Atwell Mill Campground
5Heads up3 park alerts · 2 fires, nearest 22 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $32From, per site
- Sites
- 2219 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Mineral King area features the highest elevation campground in the parks. At 7,500 feet (2280 m), it is only open during the summer months. It takes approximately 90 minutes to drive the long narrow, winding, largely unpaved road that leads to the area and its two campgrounds. RVs and trailers are not recommended on Mineral King Road and are not permitted in campgrounds. Mineral King is not connected to the rest of Sequoia National Park by roads. Keep reading
Recreation
Trails to alpine lakes and mountain passes begin nearby.
Facilities
The campground is situated along the East Fork of the Kaweah River in a once logged sequoia grove. Atwell Mill campground contains 21 sites. The Atwell-Hockett Trail begins here. The campground has no sinks and no flush toilets, pit toilets only.
Natural Features
Hikes into the backcountry out of Mineral King will give visitors an ever deeper understanding of the beauty and uniqueness of Sequoia National Park. Hike to alpine lakes and over mountain passes, or climb a peak. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (559) 565-4404.
Nearby Attractions
There are limited services at Silver City Resort, 1.7 miles (3 km) east of the campground. More extensive services can be found in Three Rivers, 23 miles (37 km) west of Atwell Mill Campground (approximately 1.5 hours away).
Charges & Cancellations
Payment in full will be charged to your credit card upon completion of the reservation. A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation. Additional fees will apply for late cancellations All cancellations made between midnight on the day before arrival and check out time on the day after arrival are considered late cancellations and will incur a $10.00 cancellation fee and will also forfeit the first night’s use fee. Cancellations for a single night’s reservation will forfeit the entire use fee but no cancellation fee will apply. If your campsite remains vacant for 24 hours after your arrival date it will be cancelled and made available on rec.gov. You will be charged for the first night's campsite fee and a $10 cancellation fee, all other fees after that will be refunded. Recreation.gov policies apply to all reservations, cancellations, refunds and date changes. Call (559) 565-4404 if you will be arriving 24 hours after your arrival date so your site won't be cancelled.
What the agency tells you
Be aware of significant road construction delays on the Mineral King Road this year from 9/4/25 through the end of season. Monday-Thursday there will be a full road closure between 10 am and 4 pm, and 30min traffic delays for three hours before and after the closures. Friday-Saturday full closures between 8am and 7pm with a passthrough at 10am, 1pm and 4pm. Sundays will have no closures. You will not be able to drive into or out of the campground during closure times, except during designated passthrough windows. Please refer to the road construction page for information. If your campsite remains vacant for 24 hours after your arrival date it will be cancelled and made available on rec.gov. You will be charged for the first night's campsite fee and a $10 cancellation fee, all other fees after that will be refunded. Recreation.gov policies apply to all reservations, cancellations, refunds and date changes. Call (559) 565-4404 if you will be arriving 24 hours after your arrival date so your site won't be cancelled. Upon making a campground reservation: Site occupants agree to follow ALL campground rules. Failure to comply may result in a fine. You are responsible for your guests. RV's and trailers are not permitted in the campground. Purchase your entrance fee before you arrive in Mineral King. https://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/fees.htm
Campground Rules and Regulations: • Food Storage- You are in an ACTIVE BEAR AREA. Black Bears are active day and night. When not in arms reach, you must properly store all food, drinks, scented items, coolers, and equipment used to prepare food, inside provided food storage lockers. These items must be stored day and night. Food storage locker dimensions are 28" high x 33" deep x 47" wide. • 6 Person Limit- There is a maximum of 6 people per campsite. If you exceed this number, purchase 2 sites and spread your group and equipment out evenly between campsites. This is to preserve the natural resources and minimize noise levels. Reservations can be made in advance to accommodate a larger group size at a group campground. • Check-In and Check-Out is at 12 NOON- Please be prepared to show a screen shot (limited cell service) or printout of your reservation confirmation email upon arrival to the campground. Campsites need to be vacated (vehicles and occupants) by 12:00 NOON. • Parking Pad- Vehicles must be parked with all four wheels on pavement. Vehicles that do not fit on the provided parking pad must be parked in overflow parking areas. • Quiet Hours 10pm to 6am- Music, talking, and generators should not be audible beyond your immediate campsite. Unreasonable noise is prohibited any time of day. • Generator Hours- 9am to 9pm • Fire Restrictions- Check current fire restrictions at nps.gov/seki . Fires must be attended. DO NOT build additional fire rings. Glass, aluminum, and food are prohibited in fire rings. Firewood is sold locally. Dead and down wood may be gathered for your campfire. Logs must fit within the fire ring. Chainsaws are not allowed. Fires must be extinguished completely with water and be cool to the touch before leaving your campsite or going to bed. • Tents- Pitch tents only on tent pads or within campsite boundaries. • Dogs/Pets- must always be kept crated, caged, or on a leash no longer than six feet. Pets are allowed in campgrounds and picnic areas. Pets may not be left unattended. Pets are not allowed beyond 100 feet of public roads or parking areas. Pets are not allowed on any Park trails.
