Big Meadow Campground - US Forest Service Sequoia National Forest (CA)
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 8 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $36–$71Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 43All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Big Meadows Campground is located 75 miles east of Fresno, California, in the Sequoia National Forest and Sequoia National Monument. The campground sits at an elevation of 7,500 feet. Please note, this campground IS NOT within Shenandoah National Park. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking into the Jennie Lakes Wilderness and fly fishing in Big Meadows Creek are popular options. Horseback riders have access to the nearby Horse Corral Pack Station. Numerous trailheads provide access to popular wilderness areas including Jennie Lakes, Monarch and National Park wilderness destinations. Guests looking for water activities can visit Hume Lake, only 15 miles away.
Facilities
The campground offers 43 single campsites and one double-family campsite. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets. THERE IS NO POTABLE WATER AVAILABLE AT THIS LOCATION.
Natural Features
Big Meadow is a beautiful, higher altitude campground, uniquely arranged into 5 separate units with approximately 5 - 9 campsites per unit. The campground has a primitive feel but with amenities. Each unit has a maintained vault toilet and trash dumpster. Sites each have a fire ring, picnic table and a food storage box. Campground is near numerous meadows and sits along a serene creek that hosts plenty of wildlife. Buck Rock Lookout, perched at an elevation of 8,500 feet, is a short drive away. Hume Lake is approximately 15 miles from the campground. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
What the agency tells you
There is NO POTABLE WATER AVAILABLE at this location.
Please note, this campground IS NOT within Shenandoah National Park.
Guests will be required to purchase a forest/park permit at the entry of Kings Canyon National Park
Everything else this campground posts · 3
This is bear country; food should be stored properly.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect California's forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. For more information visit firewood.ca.gov.
Overnight camping fee includes 1 car or RV/Trailer with tow vehicle. There is an additional fee $8.00 for each vehicle per night of stay. If you have an extra vehicle, it must fit on the site parking spur.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 43 · 23 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 42 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets. THERE IS NO POTABLE WATER AVAILABLE AT THIS…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…are provided, as are vault toilets. THERE IS NO POTABLE WATER AVAILABLE AT THIS LOCATION. Natural Features Big…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 633rd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $36–$71 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.
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 · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
43 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 43 mapped sitesAll 43 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. 43 of the 43 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.
| Big Meadow Campground | 001 | rv nonelectric | 34 ft | 84 ft | 220 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 002 | rv nonelectric | 22 ft | 84 ft | 141 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 003A | rv nonelectric | 22 ft | 73 ft | 84 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 003B | rv nonelectric | 22 ft | 73 ft | 80 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 004 | rv nonelectric | 22 ft | 48 ft | 109 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 005 | rv nonelectric | 32 ft | 48 ft | 104 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 006 | rv nonelectric | 34 ft | 105 ft | 77 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 008A | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 76 ft | 98 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 008B | rv nonelectric | 38 ft | 76 ft | 103 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 009A | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 55 ft | 191 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 009B | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 55 ft | 198 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 010A | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 97 ft | 102 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 010B | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 97 ft | 51 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 011 | rv nonelectric | 42 ft | 130 ft | 88 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 012 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 113 ft | 96 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 013 | rv nonelectric | 40 ft | 112 ft | 119 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 38 ft | 82 ft | 228 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 015 | rv nonelectric | 28 ft | 95 ft | 250 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 016 | rv nonelectric | 40 ft | 95 ft | 311 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 017 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 120 ft | 397 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 018 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 82 ft | 296 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 019 | tent only nonelectric | 35 ft | 84 ft | 320 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 020 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 101 ft | 205 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 021 | tent only nonelectric | 22 ft | 101 ft | 192 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 022 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 105 ft | 77 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 023 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 105 ft | 53 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 024 | rv nonelectric | 28 ft | 125 ft | 55 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 025 | tent only nonelectric | 35 ft | 125 ft | 122 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 026 | rv nonelectric | 26 ft | 112 ft | 45 ft | $36 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 027 | tent only nonelectric | 19 ft | 82 ft | 50 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 028 | tent only nonelectric | 35 ft | 91 ft | 122 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 029 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 92 ft | 114 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 030 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 92 ft | 35 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 031 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 82 ft | under 10 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 032 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 231 ft | 117 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 033 | tent only nonelectric | 19 ft | 231 ft | 137 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 034A | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 105 ft | 118 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 034B | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 105 ft | 176 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 035A | tent only nonelectric | 28 ft | 123 ft | 161 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 035B | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 126 ft | 289 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 036 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 149 ft | 205 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 037 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 96 ft | 77 ft | $36–$71 |
| Big Meadow Campground | 038 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 96 ft | 13 ft | $36–$71 |
25 of 43 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Big Meadows Cabin (CA)Giant Sequoia National Monument · 0.3 miHorse Camp CampgroundGiant Sequoia National Monument · 1.1 mi
Upper Stony Creek CampgroundGiant Sequoia National Monument · 3.7 mi
Stony Creek SequoiaGiant Sequoia National Monument · 3.7 mi
Cove GroupGiant Sequoia National Monument · 3.7 mi
Fir GroupGiant Sequoia National Monument · 3.8 miTake Highway 180 east to the Kings Canyon National Park entrance, where you will be required to purchase a forest/park permit. After entering the park, continue 2 miles where you will stay to the right as though you were going to Sequoia National Park. Continue on the General's Highway approximately 6 miles to the turn off to Big Meadows. The Big Meadows Road (Forest Road 14S11) is located on the left-hand side of the road. Follow this road approximately 5 miles, where you will find the campground on right side of the road. Please refer to the small scale map, or contact the Hume Lake District office for more specific directions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Wilsonia, 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
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Big Meadow Campground - US Forest Service Sequoia National Forest (CA) 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 →