails. Jamey enjoyed the history of Center Furnace trail.

We hope to hit up some longer trails on the next visit.

The planetarium show was great and for a small fee you can see animals at the nature center. For another small fee, you can drive through the elk and bison prairie (which we haven’t done yet either).

This recreation area is massive and spans from Kentucky to Tennessee. I believe it takes almost an hour to drive from the north to south welcome centers.

We only explored the north side during our visit so we plan on spending some time in the south side next trip.

We absolutely loved our two weeks camping at Demumbers Bay and can’t wait to get back to Land Between the Lakes. We already scouted out a couple of spots to set up camp next time.

The whole recreation area is incredible and there are so many places to camp you’re sure to find the perfect spot whether that be a weekend of solitude or meeting new people.

Also, the sunrises on the bay were spectacular.

On the weird side, the bay had a lot of Bryozoa and they were the biggest I’ve ever seen.

If you don’t know what that is I wrote a post about it a couple of years ago. They are a strange-looking part of the ecosystem and something you won’t forget after your first encounter.