The Tennessee Report: 39 Parks, One Yes

August 10, 2026

Tennessee is the most charted state in the directory, 39 parks from the Smokies to the Mississippi, and it earned a report of its own. The scoreboard: 13 parks with charging stations, 25 that say no, and exactly one that lets you plug in at your own site. The state parks are quietly carrying the load while the private campgrounds hold the line.

Highlights This Month

Black Bear Plantation in Old Fort is the only campsite-charging yes in the entire state, and even that comes with homework: charging requires campground approval and may involve an additional fee. One yes out of 39 parks. Frame it
Tennessee State Parks quietly wired up eight parks with charging stations, no press release we could find, just plugs appearing at lodges, visitor centers, and one marina. Fall Creek Falls has them at the Lodge and Nature Center, Harrison Bay at the marina, Roan Mountain at the visitor center. Note the pattern: stations sit at the amenities, not the campsites
Fourteen TVA dam campgrounds, from Watauga Dam in the east to Pickwick Dam on the Mississippi line, publish the same refusal word for word: pedestals are built for non-continuous loads, not EV batteries. One sentence, fourteen campgrounds, the whole Tennessee Valley
The Smokies corridor is a coin flip. In the gateway towns of Cosby, Townsend, and Newport, Roamstead and Gatlinburg East KOA run stations, Big Meadow allows charging for $10 a day with office approval, and Newport KOA and Tana-See say no. Book the wrong campground and the most visited national park in America becomes a range-anxiety exercise
Enforcement has teeth here. Whitewater RV Park in Benton promises you will be removed or fined if caught, and Chattanooga North KOA posts a minimum $50 fine for damage from unauthorized charging or adapters

Trends & Insights

→Tennessee has the lowest campsite-charging rate of any well-covered state in the directory: one park in 39, about 3%. Missouri sits at 47%, Utah at 47%, Minnesota at 41%. Whatever is in the water in the Volunteer State, it is not enthusiasm for your charging cable
→Of the 13 parks with stations, eight are state parks. Subtract the public sector and private Tennessee is 5 stations, 25 refusals, 1 conditional yes. The pattern from our 500-park report holds: where charging exists, it is mostly because a government put it there
→A note on what this report is: these 39 parks were added to the directory over the past year, most in a May research sweep that never got a write-up. Nothing here is new this month. Consider it the make-up call, because a state this thoroughly documented deserved better than a passing mention