• Preserve Natural Resources- Injuring plants or trees by cutting, breaking, or attaching nails or other hardware is prohibited. Driving off pavement is prohibited. • Bicycles- Helmets required if under 18 years of age. Bicycles are not allowed on any park trails. • Trash Disposal- Please keep your campsite clean. Place all litter/trash in bear proof campground trash dumpsters. To prevent bears from getting trash please DO NOT forget to lock or relatch the dumpster. Do not leave cigarette butts, bottle caps, confetti or litter on the ground. • Water Disposal- Do not dump grey-water on the ground or at the water spigots. Bring a tub to wash dishes or to collect shower water. All grey-water must be disposed of at the restrooms, dish sinks, or at a RV dump-station. Used water must not be allowed to run onto the ground. • Propane Tank Disposal- DO NOT leave in the park. We are unable to recycle your used propane tanks. Please take them home with you and dispose of them properly.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Tire Chains may be required at any time. Be prepared at any time of year for a wide range of temperatures and weather conditions. Check Road Conditions at nps.gov/seki . Falling Objects - Don't linger under dead, cracked, or broken branches. Run if you hear cracks or snapping from tree roots, trunks, or branches (know that sometimes there is no sound, and very little time to react). Report falling branches or trees to a ranger.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 22 · 19 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - seasonal
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 30 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Hiking
- Night sky · 582nd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 19 of the 22 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 19
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $32 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation. Additional fees will apply for late cancellations - All cancellations made between midnight on the day before arrival and check out time on the day after arrival are considered late cancellations and will incur a $10.00 cancellation fee and wi…” · this campground’s own terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
22 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 19 mapped sitesAll 22 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 19 of the 22 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| Atwell Mill | Site: 01 | type not stated | 20 ft | 1,402 ftAtwell Creek | |||
| Atwell Mill | Site: 02 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 41 ft | 1,455 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 03 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 32 ft | 1,469 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 04 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 42 ft | 1,497 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 05 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 32 ft | 1,500 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 06 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 10 ft | 1,574 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 07 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 10 ft | 1,584 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 08 | type not stated | 20 ft | 1,416 ftAtwell Creek | |||
| Atwell Mill | Site: 09 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 59 ft | 1,442 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 10 | type not stated | 20 ft | 1,441 ftAtwell Creek | |||
| Atwell Mill | Site: 11 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 64 ft | 1,392 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 12 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 46 ft | 1,365 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 12A | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | yes | 46 ft | 1,344 ftAtwell Creek | $32 |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 13 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 55 ft | 1,263 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 14 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 48 ft | 1,262 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 15 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 41 ft | 1,201 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 16 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 48 ft | 1,223 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 17 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 41 ft | 1,169 ftAtwell Creek | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 18 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 45 ft | 1,587 ft | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 19 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 45 ft | 1,546 ft | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 20 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 111 ft | 1,440 ft | $32 | |
| Atwell Mill | Site: 21 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 159 ft | 1,285 ft | $32 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cold Springs Campground (CA)Sequoia National Park · 3.2 miAuxiliary DamSequoia National Park · 5.4 miChamise Flat Dispersed CampgroundSequoia National Park · 5.4 miOld Goldledge CampgroundSequoia National Park · 5.4 miSouth Fork RecSequoia National Park · 5.4 mi
Buckeye Flat CampgroundSequoia National Park · 6.6 miAtwell Mill Campground is located 19 miles (31 km) from Highway 198 on Mineral King Road, which turns off in Three Rivers, and 6 miles (10 km) before the end of the road. It is an approximately 90 minute drive. The road is primarily unpaved, narrow, winding, and deeply rutted in places. It is not advised for longer vehicles, especially recreational vehicles. No RVs or trailers are permitted in the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Silver City, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 17°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Atwell Mill Campground is in California’s 20th congressional district. Its representative, Vince Fong (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →